Hi, My car died on me on highway today and now it won't start. It will try to start, but just after few revolutions of starter it makes one "puffing" sound and stops turning. If I try to crank it again, it repeats itself - try to start for second, one puff and stops.
Please, any idea, what the cause may be, where to start looking? Thank you very much...

 

Could be a number of things:

Check to see if your getting gas....

Check to see if your getting spark....

What have you checked so far?

 

have you checked the timing belt?

 

I am going to take apart timing belt cover today afternoon. It seems, like car makes effort to start for a second, spins few times, even fires few times and then it makes that puff sound and stops completely. If I try again, it repeats itself. If it was locked, it won't spin at all. Right? I am just wondering, if it would stop engine like that, if it was the timing belt...

 

yes it would pull the top timing belt cover off or you can remove the distributor cap and bump engine over and see it the cam rotates. then we will go from there.

 

If the fuel/air charge fires at the wrong time, it can kick the engine backwards, fighting the starter's effort to turn it forwards.

 

I want to thank you all for your advice. I did check the things, you told me to check and problem is fixed now. It was the rotor inside of the distributor after all. It was loose and therefore spinning and not spinning randomly and causing random firing and misfiring. I think, that it explains weird puffing sound and even certain effort to start.
By the way. Timing belt needs to be replaced, even it wasn't problem this time. Thanks for warning.
Thank you again.