Archive for October, 2006

By October 26, 20063 Comments Read More →

1998 Toyota Camry Automatic Transmission Won’t Go Into Gear Sometimes

I recently aquired a 1998 Toyota Camry with a blown engine. I had a mechanic put in a new engine and the car ran great. Felt like it was brand new and shifted perfectly. Then a few days ago I went to put the car in reverse and the car didnt respond. The engine didnt rev up and the car didnt have the mild shake they normally do when the transmission is engaged. I didnt think anything of it and put it in park then back into reverse and it engaged and drove fine. Then the following day this happened to me twice but I noticed it did it on any shift position reverse and drive. It took 2 or 3 times that day to engage each time this happened. Then yesterday the car refused to go into reverse or drive at all no matter how much I messed with it. Im pretty sure the transmission is fine as when it does engage it drives perfect no jerking in changing gears no noises etc. Also the button on the shift knob is still tight which leads me to belive the shifter cable is still intact. My mechanic is clueless as to what this problem is. Any ideas of where to start looking or what the cause might be? Please help!

Posted in: Transmission Issues
By October 26, 20060 Comments Read More →

Mercury Sable Station Wagon High Idle and Poor Gas Mileage

I have a 1996 mercury sable wagon V6 with just over 200 000 km on it it’s still running good and I try to take care of it. lately the rpms have been running really high and affecting my gas mileage. about 6 months ago before a road trip I replaced all the spark plugs and wires changed the oil and such and everything was beautiful I was getting over 600km a tank. but lately it’s been acting up. I took it in for an oil change and got them to use the high mileage oil and flush the oiltank (if that makes since) and I’ve since driven it about 2000km and noticed the rpms going crazy so I took it in and got the oil changed again to regualr oil and asked if there was anything wrong with the oil and was told it was fine just really dirty. but the rpms remain the same. now I only mention the oil because I know in my car if I forget to change the oil after the regular 5000km I notice the rpms start going a little out of wack. maybe it’s something else? I’m not sure hopefully you can help.

Posted in: Running Problems
By October 26, 20061 Comments Read More →

Ponitac Tans Am GT Dies While Driving Have to Wait to Restart

I own a 1994 Pontiac Trans am GT with a 5.7 V8 and 125,000 . Over the last several months my car has randomly died while driving, and when I accelerate at highway speeds there is a loss of power at times. After the car dies, it may start up immediately, it may take 20 minutes, and sometimes it would not start until the next day. I have taken the car to two different mechanics on two seperate occasions. Neither shop could find anything wrong. They checked the wiring, fuel pressure, etc. Everything checked out fine which it should because the car has been well maintained and had a new distributor, wires, and sparkplugs installed two years ago. I stopped driving the car for about three weeks because the battery became weak after the second to last time the car died. After three weeks, I had the battery recharged and the car started up again, it drove ok for a few days, but then died again while I was driving. It immediately restarted and I was able to make it home. It drove ok for the next couple of days, but today I tried to start it and the starter was slow to turn. (starter is AC DELCO 4yrs old) I tried to start the car two more times, but after that the power shut off. Nothing worked not even the power locks. When the battery died last time the process was slow and gradual. I couldn’t start the car, but the panel lights passenger compartment lights worked a little. I’ve read hours of material from sites like this trying to find cases with similar problems, and I have, but never anything with my car and year. The fuel lines, filter, relay, and pump are what I normally see as the causes for other people, but the mechanics told me that these things checked out ok. They said that if there was anything wrong with these things it was read out. I even had the fuel filter replaced just in case, but to no avail. I need help because I don’t want to sell a good car that has a very fixable problem. However, I will if need be. One other note: One time after the car died a tow truck came and put gas in the tank, even though I had a little over half a tank, and the car started up. I had been attempting to restart the car for the last three hours, but it now restarted with no problem. I thought that maybe I needed to keep more gas in my tank, but the car has died on a full tank as well. Also, I always use premium gas, so I ruled out vapor lock caused from low octane gas.

Posted in: Won't Start Issues
By October 26, 20061 Comments Read More →

1998 Chevy 2500 4X4 Pick Up Brakes and Steering Lock Up

I have a 98 Chevy 2500 pick-up, 4×4, 7.4l With the abs fuse out and the plow on or a trailer in tow, the steering has been locking up when I come to a stop and the brakes give a little like they dont want to stop. With the abs fuse in and the plow on or off the steering doesnt lock up but when coming to a stop the brakes loosen up at the last part of the stop, but still stop. I have recently replaced both front and back brakes, bled and rebled, replace hydro-boost unit, and replaced two bad brake lines one regular and one from the abs unit. I am comtemplating changing the powersteering pump because sometimes the steering is hard when it hasn’t warmed up enough, and the pulley has been whining even though the belt is good and tight. The abs fuse hasn’t been in for about a year cause the previous owner said he took it out cause it was better to plow with it out….but I recently put it back in cause of the steering locking up when braking….sidenote…even though I changed all the brakes, and lines, and bled, and bled, and replaced the bleeder screws it still didn’t seem like the brakes were strong enough. PLEASE any information or opinions you may have will be greatly appreciated…Thanx..JR

Posted in: Brakes
By October 23, 20061 Comments Read More →

Honda Civic Blows Taillight Fuse After CD player Installation

ok this may be a dumb question.. but i just installed a new pioneer cd player by myself in a 1991 Honda Civic LX, which i have about 2 years of experience doing, but my tail light fuse keeps blowing the second I put a new fuse in.. any ideas?

Posted in: Online Auto Repair Manuals
By October 23, 20060 Comments Read More →

Can I install a Carburetor on a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis?

My question is: I own a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis. It came all flubbed up, as the previous owner tried to eliminate the Emissions system thinking it would make it more powerful, etc. He eliminated the cats, and bypassed some of the vaccum system. The computer system didn’t like that, and read that the car needed to be run extra rich which made the car basically dump gas in the system. The owner got fed up with having to spend so much money on gas and every 4 months or so removing the spark plugs to clean them due to being fouled by fuel.

Posted in: Reader Questions
By October 23, 20060 Comments Read More →

1997 Renault Megane Won’t Start Sometimes After it Sits Awhile

I have a Renault Megane (1997), I realise you will not be familiar with this particular make in the US but I am hoping you might recognise the problem. I have problems starting the car every now and then, more frequently when the weather is cold and wet or sometimes after a long journey or when I have not driven it for longer than a few days. Sometimes even when it does start it can take as long as 10 seconds to kick in, and then if it doent start i have flooded the engine and have to wait half an hour before i can try again it will generally start the second time round. When it wont start it sounds as though the engine is trying to kick in but there is no spark (although i have had the spark plugs tested). My car has been into a garage but they were not able to find anything wrong with it, unfortunately this was made harder for them because while the car was in the garage it started fist time every time – typical!

Posted in: Won't Start Issues
By October 23, 20060 Comments Read More →

Brake Vibration On 1994 Chevy Silverado 4X4 Pick Up Truck

First I want to start off that I am ase certified tech that has been in the biz for about 20 years, but I am semi-retired now.(I just work out of my home garage now). My problem is with my own truck that i have owned since its been almost new. Its a 1994 Chevy Silverado 4×4. It has about 160,000 very reliable miles on it. The problem started about 2 years ago and I have sort of been putting off the problem with it since its not my daily driver anymore I only use it to tow my trailer with atv’s now. It had a horrible vibration when braking that I would normally associate with bad brake rotors. If I got over 50mph or so and hit the brakes it would shake and vibrate just like any other vehicle would with warped rotors.

Posted in: Brakes
By October 20, 20060 Comments Read More →

Dodge Neon Automatic Transmission Slipping While Driving

I recently had a leaking rear main seal, that I got repaired for about $1000. About three days after the mechanic fixed this, I was driving on the highway and my engine started over revving, and not moving everywhere. I don’t know anything about cars really, but that seems to me like they screwed up pretty bad putting the transmission and the engine back together. The mechanic gave me a 20,000 mile warranty for the rear main seal. So my question is should I be paying at all for this new repair? Keep in mind I have never before had a transmission problem, and I don’t see how it could be anything other than a mistake on their part.

Posted in: Transmission Issues
By October 19, 20060 Comments Read More →

1992 Lincoln Town Car Automatic Transmission Shutters When it Shifts

Hello – I have a 1992 Lincoln Town Car Executive with well over 200,000 miles on it. Transmission was rebuilt about 6 years ago. About 11 months ago started having troubles. Took it back to the shop that rebuilt the transmission to be checked. They couldn’t find anything wrong by doing a test drive. Basically said it was just shifting. Took it to my Lincoln dealer repair guy – he said it was the torque converter. We replaced the fluid with Mercron as recommended. Seemed to fix the problem, but it is still doing it. I don’t think he replaced the transmission filter. I put some stuff in the transmission called Transmedic from PepBoys – that fixed it immediately but now it has returned. I never replaced the transmission fluid after the rebuild – they didn’t tell me to. What do you think the problem might be? Would replacing the filter help? Sometimes it feels as if the car is shuddering” as I excelerate.

Posted in: Transmission Issues
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