Hey all. I've had this car for about 3 ish years. There's a couple threads somewhere on here about the problems I've had. But it's been awhile. And would like to ask a few things also.
So when I got the car. I knew nothing about it, though I got a book of maintenance, was taken care of. In general the car fairy sends me a vehicle when my old one dies. I talk to people look at side of the road stuff, something always shows up and that's the one. Being a back yard mechanic, I can fix most things. My last pile of junk was a focus, got it for $450 maybe put $450 into it and got $125 salvage.
Then this thing is all the sudden my new car. I knew it had some problems just by driving it. I find the post about the capacitors going bad in the ecu. I pull that out and on the cover is written CORE return ASAP. open it up. That's already been fixed. Had problems with the rear air suspension and couldnt find replacements so went with coil overs. The front is still air. I noticed that when the rear was failing that the air pumps would stay on all the time while driving. After replacing the rear suspension again the air pumps would still run. So I concluded the little sensors on the suspension that tells the air pumps to turn on and off were bad. After that all I needed to do was to turn off the air ride in the back left tool cubby. If the front deflated over a week or 2 (under 15 degrees f its worse) I would just turn it back on for 3-5 mins and all set. I couldnt see spending over $100 for a part that's basically a $1 variable resistor in a housing. But the fronts will have to be replaced eventually.
I have had other problems. Mechanic found a chunk of catalytic converter stuck on oxygen sensor. After that time I had accelerated and it sounded like I was driving over vegetation, which I wasn't. So I think the rest of the converter disintegrated..
Comes to one of my questions. I personally don't care if there's a working cat. My state doesn't care either cause its so old. What effects does it have on the car/ecu. currently I have a check engine light. But you bring an odb1 car to a repair place and they're too dumb to work on it. The computer dosent tell them what is wrong. .. work? whats that?...odb2 has made mechanics dumb in a way... So IF i have 4 working oxy sensors and no cat will that make the car not run right and/or cause an CEL? Or Would it even matter If 1 or 2 oxy sensors were bad plus no cat would it run just the same... Granted I would assume the ecu would care more about the upstream readings versus the down stream cause theres not much it can do after the cat.
On to other things. Drivers window motor. That went out on it's last 'up' motor is cheap enough, I replaced it myself. But if you have the same problem you need 4 hands to set the motor in the regulator properly.
Something recent? Rack was leaking and PS. Was using the miracle power steering fluid with stop leak in it. I had an old Ford truck leaked PS fluid all over and used that stuff. You could follow my drips to work and back. Was a different problem, but one day it just fixed itself. I think this time it clogged the rack and killed the PS pump. As I was driving down the hi way I noticed the PS felt manual. I got to a safe place and at 5 mph the PS pulley spit out. Seems that the pump was seized or the rack was clogged and somehow the pulley just kept spinning... You cant just get a pulley, ended up getting a used pump then having to replace the rack.
Replaced front brake pads and rotors. Seems that the brake wear sensors wore into the rotors. That seems to be a design flaw. plus they're electric. Don't know who the engineer was that said lets replace a simple metal scrape sound when brakes were bad to a $25 electrical sensor.
I have looked threw some of the posts for older cars here. I don't know where you live but the costs of some repairs you state are quite high. If you look around you can get decent parts for a decent price. It's just where you go for labor. Personally, I am getting older, I don't want to muscle into my repairs. I also dont need to buy another tool I'll only use maybe twice. I go to this guy to do it. Find an honest mechanic.
Anyway. If you have a parts car let me know. Or know of somewhere. I live in the north east usa. And its difficult to find odd parts.
That's my story so far...