It’s been a couple of days and I have had a chance to spend some quality time with my new steed. There are some definite issues. The main one being the random misfire. I don’t race around, I have no where to be at any particular time so I get there when I can. That being the case the misfire is not that noticeable, but it needs fixing. With that in mind I have been doing some detective work about this vintage and flavor of vehicle. Turns out they are pretty well received. The normal issues that are reported can be seen in this example. Every one of them. Here are the issues:
- Random Misfire / over consumption of oil
- Dashboard cracking profusely
- heating controls lose printed surface
- Traction Control disabled
- Door Handles peel, break
- Remote Start doesn’t work
- Leaking right rear tire
Number six is awesome since I had no idea this vehicle had remote start. Also number six, and number four are related to number one. If you fix number one the other two often go away. We will have to see about that. For now I will skip number one and discuss two and three. These items for me are non-issues, but for my Bride, she most definitely judges a book by it’s cover. So here are the before and after of my fixes.
This is a very poor “Before image, but I counted the cracks and they total to 7 and they flop around when you hit a bump. I opted for a dash mat for now. I do plan on removing the whole dash and reinforcing it, but Betty will be firs for that treatment. For now the velcro strips will bridge the cracks and the carpet cover will hide the trash look.
the black strips are velcro to hold the carpet in place.
The Heat controls were a serious let down. The plastic must be deteriorating under the painted surface. The temporary solution is a set of stickers from Amazon $5 for two sets of stickers. They make a surprising difference in the look, but they are only stickers. And with 105º air temps they probably won’t last.
Before:
After
I screwed up the fan speed lower sticker but It is on for now.
I have covers for the power outlets coming but I will also probably have something plugged in there. The stereo is also losing som paint but I am not planning on keeping it too long anyway.
Number seven is just a quick trip to discount tire to see if it is leaking and if I can transfer/buy a warranty for these tires. As far as number five, the door handles go, I can handle the paint coming off the outer handles, but the one on the rear passenger door is not working, that will have to be looked into. Turns out all four handles cost about $50 total for replacements so I may invest in some black ones.
Now the big issue the oil over usage and the random misfire. After quite a bit of research on the Webs. AKA a google search of Youtube. It looks like the consensus is the drivers side valve cover needs to be upgraded to a newer model and possible upgraded with some extra holes. I won’t know till I get the existing one off. If this is the issue, then the fix is relatively simple in comparison to the next step where you start going through each coil, wire, and plug, and also looking for a intake leak past the MAP sensor or one of the O2 sensor going bad and needing to be diagnosed. I did actually check the O2 sensors with my computer and they seem to be registering correctly.
The traction control will turn itself off if the misfires are bad enough that it can’t get a clean signal, since it uses that signal to know what speed the wheels should be going. The automatic start doesn’t work if the engine light is on for any reason. So I will check on both those once I tackle the random misfire. Let’s hope it is that valve cover. I have one ordered that should be here tomorrow.
