<p>I should have named this thead “Calling all Dads”.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>I just hope that with my uncles help this won’t be too expensive to fix. I just bought my car three years ago, used. and I figured I should be good and not have any problems for quite some time. I paid it off last year and I’ve been enjoying the no car payments thing for awhile. Maybe it’s getting revenge on me for paying it off early.</p>
<p>And of course my engine/transmission/whatever is covered under warranty until 60,000 miles and i just happen to be at about 60,400. Isn’t that how it always works?</p>
<p>
Yes. That will generally only read codes that caused a Check Engine light to turn on but some also can do some further reads of sensors. It’s still worth a try - especially if he already has one that’ll work with your car.</p>
<p>violadad is correct - a technician’s equipment can do further analysis (more than the handheld tool) of the sensors and conditions so it’s worth checking this route also. I agree with all of his other points also as well as many of michuncle’s points.</p>
<p>Try the cheap stuff first and work your way up. By this I mean tranny fluid level, maintenance you need to do anyway that could be causing the problem (plugs/wires, possibly the timing belt if the schedule indicates for it to be changed), then have a qualified technician diagnose the problem. If the doagnosis comes back to something very expensive, then I recommend taking it somewhere else and having them diagnose as well (without telling them of the results of the first diagnosis). Based on these, go with the one you feel most comfortable with. Free help from knowledgable relatives/friends is good also.</p>
<p>UCSD: You raise a valid point about plug wires. Age and heat can cause the wire’s insulation to shrink and develop small tears that can interact with moisture and heat.</p>
<p>A simple test would be to spray some water onto the wires while the engine is running to see if arcing occurs. It shouldn’t be much of a problem with an in-line 4.</p>
<p>I had my uncle look at it. He drove it for about 30 minutes at all kinds of speeds and all kinds of roads trying to simulate different things and guess what… my transmission and engine ran perfectly fine while driving. it didn’t do it once, it shifted like a dream. (Just like it did after it stalled on Sunday night) It did however idle funny when we were stopped and almost stalled like it did the other night. When we turned off the a/c, the idling was a lot better. He checked the fluids and they were fine. He said to put on new spark plugs and a distributor cap and whatever else goes into a tune up and hopefully that will solve the rough idle. My dad and I are going to do that this weekend and we’ll see what happens. </p>
<p>I’m going to have them replace my timing belt when I get my brakes and inspection done. My uncle looked up my car in his works car database program and it says 2.1 hours labor for the belt plus the price of the belt, which came up at about 40.00… so to figure about 200.00 depending on what my mechanic charges for labor.</p>
<p>My dad just said to me that maybe if one of the spark plugs is bad or not having a good connection maybe that is causing the problem between 2-3 that i was experiencing the other day. He said instead of my car having 92 horses to try to make that swap maybe it’s only viewing it as 74 or something and having a rough time. That was just his thought and we didn’t run it by my uncle, but I guess it kind of makes sense. </p>
<p>My uncle did find some type of problem listed in the car database about some kind of thing between 2-3 but we weren’t sure if that’s the lag I was experiencing or not as it didn’t do it when he was in the car. He said that if it turns out to be that problem I will need to take it to a Mitsu dealer and that it would probably be expensive because the things listed in the repair steps were very intensive and you had to go in the transmission to fix it.</p>
<p>The other thing my uncle said was that when I replaced my headlight on sunday afternoon we had to take the battery out and that reset my computer. He said maybe the weird shifting from 2nd to 3rd that i was experiencing was just the computer re-learning itself. Especially since it did it the first two times i started and drove my car after unplugging the battery and how it hasn’t done it since.</p>
<p>I guess we’ll see how my tune up goes this weekend. I’m not driving my car until this is all done. I do way too many stop and go’s on my way to work and I don’t want a rough idle and fear of stalling at each and every one of them. I’ve been driving my sisters Civic, which is nice… but not my car :(</p>
<p>fendergirl:</p>
<p>Removing the power from the computer does generally cause it to have to recalibrate itself after power is restored and during this time a rougher running engine wouldn’t be unusual. I wouldn’t expect it to stall though.</p>
<p>Change the plug wires when you change the plugs - it’s not expensive.</p>
<p>Yeah we are going to do the wires as well as the plugs. And we know the stalling has nothing to do with the computer resetting. We’re fairly sure they are two unrelated issues. (Other than my dads thought about the plugs maybe causing that delay i experienced)</p>
<p>We are hoping that the stalling will be fixed by the tune up. I was supposed to change them at 30k and I somehow missed that maintence??? (oops). They are supposed to be changed at 60k too so hopefully that’s all the stalling is.</p>
<p>And I’m hoping the engine troubles were because of the computer resetting itself, but we’ll have to wait and see. I just know it didn’t do it after that stall, and it hasn’t done it since… so maybe it was just a temporary adjustment period or something. It didn’t do it when I drove home from my boyfriends house Sunday morning… and then I changed the headlight/unplugged the battery and drove back to his house a few hours later and that’s when it started doing it. </p>
<p>He also said if it does it again i need to pay better attention to what’s going on with it. If my rpm’s are going up, how it sounds, if i’m going up a hill, the speed i’m at, if i’m pulling out etc… basically what I can do to duplicate the problem that way when I bring it to him he can duplicate it as well.</p>
<p>update:</p>
<p>Today my dad and I went to the auto parts store and bought four new spark plugs, new wires, a distributor cap and roater, and a new air filter. It totalled about 80.00 or something like that.</p>
<p>We came home and took out the old spark plugs and all my dad could say was “wow, these are shot”… to every single one. They were all gunky and weird looking. We put in the new ones, then took off the cap and roater and when we looked at the roater he said it didn’t look too good either. We replaced that then put on the new cap and replaced all of the wires. Then we swapped out the air filter and closed the hood and took it for a spin. It seems to idle much better, it shifted fine, everything seemed a-ok. It DIDN’T feel like it was going to stall every time we came to a stop!! Hopefully it continues to run like that.</p>
<p>I also got new tires put on my car not too long ago and ever since then it felt like something was off with my tires. When we were done working on the car we decided while we were doing car things we would rotate and check the balance on my tires. Three of them were fine, but one was WAY WAY WAY off. So we balanced that and now that seems much better too. We don’t know if they just somehow missed that tire when balancing it, or if they actually had put a weight on it and it came off at some point. My guess is they missed it as it has been like this since I got the tires put on. I just assumed at the beginning that that’s how new tires are.</p>
<p>Hopefully it will continue to run okay. I’m going to be taking it out later today and if it runs like it did this afternoon when we took it for a spin I will be very happy that this whole adventure only cost about 80 bucks. If not, I’ll cry. </p>
<p>As I said above, I’m going to get the timing belt replaced along with my breaks at inspection, so I’m sure that 80 bucks will increase but at least it’s not thousands like I was fearing.</p>
<p>:) Thanks everyone! 
I’ll let you all know how it holds up after a few days of driving it again.</p>
<p>fendergirl:</p>
<p>Thanks for the update and I’m glad your car is running better. Did you help your Dad with the work? That’s great if you did even if it was just supporting it by going to the store with him and being with him when he worked on it. Don’t forget the cookies for him.</p>
<p>Oh - and it’s possible that a balancing weight can come off a wheel so unless you had the shakes since the time the new tires were put on, this is likely what happened. Whenever you rotate tires make sure to inspect them for nails (do this every now and then even while they’re on the car). You’d be surprised how many times you can pick up a nail and not know it since they’re plugging their own hole but they need to get fixed.</p>
<p>Yeah I helped him with it. We went to the store together, i took out the air filter and put in the new one, and i put in the new wires. I tried to help with gapping the spark plugs correctly but my dad decided he wanted to do all them so we could make sure they were all the same. I offered him something for helping me and he said nevermind that but that he needs a favor from me now. I somehow have to figure out what ring size my mother is so he can buy her an ‘eternity ring’ for their anniversery this year. I think that’s a much tougher job than him helping me with my car was!</p>
<p>But as far as the balancing yeah, I had the shakes on my car when going 55+ on the highway since the day I got my tires. I took off work on a monday to get them put on and when i drove to work that tuesday I had the shakes. I just assumed that it was a new tiires thing… and it’s gotten a little bit better since then, but still shook while on the highway. It just seemed strange that the weights were on the other three tires and not that one. I think they either forgot about it or maybe it even fell off that very first day when I was driving it home. My dad got his tires at the same place the week after I did and his weren’t balanced correctly either. He took his car back after like two weeks and they re-balanced them and they still weren’t right. He wound up doing it himself at home. After that experience and mine I’m not getting tires at that place anymore.</p>
<p>And about the inspecting of tires, I’m constantly inspecting them. I probably do it way too much (if that’s possible). I never used to and then one day I had a nail in one of my old tires. Every time I turned around I was putting air in the one tire. Finally I decided something must be wrong with it and off came the tire. I took it to my neighbors house and he helped me find the hole, remove the nail, and fix it. It was such a pain… now I’m always inspecting them because I don’t want to go through that anymore. </p>
<p>I’m not a complete car idiot, I think i’m more knowledgable than most girls (that I know around here anyway). I can change my own oil and change a tire and I know how to rotate the tires and stuff like that. I probably could fix a hole in one since my neighbor showed me how but I wouldn’t trust myself after only seeing it once. Now I guess I know how to change spark plugs, although I think that will remain someone elses job as well :)</p>
<p>
You are and you know even more now! I hope your car works well for a long time now.</p>
<p>Good luck ‘gapping’ your Mom’s ring finger.</p>
<p>do you have any ideas for that? I am not a jewelry person and don’t even OWN a ring (yet anyway. I have no clue how my boyfriend will figure it out for me when that time comes.). My only thought is that my mom and I are pretty much identical in size so we probably are the same ring size if I went with my dad to pick one out.</p>
<p>My dad bought her a mothers ring a few years ago and went into the jewelers and they asked him what size she is and he said “about 5 ft 4 and 120 lbs.” They guessed her ring size for him and luckily they were correct. Silly him for not remembering what size that was!!</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m much better with cars and technical items than I am with jewelry. The idea of comparing your finger size to hers and then having yourself sized seems like a good one. I thought that if they got it close they could usually adjust the rings. Does you Mom have any rings that she wears just occasionally? If so, maybe you could use one of those (assuming it still fits her) for sizing. You’d have to make sure you used a ring that’s for the same finger.</p>
<p>She doesn’t really wear any jewelry other than her engagement ring her wedding ring and her mothers ring, and I’ve never seen her take them off. I’m really shocked that he wants to get her a ring since she’s not a jewelry person, but he says he thinks she will secretly enjoy it. I think I’m just going to have to go with and have them measure my finger and hope we’re the same size. We’re the same size every other way so hopefully that holds true with fingers. ;)</p>
<p>Update on the car - I got my inspection done. Apparently I didn’t need front breaks yet, however he said I will need them prior to next inspection… so I guess in a few months I’ll take my car back and get them put on. </p>
<p>I got the timing belt and water pump replaced. He also replaced the alternator belt and the power steering belt while he was in there. My total bill wound up at 358.92 for everything including the inspection.</p>
<p>That’s not a bad price for that amount of work. I just paid a bit over $500 to have the catalytic converter replaced on my daughter’s clunker.</p>