hey everyone, couple of things i need help with...everytime i accelerate the car is slow to respond, like i push down the pedal, and then the car kicks in like a second later. the other day i was driving, and all of a sudden the car feels like its gonna stall. it was like a tug boat all of a sudden, suddenly lost A LOT of power, and it was shaking and everything. i made it to the mechanic and he said that it was a spark plug boot, and to come back another the following day...the following day on the way to him (he lives down the road) the car starts working fine again haha, so he said, ok if it starts come back....well the car is back, because i wanted him to put the boot on anyways...and these are the problems i have....

1.) poor fuel economy like i really only get 130miles to a tank, not even aggressive driving
2.) slow throttle response like explained above
3.) fuel gauge is STILL messed up after getting a $300 sending unit, my dad told him to remove the new fuel sending unit and send it back.
*****4.) Today one of the mechanics tells me that something is wrong with the 7th cylinder, and that it could lead to future problems down the road, that it is misfiring or something and that this is leading to the poor gas mileage and slow throttle response.

My questions are...what can be wrong with the 7th cylinder, the car has under 80,000miles, always maintained, oil changed often..so why would the 7th cylinder be giving me problems? what can be done to fix this? He said he is soaking the distributor in some solution over night and adding new parts to it, and that this should fix the gas mileage and slow throttle response. is he right? what are your thoughts on these guys. thanx for reading if you made it this far

 

Ok, where do I begin. I'll start here:

If your sig is accurate than soaking the distributor, never heard of doing that, will damage it, we have electronic distibutors that never need an adjustment. With that said it sounds to me like the car needs a good old fashioned tune up. New spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, fuel filter. And double check the timing. As far as this thing with the 7th cylinder having a problem, I reccomend pulling the plug on it and comparing it with the other ones from healthy cylinders, I actually don't think there is a problem I think that you just need the tune up; however, if after a tune up you still have probelms pull the plugs to see how they are wearing, they should have almost no wear and all look the same.

I'd take it somewhere else to do the tune up if you don't think you can do it yourself, hell I'd just take it somewhere else to get a second opinion.

Hope that helps a little.

 

He might be referring to the plug color when he tells you that something is wrong with #7. I will tell you that my #7 and #8 plugs have always had more carbon buildup on them than the rest. It does sound as though you are just in need of a good tune up. How long has it been since you changed the plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, dissy cap and rotor, etc??? You know, our fuel filters are supposed to be changed every 10-12K miles.

Later,
Harry

 

last time i recall i got a tune up was about 1,000 miles ago...at least thats what the mechanic told me he did, he's doing these things as a "favor" for us, because my dad's company uses, but usually he doesn't get everything he's supposed to get done, unless we hassel him, however, after the car did get the tune up like he said, it WAS running considerably better than before, i mean the car definitely has juice, it's just that one problem that happened for about a day. I dont know excatly what he meant by the 7th cylinder my dad told me the mechanic said something about it, but i'll find out later today. About the distributor....I don't know if he's "soaking" the actual thing, but I guess certain parts I beleive he said...I really dont know, i'l find out later today when I pick it up. But i'll really have to check out the plugs once the weather gets better supposedly on Sunday...I can do the tune-up myself...i'm taking an auto shop class in school so I know the basics...plus I have a Chiltons guide. Thanks for the help guys...so you don't think something is wrong with the 7th cylinder, or maybe engine problems that I could expect from this... I want to fix the problem before it becomes worse, and possibly need a new engine

 

I definetely don't think you need a new motor, but I do think you might need a new mechanic. My expierence with guys that are doing a 'favor' for you is that they seem to cut corners to save time, or give it to the 'new' guy to fix. A while back I had an '84 Honda that the timing belt broke on and my friend the mechanic installed the new one wrong, the timing was never right again.

That's part of the reason I dumped her and got my baby! (Car)

 

I have/had that lagging thing, after i changed my sparks, wires. I was told that its probably my fuel pressure and to do that free TBI mod to ajust it, oh ya and its only in the morning when the cars been sitting 4 a while I guess, a while being like overnite. Does that help my situation out at all? Fuel pressure?