Jeez... I was comin home from the gas station a little while ago and my check engine light had come on- no idea what it was telling me but it usually goes off after a few minutes or when i restart the car. didn't go off this time so i preceeded out of the lot as usual. when i tried to accelorate on to the highway the car felt like it was going to stall. it took 5-7 seconds just to get past 20mph. and past 30mph you could forget about passing or gaining enough speed to outrun my old 1982 turbodiesel benz.. if anyones ever had a carb'd engine, it felt just as if a carb was flooding (obviously not mine with tuned port..). so i finally limp a mile or two home, i check the basics. coolant, no oil in the coolant so it's not a leak in the head gasket. doubt its a gasket or compression failure anywhere. checked my oil and there were lumps of caked oil all over my dipstick and inside the tupe, what the heck?

do i just need an oil change? fuel filter clogged? can anyone point me to a direction that could help? ive had the car since january and only logged around 2K miles and the owner claimed to have changed the oil before he sold it to me. also upon checking my car in the driveway, the car was running extremely rich and after driving a mile home, my gas needle went down 1/6th approx from where it was- a little unusual even for my car at 6MPG..


the car is my primary transportation and i'm on a college guy's budget so i'm really worried here and pressed for time

can anyone help me?

 

did the oil smell like it had gas mixed in it? dumb suggestion have you done a tune-up? noticed my car was faster after changing out the original factory spark plugs with 90 thousand miles on em.

 

well my entire car smells like gasoline, always has... so im not sure. it doesnt leak gas- ive followed my lines from the tank and gas cap to the engine and with everything in between so i'm sure it doesnt leak at all.

but i dont think i smelled gas in the oil. it just smelled like hot motor oil...



it might need a tune up and i should probably do that... but im flat zero broke. i'm looking for new spark plugs, oil change, wires and everything. if that doesn't do the trick, next stop is fuel filters... i guess im just going to diagnose a bunch of things and see what works out.

 

lol, i know where ya stand there. i need new rotors and pads all around on my car. been very conservative about how fast the car goes till i can get new brakes though.

anyway you could check the fuel pressure? or check for codes?

 

You should find out why the check engine light came on. If it is a bad MAF sensor or TPS or something, you could save yourself a lot of money by not replacing things that don't need replacement. The tune-up is always a good idea though when buying a car you don't know the history of anyway.

 

I have to agree with CreepingDeath94, get a paper clip and let us know what the code the computer set