Ok I thought the people at autozone didn't really know all that much but my last problem of my car not starting when it was hot outside was odd.. and I explained it a few times in various posts on different parts of the board and no one even remotely got close... as a last ditch effort I went to autozone and asked a guy there... I probably gave an even shorter version of the story before the guy told me it was my ignition switch... put a new one in... problem solved.. no one here mentioned it.. this isn't a diss to the boards... just goes to show that autozone isn't worthless..

On my other problem.. when the car is in idle the engine kind of shakes a little and sputters when i'm accelerating at low speeds (like 0-45.. doesn't matter if i'm accelerating slowly or quickly).. in idle it runs smooth a seconds.. then shakes.. then smooth a second again.. and in the past two days the car died while going slow.. yesterday when I doing a turn at about 5mph.. died.. and today.. I parked and noticed the car was crooked.. so i get in to fix the park job.. turn it on.. put it in reverse.. press the gas a bit.. and dead... all the lights come on when it dies but I flash the codes and I don't get anything out of the SES light (other than the normal code 12 or whatever that is)... I don't know if its related by when I accelerate my needle on the speedometer bounces up and down at lower speeds.. I think I know what I need to do to fix that but it wouldn't explain why the engine shakes like that or sputters..

edit: Also I just replaced the hose that goes from that vaccum box thing to my egr.. got rid of my code 32.. but the engine was like this before I fixed that... so that didn't change anything...

Last thing is the ball on my automatic shifter keeps falling down.. it used to stay up but the damn thing just always falls down.. I was thinking I could super glue that bastard up there or something.. but i'm wondering if there is a better way...

 

Sure , I will agree with you , there is people at Autozone that know more on these boards . HOWEVER , There are also people that know more than the people at Autozone or much more than the people at Autozone . I know a guy that works at Advance , he knows hardly anything about cars . I have gone in there a few times and asked for parts and he said "huh , whats that ? " ....But when it comes down to it , I think these boards are better than parts store guys . I KNOW there are some "parts store guys " on this board . Im not knocking you , because some of you are very knowledgable . I know one of em "Project: 852.8firebird is a knowledgable guy . Look at guys like Karl , Tom , these guys dont work at autozone or any other auto parts store . Also we're blessed to have guys like Calicamarors -Dan and Camaro Hunter who are mechanics . But , there is some part store guys who are very knowledgable .

 

he's right. I claim not to know everything, and admit it. I am not worthy especially to Chuck, an ASE certified PSM even though he likes ch*vys, now working @ the Huber Heights store. I refere all "Chevy motor" specific questions to him, and tackle poncho motors myself. All rwd 60* V6 questions I answer what I can then refere them to this board . Let them have access to a supurb database. :hail:

 

I'd normally agree with you that parts store guys can be very knowledgable, sometimes except that when I went to order a 3" k&n for my cai, I had to find it myself in the book while I guy goes opening boxes on the shelf and looking for it. Then it was like 60 bucks and they had to order it too.
David

 

I forgot about your mechanical problems , Sorry ! Now , onto your car ....Whens the last time you gave it a good tune-up ? Your car acting like this could be so many things , are your plugwires good ? sparkplugs ? ...Need a new distributor cap and rotor ? I can type plenty more things , but I dont want to overbear you . First check your plugwires and sparkplugs and distributor cap and rotor . Then will take it from there . After about a year of having my car , it started acting the same way yours was . All it needed was a good tuneup .

Also , check your vacumn hoses again .

Also , go out at night , raise your hood and look at your wires , are they arcing out ? You will see a blue glow . If so , throw some new wires on it .

 

I agree, there are people that work at AutoZone and other parts stores that know what their talking about, I myself use them sometimes for a sounding board, well with two of the guys that work at autozone; the rest of them dont know squat.


Funny story about the "slander" cocky chick that used to work the commercial account at Autozone that is a certified diesel truck mechanic who on several occasions told me I was doing things wrong and apparently she told other shops the same things.

I called up for a double roller timing chain, 1969 Chevy C10 350, auto air "like it matters" and she asks "seriously asks" are you sure its not a timing belt, in a very **** sounding voice. Oh yea sure its a timing belt "jerking motion with my right hand" why don’t you send me up a timing belt for this 1969 C10 as soon as possible. Needless to say she couldn’t find a timing belt and the head of the AZComerical had to bring me a timing chain because she was too sad to come by the shop.



Moral and relationship to thread. They dont know everthing and I would rather discuss my F-body problems with people who own them and have seen and all ready delt with these problems the hard way.

 

Zirtbow, I think most of thirdgen.org's suggestions to problems come from personal experience. I didn't know that a bad ignition switch could cause a hot start problem... and I'd venture to say that few people on these boards would think so. But thanks for telling us the solution! (And, if you think autozone is better than the boards, you're more than welcome to ask them about half the stuff we talk about here, and I'd be interested to hear their answers.)

SSC, love that story! I hate dealling with those parts counter monkeys. I went in once for a center parking brake cable. This is the cable that runs from the ebrake lever to the adjuster (underneath the car). I had a part # and everything; just needed to see if Pep Dorks had it in. So I give the guy the part #; he insists on looking it up. FINE. Year,make,model,engine (why?), etc. He brings all the ebrake cables up on the screen. He then asks me "Which side?"

I tell him the center one. He says "well you still need to know which side it's for." I say "Look, right HERE (and put a thumbprint on the computer screen)! This is the part # I asked you about. Do you have it?" He says "Let me get someone over here to figure out if you need the left or the right side." (Now I'm pissed.) He walks 10 feet away and grabs someone to come over. He starts telling him how I need an ebrake cable, and I don't know which side I need, and "how can he figure out what side he needs?" and how they list two sides and.... Before he finishes, I jump in, and tell the guy "Look. I've told him the center cable, I don't need a left or right. He's even got the damn thing on the screen and won't listen to me!"

So the new guy turns to the idiot, and says "He says he needs the center cable! Just give it to him then!" (Apparently this new guy was the one that knew his stuff.) At which point the idiot leaves, comes back, and says "We need to special order it, it'll take a couple weeks." Sunofabtch... all that for 15 minutes? Man, was I pissed. So I went to the local "real parts store", and had one the next day.

Oh and DavidB, welcome to the boards! Next time look up that filter at http://www.summitracing.com - I paid $45 for a filter that I'm sure was larger than the one you got! (Mine is #KNN-RE-0870.) Call 'em at 800-230-3030 and ask for a free catalog... you might be able to do that from their website now, don't know. And if you still have the part # of the K&N filter you bought, put it in at Summit's website, but put "KNN-" in front of the part #.

 

Ah well.. Like I said I wasn't trying to diss the boards.. I usually thought places like this had more of a "parts store guys = idiots" kinda motto.. at least I usually did... kind of like when I got a new alternator and it was clocked wrong.. the mechanic told me maybe I had a different engine put in my car or something like that.. autozone or where ever it was told me that was the right alternator for my car.. so the mechanic was said i'd probably have to 'special' order an alternator from the parts store next door.. so I returned that alternator and went to a real parts store.. it looks like a cruddy little shop anyone would hardly ever notice.. but I held up my old alternator to the new one and the guy said "oh thats just clocked wrong... i'll change housing" and 15 minutes later I was out the door with my alternator that fit right and all.. on top of my other problems I found out what it was.. recently I changed the wires since they were bad and one of them weren't snapped in all the way... seems to run smooth now and hopefully that solves the weird dying problem...

---> HELP FIX THIS <-------
on a weirdier side... my car wastes gas... literally.. after I drive along for a few minutes gas comes out of the cap area (cap appears to be in good shape.. no dent/dings/holes/etc) and runs out the side.. at first I thought I just overfilled the tank (because it was just after I filled up) but I drove around for like 20 minutes to waste gas and it still does it.. I took the gas cap out a few times and put it back.. hopefully that solves the problem but I won't know for sure til later tomarrow when I drive it around again...

On a lighter note I can assure everyone here that my car is just trying to suck as much money out of my pocket as possible.. it must know when its fixed just to have something else break down later.. literally.. here's everything that happened in this order.. and pretty much everytime I fixed one thing to have the next thing go out on me...

1. dead battery... new
2. alternator (cause of dead battery pffft)... rebuilt
3. lock cyclinder bad (had to buy a puller, lock plate compressor, and a key cyclinder.. $10 for the key cyclinder.. $25 for the lock plate compressor and wheel puller)
4. Bad vaccum hose (caused a code 32.. some sleeve on it was rotted away...
5. Bad ignition switch (recently fixed =)
6. Bad wires (warrenty.. so they replaced em for free)
(I also put a new cap and rotor on while doing this)
7. Gas leaks out the side (this is crazy... i've never heard of cars doing this)
8. Got a flat (i've officially been driving it 4 weeks now.. new tires... now I have 3 new tires and a tire with a new plug in it)
[to top off the flat tire thing my jack broke when i jacking the car up to get the tire off =(]

There you go.. that in 4 some weeks... i'm not mad yet tho.. i'm hanging in there.. just wonder if anyone can top it off... and what can go wrong next.... Other then here I haven't asked anyone about the gas leaking out the side thing.. I just hope it doesn't catch fire.. =(

Oh and would anyone know anything about fixing that little ball thing on my shifter.. it keeps falling down and I think super glue might be the only way to keep that bastard up... anyone got a better idea?.. maybe something fell out and I missed it?

 

I would go ahead and spend the 3-5 bux and get a new cap. All that gas could ruin a paint job. I have had bad luck like that, but with 3 cars, not just one. So I dont think that counts. Glad your finding out whats wrong. And I would suggest a new mechanic, if he told you, "your engine has been swaped" he could look and vin # on car n block to check that out.