Took it into a shop. They've apparently told me the injectors are messed up verbally/visually. One in the front is completely blocked, another is half way blocked. My strut+strut mount on the front right suspension are broken and the wheel is wobbly which may be something else. I kno wof oil leaks/problems with other things but basically I'm not mentioning any of that. My dad's offered to pay for it to get it up and running, hopefully after the mechanic is done with it it'll be good. But, whats funny is the mechanic asked me over the phone "do you have a engine light on?".. I replied no and I've never seen one... he said, well... maybe they took the bulb out. I went maybe. But when I went to the guy and he went to test-drive it, he said "see, there is a engine light on, thats what that light is!". And behold, the engine light went on ONLY for the mechanic who sat inside it....

What would be the tedious stuff? .. Injectors, belts, hoses...

And does anyone have a opinion on all the above? They've worked on my dads cars for 20 years, they're an all around shop... tires, domestic, import.... repairs, probably ac.. etc.

 

too little information about the specific problems to give any advice on them.

As for the cel (check-engine light) it sounds like you were with him.....?.... Was the car running or was the key just on? And did he do anything near the gas pedal?

 

watch out sounds fishy whatever he said try to get a second opinion

 

Well, he physically went to the hood and disconnected injectors to show me when the engine was running rough. I mentioned the MAF and he said its probably not the main prob concidering the injectors but he'll check. He litterally jumped in the car tho and turned on the car in front of me/pressed on the gas and it was on within a few seconds probably. Unsure why, is it a mechanic only engine light?.. lol. He couldn't really do anything around the bottom concidering. He's been my dad's mechanic for 20 years tho, plus I'm not paying for it... so why worry? Injectors seemed clogged tho by disconnecting/listening to see if the engine changes? Strut+strut mount are busted.. but the strut mount i'd be iffy about concidering he looked at it and said ITS BROKEN! (but how does it really look broken?).. It looked ok, lol... But I'm not a mechanic nor have ever seen a broken strut mount. Anyways, I'm pretty much leaving it in my dad's hands, if worse comes to worse I'll let him bail me out. I'm hoping the replace the hoses/fix any oil leaks/replace belts/change oil, if they can. And the sea-foam I had put in the oil made my black dipstick look like a shiny brand new one after 1000 or so miles!.. (which isn't a prob, I put probably 1/10 a can in it, lol)... I'm just surprised.

The main problem would be the legitimacy of all his claims/having to wait for him to fix it. But I was with him for the check engine light, hetouched nothing, just sat inside the vehicle and pointed after we got going.... lol. Sort of freaky... but I'm sure he'll be able to find/fix whatever is wrong by what my dad says. Its a really clean/nice car, the mechanic looked at it and said... that things clean?.. I think he was expecting something else, lol.

What exactly sounds fishy tho?

 

Ask him what the code was that popped up.

 

He'll probably tell me later on, I just parked it with him.

 

Ok guys, I have a verdict. Struts+strut mounts+front seal+new seals+all injectors+tires+whatever else the mechanic found wrong.

He wants 1200 dollars for all the work. There was more named but I can't remember. My dad just called and said the guy says NOT to put the money into the car concidering its not worth that much anyway (can probably sell it for around 3000)...

He actually just told me not to worry about it and let him think.... lol, this may be my last day at the maxima forums? It would be odd if my dad found me a new car.


-Note, apparently they replaced one injector but it made NO difference so they would have to replace more. Front seal would be my oil leak and the right/front suspension just needs to be completely worked on, whenever it was crashed that end got slammed into a pole or something (most likely), lol. Other than that its an ok car. Clean body, no dents or dings except on the front end with peeling paint off the bumper/broken light. Runs good, but I'm playing footsies with the pedal going from a 1 oclock position to a 2, to a 3, then futher down.. then back up to a high position to get it to catch/get speed. And the front end hops around.

 

Geez, sounds like they want to take you for a ride!
I'd get the ecu codes from that guy if I were you. If he doesn't give the code number and the explanation then he's not on the up and up. There's more to it than just pointing a finger at the Engine light and saying "ah ha!"

 

Actually i think they did work on the car/checked out the car and aren't charging us for it... lol. The car is seriously unstable tho.

Right now I have a few choices. I was given the car for 2000 dollars. That I have yet to pay, my dad suggests selling the car, which will probably only bring in 1800-2000 concidering the condition. But I could do that then give half the money to the person I OWE money to. Take the other half and let my dad drop it for a down payment on a small truck.

Its a 1995 max with all leather/power/working ac/240,000 miles/engine runs good/all the problems above...

Injectors/strut+strut mounts+front seal+tires.. etc.

How much does anyone think I can get for the POS?

 

Ok, just got a call. Dad says screw the max, give it back to the person who I owe money to. And he'll give me he's apparently giving me his dodge dakota with new tires/new motor... needs a ac compressor tho.

 

If he disconnected anything with the key-on there's your CEL right there Sounds fishy though for sure, coming from being a mechanic myself if a car came in with 240k that was running rough (You STILL never said your symptoms!) the first thing I would do is pull the plugs, inspect, and also do a compression test, pulling the injectors one by one to make sure each cylinder is firing or not really doesn't tell me all that much, and before diagnosing why a particular cylinder isn't firing and tossing money at an engine with 240k you would want to confirm that it is worth it, allthough considering the VQ it probably is........

 

-Actually the mechanic told us not to have it fixed. It would be fishy that the light went on with him in it tho, but the fact he's NOT charging us/saying not to fix it means he turns out of the deal without even a penny which doesnt make sense to me... lol

Well, basically the pedal has to be massaged a certain way to get speed going - so i thought it might have had something to do with how much air was being sucked in (maf) I told him I unplugged it before and the engine ran smooth.. but he said when you disconnect the sensor it most likely told the engine to run higher (since now it stalls out when unplugged).. He also said its more likely injector probs (which makes sense since I set the idle high so it doesnt stall/i dont have to hold down the pedal.... But I replaced the fuel filter a while back - wasn't really having this problem before, but it just doesnt make sense that it would happen because of the filter. Since it was running fine afterwards and only started this recently... its basically not getting fuel to multible injectors tho... they just plain arent working by what he said. But its mostly a rough idle and things thats wrong with it.... shakey front end, oil splattering over lots of places. Its falling apart...

The guy just said it was missing pretty hard tho.. blamed it on the injectors, with 240k it probably is a good diagnosis. The fuel filter that was in it actually looked a bit stock. And all in all it seemed like the only injector that was actually working was the middle one on top, lol. Then the left one was working partially and the right one wasn't working at all, and those are just the 3 we looked at. All in all I trust the guy so it shouldn't be a bad deal concidering I'll get a truck out of the whole ordeal with a 4 cyl. I'll still have the problem of selling/or giving the max back to the guy i got it from tho. If I can get more than 2k for the maxima then it would be wise to sell it rather than give it back, since I can pay back the loan to him/put some money in my pocket.

Note : The fuel filter was not put in upside down... but unjust force may have been put on the hose connected to the bottom of the filter. Which doesn't really matter. They did test out the injectors and such tho but one wouldnt help and more where needed to make a big difference..... Just a older car, a rat if you will...

Does anyone think this will sell for more than 2000 tho?.. Give me a suggestion so I know what to put it up as/or if I should just give it back to the guy.