The car won I give

[Mixerdriver]

I give up the car wins and im going to take in to get fixed. I have had problems from the first day i picked it up 3 weeks ago. on the drive home the CE light came on. didn't think much about it. took it to my local guy to look it over and he said the car was in great shape. I should have no problems for some time. The CE light was from the cat and not to worry it was expensive to fix. so I took the car and started to drive it to work as thats why I got it ( now I have to drive 150 miles a day) as a second car. Well first day driving it and 10 minuets in the CE light comes on I think ok its the cat light no biggie. half way to work and the car starts acting funny it sounds like a bad exhaust leak. I hear a chunk of something exit under the car and I know i didn't run over anything. The car wont go over 60 and wont shift to the next gear. get to work look it over with everyone and got all kids of feed back reset the CE light and she drove home fine just a bad exhaust leak I thought. got home got under the car and the cat had a hole the size of my fist. so I wait till I have time off and remove it and order a new one. A week later it arrives install it and she drives fine for the first day of the weekend. Monday head to work and halfway the F en CE light is back this time its blinking and same s*** no going over 60 no shifting. Limp home and park it. I start going through the post and find the EGR fix and ICV fix and think what the hell I'll give it a try just to see if it helps and I'll go to auto zone and get the codes pulled. Well I get the EGR valve off cleaned it and the ICV cleaned it too reinstall everything and this is the best part the thing wont start now. I have to give it gas like its a 1950s POS to get it to start and if I let go of the gas she stalls. so i remove everything again to make sure its on ok and still the same thing. Oh I for got the EGR valve only had 1 bolt holding it in when I went to remove it the first time boy I was superised. Well now i give up im just going to have it towed to the shop and start throwing money at it till I get to drive it. if it drove I would love this car but now I want to burn it to the ground. F!@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(gun):madevil)(bicker)(pissed)(help)(2cents)

 

[Brian_K]

damn dude, sorry to hear that. looks like you may have gotten a lemon :\

 

[flash75]

"I have had problems from the first day i picked it up 3 weeks ago. on the drive home the CE light came on. didn't think much about it. took it to my local guy to look it over and he said the car was in great shape. I should have no problems for some time. The CE light was from the cat and not to worry it was expensive to fix."

You had problems from day one. Who sold you the car? Why didn't you take it back to the seller?

Does you local car guy run a garage? If he does find someone else to check or repair
your car. He was totally off on the advice he gave you, as you learned.

Take the car back to the seller and give him/her a chance to fix it, or buy it back. Tell the seller that you are going to file a complaint with the state attorney general if the car isn't repaired or he doesn't buy the car back. Follow up if the seller gives you a hard time or isn't willing to fix the car or buy it back.

Most states have laws to protect the consumer. Even though there may have been a sold as is sticker on the car the selling dealer/individual is obligated sell a roadworthy car with working emissions system.

Sorry you deal isn't working out but you do have some rights.

For anyone out there planning to purchase a used car, if the car you are looking at
has a check engine light, run. Fixing a check engine light can be more expensive than the cost of the car. Tampering with emissions by garages or anyone else is a federal offense since 1990. For more information read this.
http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/exhaust_muffler/ques081_0.html

Good luck with whatever course of action you take.

Clifton

 

[Amanda]

That sucks. Well hopefully it doesn't cost you too much. Good luck.

 

[Mixerdriver]

I got the car from a used car lot. and it was as is. She has 113000 on her so i new i would have some problems at some point but out of the box is killing me. The shop only looked over the car and pulled the code for me. shoot I have spent so much time under the car I have looked at every inch and it is clean. He did a regular inspection. What im having you would not see from and inspection. He told me the cat gave a code but he could not tell me it was going to explode the next day. or that it was going to get new CE lights so I am ok taking it back to him. As for the dealer I will see what I can do.

 

[CoryTurner]

The shop only looked over the car and pulled the code for me. shoot I have spent so much time under the car I have looked at every inch and it is clean. He did a regular inspection. What im having you would not see from and inspection.

He told me the cat gave a code but he could not tell me it was going to explode the next day. or that it was going to get new CE lights so I am ok taking it back to him. As for the dealer I will see what I can do.

The problem is that the catalytic converter had gone bad prior to your purchase. They can and will literally come apart in extreme cases of a car running very very rich for a few thousand miles. The Rich condition that caused the converter to fail was 99% chance due to a bad oxygen sensor that is a $50 part and $50 labor.

Your Local mechanic should be able to fix this situation fairly easily. Be aware that there is more than one O2 sensor but they are very easy to test and there should only be one bad one. If he claims more than one is bad, especially the O2 sensor downstream of the Cat, I would recommend going somewhere else.

Anytime your car throws codes that mean immediate danger to your emissions system, ie going to burn up your converter, it will flash the CE light vs just lighting up. This is also the problem that caused your car to act funny and not go above 60 or shift correctly as the computer puts the car in what's appropriately called "Limp home mode".

Bottom Line: So even though you replaced the converter, the original root cause of that problem was not fixed.

 

[Mixerdriver]

Thanks for the info on the limp mode I talked to my mechanic today and he told me so far the throttle body was full off crap. I sprayed throttle body cleaner in it the other day to try and clean it and I guess i must have loosened some of it and caused it to fail hes is still looking at it and will let me know what else. He said the same thing to me about the limp mode. I'll tell you what the out come is when its all done.

 

[SocialStealth]

In most states thee are lemon laws. Even with as is deals. I have about 110k miles on my protege and she's running as strong as ever. I'm getting 33 mpg with typical mixed driving and she handles like a beauty. You bought a car that wasn't cared for... Even if the dealer fixed it I wouldn't want it. Bring it back to the dealer and force them to buy it back, if they don't then get yourself a lawyer

 

[Mixerdriver]

coil back was bad got it home new problem back in the shop.