I never did finish bitching......
I get the plugs and wires in and the car runs great but the check engine light is still on. Well someone had suggested I disconnect the battery. Well that made matters worse. It set the computer into failsafe mode and the car started running like crap, it was hard to start and kept stalling
. Off to the dealer I go and pay $120 for a diagnostic service because as I was told there may be other issues and yada yada blah blah.....pay me. I told the service writer to let me know when the car is fixed so I can ask the mechanic how he bent the paper clip and which contacts he connected to reset the code so I could do it myself next time (actually it now requires a tool about $70 at Autozone, I will be buying one). They called and my mother answered the phone and let them install a new ABS pressure switch $99 labor
(it's the little hex shaped thing at the end of the supply manifold under the brake fluid reservoir). So now she tells me that the car stalls sometimes when she backs up, I notice the idle seems to low, but no adjustment it's computer controled. I see the same service guy say "remember me I'm the bone head who needed the code reset because I disconnected the battery. He then tells me they will have to diagnose the car to see what the problem is
. I tell him the car was running fine until it went into failsafe mode and in fact when I brought it here to have the code cleared it was back to running fine but to keep my mother happy I allowed them to diagnose the problem and supposedly "reprogram the computer". He picked up on my displeasure of what he was trying to do and told me unless their is another problem there would be no charge for diagnosis. The car was running fine even when the check engine light was on before the fail safe activation BS.
Another thing I saw when we were looking at new cars (my 97 is not worth repair anymore so it has to go) is they have now come out with an automatic rain sensing wipers that come on automatically. I don't know who thought that was a great idea except for the fact it builds more profit margin into the price of the vehicle or future service. I guess they think we are morons who can't figure that we need to turn the wipers on when the windshield is wet..please it's all profit motivated. I know; buy a vehicle without auto wipers if you don't want them....but wait isn't that nice how they are part of the package with some of the other options she wants
. If she goes with that vehicle and there is some sort of dealer only blades or other type code crap that makes the wipers work improperly until serviced I will be posting again.
Maybe in my next post I will tell you what I think about electronic throttles
