Good morning , my wifes 1998 malibu has been acting stubborn for the past 2 weeks , when we accelerate from a stop , the engine studders quite abit and almost feels like lost compression or somthing , but eventually takes off , evan at highway speeds around 80 or 90 . i tried passing a vehicle and when i got into the passing lane , it started making a low rumble noise , grrrr. :banghead: . Anyways I took it in to a friends shop and suggestted it should have the cat replaced and fuel filter . 180.00$ later the problem still exsists and also was told that i would have to replace the water pump because he noticed a small leak of antifreeze coming from under the car . The temp gauge evan running around town seems quite high halfway on the gauge at most times , also when we get out of the car we can smell a strong scent of antifreeze evan though i used ironite to slow the leak wich is a rad stopleak wich did seem to stop the little drip . I am wondering if the head is going bad or somthing ??. The oil is clean and not alot of white smoke coming out the pipe . I am just wondering if its worth the $$$ to fix it at 200,000 . and find more problems come within the next few months .
thanks for any suggestions .

where do they get a cat that costs less then that much, and a mechanic that is that cheap. I would expect the cat itself to be over 180. If they say they replaced it, you got screwed. Might want to look into that. Same with the fuel filter. Mileage means nothing when it comes to fixing a car unless the whole engine is going.... So my 1st suggestion is to go to an autoparts store and have them hook a scanner up to it. I don't know if you guys have advanced auto, pepboys or napa up there, but they do it for free, so you should be able to find something similar. You need to find out what codes your car is giving off before you start through parts at it. It could be a number of things.

After tinkering around with the car i decided to check the spark plugs thinking that it feels like the car was running only on a couple plugs , sure enough when i pulled them out and checked them they had lots of engine oil on 2 of the plugs , Not sure where the oil is coming from though ??. perhaps a slight leak somewhere , I re checked the gapping on them and found the gap was to big ...hmmm . I regapped them at 0.045 and cleaned them up and sanded the tip of the plug with sandpaper , re installed them and wow the car runs very good . Just have to figure out where the oil is coming from and if this problem will return . Oh and the cat converter is new . the fellow who did the job was a friend i went to school with and owns his own shop ,he gives me parts at his cost .

If the oil is on the top of the plug its the VCG. Was it on the spark plug boot? Which is also the valve cover gasket. You should just replace the plugs... quit being cheap and fix the car properly.

you need to stop taking the car to your friend because well, he sucks.I dont know why he wouldn't check the plugs first that's where my mind went when i started reading this.any good tech will tell ya start simple first.it sounds liek the spark plugs seals are leaking its a quick and cheap fix all you have to do is pull the valve cover off parts alone would cost 25 bux at advance auto.also you should really replace the plugs.