Problems with new GS-T... I get all the bad luck!

So, here it is. I finally get up to new york to pick up my GS-T. I was told it was in perfect condition and was never modified at all. It only has 49k on it and is excellent. I hop in it and take it for a spin. I notice multiple interior flaws that aren't really all that important so I won't mention them. BUT... I did notice the following engine problems and would like your diagnosis:

1. The oil pressure guage was completely tacked out all the way up and was that way from the instant I got in the car. Through the quick jont around the block I didn't notice any problem or a smell so I waited till I got back to the dealership to ask what he thought. I popped the hood and saw coolant all over (ends up the seal on the coolant resivoir is melted or just plain dead). Also, there was a nice little puddle of oil on the valve cover and a little smoking off the rear of the engine. I asked the "mechanic" about the oil guage and the fluids and he said they had "just topped them off and might have overfilled it a bit... but don't worry it's not a big deal" and the guage: "oh it's probably the wire thinger that runs under the engine and it just came off" Those are his exact words. I looked at him cross eyed and said "if you say so" because he was working on a porsche at the time so I figured he knew what he was talking about. he also said that "wasn't a big deal"

2. As I'm driving the car home I got gas and prepared myself for a nice 4 hour cruise back to my house. I got on it to pass a truck and it felt like the car started to stumble and slip. At first I thought "great the plugs are going" then I realized it was only when I pushed the car. and it didn't feel like a spark problem. It felt much more like a slipping almost bouncing feeling comming from the engine. a serious stutter and loss of power. Any ideas on this would be great.

3. When I got home it smelled like there was burning oil So I freaked out and popped the hood. when I lifted it I was greated by a wonderful vison of oil covering my valve cover and entire rear of the engine and a nice smoke screen. Now I was shitting a brick. I watched the temp guage the whole way and there was only one time when it got above half way and thats cause I was doing 90 up a hill. So I didn't think anything of it cause it came right back down to about halfway. The oil seemed to be comming from the cap. at least thats my best guess. I looked under the car and there was a small drip. It stopped after the car had been parked for about 20 minutes. I wiped off the oil, and called the dealer. He said to take it to a mechanic and have him check it out. which is exactly what I will be doing tomorrow morning. I'm hoping I don't have a bad head gasket or anything like that. (which was my diagnosis but I'm an idiot so I'm probably wrong)

If anyone knows what the stumbling I'm feeling is being caused by I would appreciate the info. So I can pass it on to the mechanic and have him look at it. Also the oil pressure guage and it's remedy. The coolant bottle I can handle, just thought I'd throw that in for good measure. OH... also. The cruise control doesn't work. I turn it on, set it and the green light that says "cruise" comes on.. but.. I don't cruise. I coast... any idea on how to fix that would also be wonderful!

Sorry for the long post. I'm just a little distraut that I've had the car for 5 hours, and drivin it 400 miles and it is completely useless to me! Any and all input is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance

Jon

anyone? kevin... joe... jake? somebody? I'd kinda like to know so I can tell him what to look for. Thanks for your help...

I dont think your oil all over your valve cover would be a head gasket. Oil only travels down. Clean it all off and look for oil coming fron your valve cover seal. If the oil is coming from the filler cap area then i would say "thats fucked up". LOL

As for the stuttering. What type of fuel was in the car? Were you running the good stuff? Also, check for any hoses that may have fallen off. That could cause a stutter.

Good luck

91 premium from sunoco. Some place right off 15 south. seemed like a good place. It didn't seem like water in the gas. plus the stutter only happened when I accelerated hard.. normal accel wasn't bad. I have no idea what it is. Thanks for the info though. I'll double check all the piping and lines and whatnot.

Is Sunoco the place that sells 100 octane? Anyway...

My old spark plug problem only happened under boost too, so don't rule that out. I figure with the increased pressure in the combustion chamber it was affecting the plug. Might as well give the car a full tune up anyway, right?

Otherwise, A stutter 'when pushing the car' aka. under boost could easily be a boost leak. Fashion yourself a Leak Tester one of these days and make sure you aren't losing boost. (Also something people should do often) http://www.vfaq.com/mods/ICtester.html

As for the oil part, well, at 90mph there is plenty of air flow in the engine bay, and if you have a leak anywhere near the head/valve cover... it will go everywhere. Everyone tells me an oil leak causes a big mess and will often travel onto the windshield (proof that it is carried upwards).

So to find out where the leak is, my opinion would be to thouroughly clean it up, then try to get it to leak again in a parking lot (not moving) so the oil stays relatively put. Also, if it's an option for you, the Mitsu dealership (probably most mechanics too) can dye your oil so it will show a leak under a black light. That's the most 'official' method to finding an oil leak I can think of. Good luck.

EDIT>> Don't the caps have some sort of sealing thing? Although I doubt it, the cap could be broken.

One more thing, when it's all fixed... for reference my coolant temp gauge never moves once the car is warmed up, even pulling hills. Just letting you know that's what a *mostly* working car should do. :)

WOW!!>. with that kind of experience i would've sent the car back.

for my GS-T i always use the highest quality gasoline ie. Super from Mobile

WOW! that is bad luck.
Sunoco is good gas. They dont have 100 octane, at least not here.
But dont rule out the plugs/wires, I thought it wasn't it, and It was. But my car is a NT.
But yea before you goto mitsu or anywhere to find the leak, try to find it yourself. Mine was in the back corner of the valve cover, but there was not as much oil as your saying.

I would be very cautious about that oil leak. I wouldnt even drive the car until you find out where that oil leak is, unless its around your neighborhood.(hopefully thats the only problem).

I just bought a 96 GSX a few weeks ago that had the smallest oil leak around the drain plug. I checked the oil every day to make sure it never got low.

A week later my car dies and when I pull my oil pan there was only 1.5 quarts in the engine. Needless to say, im dropping a 30k mile engine into a 65k mile GSX that I've had for 3 weeks. The car has seen more garage time than it has seen road time since I bought the car. Tell me about bad luck.

well I dropped it off this morning on my way to work. I hadn't driven it since the trip back. I had my mechanic take a look at it but told him not to fix anything. I had him call me and tell me what he thought the problem might be and I would call the dealership and tell them what was up. He called me back at about 1:00 and simply said "what... the fuck?" I was told the car was completely stock and never modified, guess what.. somebody lied to me. According to the mechanic my oil pan had been dropped for some reason, and never put back on correctly. this was causing a pretty bad leak. Also, the turbo was "spitting out" oil. He also said that somehow the oil had gotten into the plugs and was causing them to foul out under load. I asked him why the valve cover was covered in oil and he said due to the speed and the amount of oil I lost it was all over the engine bay. He replaced the cap anyway just in case the seal on that had gone bad. So, the official diagnosis is that my car is fuct! He said it will need a new turbo, and a new oil pan for starters. he also wants to replace a few other things. Plus he's kind of nervous about the internals. I think I'm going to have him change the timing belt and water pump and yadda yadda while he's in there messin around too. It seems like the right time to do it. I noticed this morning when I started it up, it had a knocking/tapping sound that it didn't have when I first got it. Plus my mechanic said I was down about 2 quarts of oil... in a little less that 400 miles! Thats a leak and a half if you ask me. I stopped down to see him after work and have a look at the car. Come to find, upon close inspection that there are screw holes on the a-pillar where a guage bezzle once resided. Kind of odd for a "stock" car I would say. So I'm thinking somebody played around under the hood too. I called the dealership and told them what the deal was. It's a porsche and corvette dealer, so I was expecting them to tell me to take my little rice mobile and shove it up my ass. much to my suprise the OWNER got on the phone to give me his personal apology and told me to have my mechanic write up an estimate to have it fixed and they would cover it all. So, although it is a truly sad story, it has a somewhat happy ending.

One more question. and I"m sure you all saw it comming. I know that oil plays a very large part in crank walk. Do you think that because of this mishap my car is at any higher risk. and if so, what can I do to fix it. I had him check the crank play and measure it. he hasn't gotten back to me with the numbers but I searched an old thread and found out what it should be. so hopefully it is within that area. I have some questions about my options too.. but I"ll start a new thread on that one. Thanks for all your input guys. I'll let you know what happens.

Jon

sad story holy shit dude you get a whole turbo and all for FREE!

I would measure it just to be on the safe side. Expecially if you were running on 2 qt of oil.

Anyways... Now you just got to get you mechanic to write up an expensive estimate. And then get the dealer to pay that.
I know what you were expecting when you called the dealer... a while ago, I got an exhaust leak and I took it to Midas and they told me they cant look at it cause I dont have a cat.
But then my dad called up the dealer today (well it was a used-car lot) and told them they sold us an "illegal" car then they said he would talk to his owner. I thought he would be like your calling me a year after you bought the car blah blah...
So they are going to call us back on monday we'll see what happens...
Sorry for the long story

Looks like Christmas is coming early this year.
Glad to hear that your car will be running soon without putting a dent in your pocket.
Hey, maybe your bad luck is turning around.

I guess so. actually it's looking very good. With the info Joewagon has given me, and a search for prices. it looks like I will be installing an brand new evo 16g on my car. It will actually be cheaper than a rebuilt t25. So life is getting better. the only problem now is buying all the support mods and not having a car for like a week and a half. but oh well... it's a sacrifice I can live with for a free 16g

Yeah tell me about it. I faced the same bad luck experience 3 weeks ago when i traveled 4 hours to HATBORO PA to buy a nice shiny bright RED 98 GST. The guy that was selling the car said nothing was wrong with it blah blah blah blah. My dad warned me that in his oppinion the guy is most likely lying that everything is perfect but there was nothing we could have done to find out because you never know what the guy did before you arrive to buy the car..you never know what temporary fixes he did so the buyer doesnt find out the problems. My parents are the ones that drove me 4 hours there and they werent too excited about it because they thought i was crazy for wanting to drive 4 hours to buy a car because you never know what could be wrong with it. If i had bought this car in VA..i would have taken it to a mechanic first to get it checked out but since i was buying my car in PA there was no way i could do that. Well anyway i bought the damn car and drove it a long 4 hours back home and took it to the mechanic and he said the car is not in great shape..work was needed. I ended up spending about $600 more on the car and now i can finally relax knowing my car is fine. I needed a o2 sensor because it was broke, a new clutch, valve cover gasket and some more stuff. But anyways it was a horrifying experience but i can tell u i love my GST so it was somewhat a happy ending. What was even worst was i had never driven stick in my life before that and i lied to my parents that i knew how to drive stick because they dont know how to drive stick..well turned out i did very horrible driving..kept stalling..shaking..and gears were grinding because i didnt know how to drive..my test driving hours were horrible..had my parents so upset and scared but than i got used to it within hours and drove it 4 hours home. What an experience. I guess happy endings sometimes always come after bad experiences.

Glad you got yours worked out man. I'm going to talk to the mechanic on monday about putting the 16g in. It's only going to cost about 600 dollars and a rebuilt t25 is gonna run 1000+. So I think the dealership should be more than happy to do it. The only problem is that now I'm going to have to fork over a ton of cash for the support mods to run it properly. Guess all my body work and stuff is going to have to wait. I'm going to be one hell of a sleeper car though! I'll post another thread about the questions on support mods. Damn.. I"m a thread startin mofo now!

Yeah man, why would u want a t-25 anyway, i mean its a nice turbo and all but hell if my t-25 ever dies...im going for an 18g or 20g. maybe even a t-4. But yeah i hope everything works out well for you. Our cars have potential man. I use to own a 97 RS and i spent so much money trying to make it fast but damn...it was still a slow POS. So i sold it and bought a GST..now im happy. Even though i lost alot of money in the deal..i can rest assure i can smoke most cars out there on the road with my GST. It was like a dream to me when i first stepped into a turbo eclipse...right when i floored it in first gear..the way the car accelerated and the turbo spooled..i was left in AWE with my jaw dropped to the floor man. Im loving this baby!

I had that same stutter problem you mentioned... Mine would come when i was in 3rd or 4th gear and id step on it hard... Dont have it anymore... I was actually on my way to change my plugs and wires, but at the same time, I checked my oil while i was under there.. and found that the one, only, and THE last time ive ever taken my car to Mitsubitch, those fuckers only put in 1 quart of oil.. So somewhere between changing those 2 solved the problem..

Yea I'm guessing that the stuttering problem was caused by the same thing as yours. I'm gettin out of work early tomorrow to go talk to the mechanic. He's going to be making out the estimate and I wanna talk him out of the rebuilt t-25 and into the evo 16g. I'm also gonna have him tell me what the deal is whith everything else, becuase I only got limited info from him when I called the other day. I'm hoping there isn't any internal damage. cause I did king of here a pinging/tapping/knocking type sound that it didn't have when I first got it. Oh well, he's a really good mechanic and knows his shit, hopefully he'll be able to hook me up.