Mirage 98 problems

My girlfriend has a 98 Mirage. A couple of weeks ago the car died on her. She took it to a repair shop where they replace the distributor. She she got the car back and it ran fine for a few miles then started to sputter. The mechanics retrieve the car and said it was a defective distributor. I felt it was more than a distributor. She once again had the car and drove it for about a half of a day when the engine light came on. A few miles after the light comming on the engine started to sputter until she could not longer drive it. Since she paid the money she took it back to the repair shop where again they said it was the distributor. Now I am getting fustrated, but because the owner is a friend she is trying to have faith. I need a car more than a friend I told her. They replace the distributor for the 3rd time and guess what, the car's engine light is on and now it is sputter at idle or when the engins has a load on it. I am thinking it is a bad computer, temp. sensor or the cam shaft position sensor. The problem at the repair shop is that everytime they hook up the diagnostic is reads distributor. The have also replaced the plug wires. Has anyone had this problem, where the cars runs fine for a few miles then takes a dump? When A diagnostic is done does it reset the other sensors of the engine? Thanks :banghead:

well, you havent said who your mech is or what the company name, are they reliable? most business have a warranty, so she should have only to pay once for the same fix.

what you should do is forget the dstributor, goto a local reliable midas or precision auto tune, or heck even the dealership and just askk them for a diagnostic, dont tell them what you think, let them find it for themselves, if you tell them what you think, then they may only look at that and nothing more.

make sure that they look at the car and not just use the computer, so that theey can see what is what, also ask them to check the car for any non specific parts on the car, maybe the distributor part is from the wrong car, although it looks right it may be wrong.

id hesitate to state what my opinion is, since you will get alot of this and that from people that dont know what your specific problem is even with your detailed post.

i know why the car runs fine for a day or less after getting it back tho, the shop charges the battery and run the car 24hrs in the shop to charge the battery.

things that you might need to replace or have checked,

fuel filter, car battery, air intake vent, cvc tubes, fuel line, fuel tank(dirty fuel?) altenator(no charge), all the fuzes( engine, both sides, and under dash)

if you have some skill with tools, all this you can check yourself,
use the link to a DIY site
http://doityourself.com/