New, kinda old, Car!

[Fierc3 Kid]

I hate things under pressure, I checked my tiers today, and two of them were as low as 20 psi, so now they are all at 35. Why wouldn’t the filter help on gas mileage? If really its only 20$ including the filter, then ill get it done at shop, but I do things by myself just to save money, and get some hands on experience, but for 20$ ill have them do it and insist on watching. Again, I really don’t know how old anything is on the car. The plugs for sure are good. The wires don’t have any cracks in them, but you can read 4 out of the 5 words written on them, I'm assuming they are okay. The belt is bad, I know that because I noticed cracks on the inside of it. That is the only belt that I know of. As for the TCC I haven’t messed with it. If I don’t know what it does, or how it works, I stay away from it. I think that’s what was going wrong on my brother old 240sx, it was auto, and it had the same symptoms that you explained about the TCC failing. Can I fix that my self? I’m not really too sure about my mpg, but I do know that my gauges are messed up, (I only have 2 by the way, speedometer, and fuel-o-meter). I know that’s its normal that when I take a turn the fuel gauge will go up and down. But the speedometer keeps going up even after I accelerate, so I really don’t know if I’m speeding some times, like sometimes when I’m getting on the high way, I find my self going 60ish on the on ramp, and when I ease of the accelerator, the needle keeps going up(or down really). Maybe it’s just because it’s an old car. None of the other cars that I drove ever did that. But, when I do accelerate hard, (not WOT) I can see my fuel going down....Which is very aggravating.

[jsgold]

The fuel filter would possibly slow your car down a bit, as it would starve it for fuel, but it really would not help mpg unless someone can offer additional information to the contrary. A 3.1 SHOULD get 20+ mpg, but if your speedometer is fouled up, then I do not know what else to add other than what I said before. GM guages are notorious for being off or having alot of movement when low of gas. What you are probably seeing is the guage dropping a lot when it is say, around 1/2, 1/3 or a tank or so, than it drops a lot when you really punch it. I have found that on most GM tanks when the guage shows 1/2 a tank, you really have 1/4 or so, and the guages bounce around a lot. On my Blazer I get 325 miles to a tank, over 1/2 on the first 1/4-1/3, then the guage drops quickly. Ditto on our Corsica. On the TCC you would be hard pressed to replace it on Corsicas. Ours is out and I have chosen to leave it that way for now. The part is cheap but difficult to replace where GM put it. Most transmission shops are less than thrilled to change one. Anyway, yours is probaly OK. Might want to pull the filter box anyway sometime down the road just to see if the plug is in or out. No big deal. Since you cannot tell what your gas milage is now, I can't advise doing a whole lot of anything. You do not have a temp guage, so if your heater puts out good heat the thermostat is most likely OK. Belts will get a small amount of cracking with normal use, but I always change them when I can see cracks of any type as a precaution. Might want to investigate that speedo guage, though, as you can get a ticket if you are not careful.

[jsgold]

The fuel filter would possibly slow your car down a bit, as it would starve it for fuel, but it really would not help mpg unless someone can offer additional information to the contrary. A 3.1 SHOULD get 20+ mpg, but if your speedometer is fouled up, then I do not know what else to add other than what I said before. GM guages are notorious for being off or having alot of movement when low of gas. What you are probably seeing is the guage dropping a lot when it is say, around 1/2, 1/3 or a tank or so, than it drops a lot when you really punch it. I have found that on most GM tanks when the guage shows 1/2 a tank, you really have 1/4 or so, and the guages bounce around a lot. On my Blazer I get 325 miles to a tank, over 1/2 on the first 1/4-1/3, then the guage drops quickly. Ditto on our Corsica. On the TCC you would be hard pressed to replace it on Corsicas. Ours is out and I have chosen to leave it that way for now. The part is cheap but difficult to replace where GM put it. Most transmission shops are less than thrilled to change one. Anyway, yours is probaly OK. Might want to pull the filter box anyway sometime down the road just to see if the plug is in or out. No big deal. Since you cannot tell what your gas milage is now, I can't advise doing a whole lot of anything. You do not have a temp guage, so if your heater puts out good heat the thermostat is most likely OK. Belts will get a small amount of cracking with normal use, but I always change them when I can see cracks of any type as a precaution. Might want to investigate that speedo guage, though, as you can get a ticket if you are not careful. Anyway, keep your car tuned, clean filters, change the oil every 3K and they are wonderful cars. They do break, but are fairly easy to fix.

[Fierc3 Kid]

I have something against the little hole that the air intake box breath's from. I was thinking of coming up with a custom box fitting, which will redirect the mouth of the box, to the front grill, instead behind the left headlight to maybe get a "ram air" feel. But that will be done in the summer. Any who, maybe when I have some money, ill fill up my tank, and drive around till its empty, and the find the difference in the mileage, since I don’t have a trip miles thingy. Something is wrong though, suddenly after I filed up the tiers, and put fuel in, I started the car fine, but it feels so heavy, and my steering wheel seems heavy too, I'm thinking it’s the power steering, but I don’t know how to check that. Or maybe it’s the power steering pump that bad, or something I’m not too sure. Do you think the fuel injectors have anything to do with the poor mileage? I think the next time i have less than a 1/4 tank left, ima buy like 2 injector cleaner stuff, and dump them in with the little fuel i have. Then drive it hard on the high way. I'll have some fuel in the trunk incase I run out.

[jsgold]

Might want to get a cold air intake kit, plenty on Ebay. I have one on my 93 Blazer, looks good and better than my old setup. Would get that later though. Check your fluid level in your power steering pump and d/c belt. The steering(rack and pinion assy) may be leaking a bit. Can add some stop leak if that is the case until you can get it fixed.

[Fierc3 Kid]

I looked, I don’t think they make them for Corsica’s, and I don't know what is good and what is bad when it comes to fluid levels. I know that the car needs an alignment, because when the wheel is straight, the car turns to the left, and were is this D\C belt located?

[jsgold]

No, I meant to double check the belt. If the steering is hard is usually means low on fluid, bad pump, or belt is broken. Of course, if that happened car would overheat and a lot more. You can get cold air intakes cheap, but would not advise that until car is totally brought up to date on maintenance and money situation improves. I see them on Ebay quite often. There is a mark on your power steering unit on the cap that shows where fluid level should be. If it is low it usually make a loud racket as well. Probably the first thing you should do is invest 12-15 bucks in a Haynes manual. Shows you most all of this, quite handy if you plan to work on car yourself. Can also pick a GM service manaul on Ebay for your car fairly cheap as well.

[Fierc3 Kid]

Haynes Manual, got it

[Fierc3 Kid]

I got the car on a lift today, and wow, it is rusty. I saw my fuel filter; I think I could reach it with out a jack. I also changed my oil. I cleaned my engine bay w/ some degreaser and rinsed it out. And when I went to check my power steering, I noticed the cap was busted. Yeah there’s a little metal part under the cap that fell into the fluid. I fixed that temporarily. Car needs lotsa things, serpentine belt, front tiers, injectors, front brakes (pads rotors calipers), rear brakes + new E-brake line, gaskets, transmission flush I think, new TCC, power steering cap, and plug wires. That’s all that I know of that needs to be replaced. For now, I'm going to buy a serpentine belt, and see what’s needed to put it on. Other than that, I don’t know what else to do this thing until I get a job.

[jsgold]

Sounds like the TCC must have been unhooked. If so, no mad rush, but the garage that does this SHOULD flush the transaxle. In fact, most will insist on it since crap in the fluid will cause the new TCC to fail too. Brakes are not a lot of money, another good thing about Corsicas. They tend to go thru front pads fairly quick, but rear ones rarely. Since the front ones do most of the work, be sure to get them fixed first.

[Fierc3 Kid]

Update!!!

My coolant is freaking me out. The other day it was really cold out, and when I started the car up, the coolant light came on, that night I checked the coolant, and it was brownish. Next morning when I was all ready to flush the radiator n stuff, I noticed the coolant was a healthy green. I though nothing of it, I though maybe cause I checked it at night, it looked that way. But tonight, I went to check my condenser, and Walla! There it was the brown coolant again! So I feel a flush coming on pretty soon. My question is, is coolant supposed to get brown? That was after like only 2 - 3 miles of city driving. Out side was about 48F. Also, what do I with coolant after I'm done flushing it?

[jsgold]

Coolant should never be brown. Two possibilties, the first is some "stop leak" has been added, some will pool up in the coolant box after a while and will be brown in color. Bars Leaks does this every time. Best to flush it. Second is oil in coolant which is major problem. Check your oil to see if there is any odd color to it, like a milkish type. The coolant light comes on when the level in the radiator itself is low, not the coolant box. Be sure to check the radiator itself, and monitor your fluid level for a while. Could be you have a leak, and perhaps some stop leak was added some time back before you got the car. Common problem with leaks. In our state we cannot dispose of used coolant, no one will take it except for hazardous waste companies. Best to pay fifty bucks or so and have this done elsewhere for a number of reasons, disposal being the main one.

[pre98zetec]

brown coolant is an indication of a blown headgasket.

[Fierc3 Kid]

piece of *$%@, today I try to jack the car up, to rotate my tiers right, CRUNCH CRUNCH said my frame, yeah that’s right, it was breaking and bending, because this car is all rusted period So I figured screw the wheels, and I start on my belt. I get to the tensioner and walla, it comes right off, but the bitch part was putting it back on... I don’t know what I did wrong, but when I took it off, the only thing that moved on it was the pulley. But it had a springing noise in it. So there I was all like wtf is going on here, why cant I put this thing back on, until it decides to hatch open...and everything falls out, the blue spring that in there, and all this gunk. I tried putting it back together, but no cigar. To make my day better, it was raining after the tensioner broke, and autozone people gave me the wrong belt, so I didn’t know what to do, since I couldn’t drive there and return it. Luckily for me, I discovered an auto parts store right in front of my house, like no joke a 1 min walk away. And I bought a belt there for some 16bucks. The reseat said that it retail value for it was 34, but I got for 15, so I was wondering if I got a good deal or not. Then I went back there for a GM tensinoer, but they were closed. As for the coolant, screw it, the car runs, with no problem. I think I'm going to trade it in the summer time. This car makes me thing twice before wanting to buy a 1991 MR2 just because all the rust that it has, and I don’t want my MR2 to be rusty...
Thanks for all the help

[pre98zetec]

lol your frame broke?.. thats what happen to my cavalier after I sold it