'98 Lesabre CEL - Fuel/Air Mixture and Computer Issue

[Danahan]

Car: '98 Buick LeSabre Custom
Mileage: 118k

First thing first. I bought this car from a used car lot. At that time the only thing noticeably wrong with the car was that the fuel pump was starting to go; you could hear that annoying humming noise. Last November, the pump finally croaked. Instead of ripping off the gas tank to replace the pump, I opted to put the car away for the winter and confront the problem first thing in the spring. Once spring came, I found that my battery was dead, because the front passenger door hadn't been shut all the way (due to the seat-belt getting caught). After recharging the battery, I had a local mechanic tow the car to his garage where he replaced the fuel pump. The car fired right up, however, the CEL came on. After driving the car around for a few weeks, I started smelling raw gas fumes coming from the front end of the car, and my exhaust pipe was covered in a thick deposit of black soot. Additionally, the car was getting horrible gas mileage. The very first thing I checked for was a gas leak, but couldn't find one. My assumption at that point was that something was wrong with the fuel/air mixture. I took the car back to the same mechanic as earlier. He kept rambling on and on about how it was probably a problem with the evap. Anyways, he hooked the car up to the computer, but said that I needed to drive the car for a few more miles before he could get a reading. After coming back, he said the computer couldn't get a reading because something-or-another was too hot. He said to let the car sit overnight and to bring it back first thing in the morning. After doing so, the same thing happened as before with him telling me to drive it for a few more miles followed by telling me that it was now too hot. After going through this a total of three times, I decided to go to another mechanic. This mechanic told me that because my battery had died while putting the car away for the winter, that my computer had probably "lost" its programming and that I would have to drive the car around for a 100 miles until the CEL turned off on its own. Well I've been driving it around and the CEL still hasn't "magically" turned itself off.

[maxwedge]

Not true at all, there is code in there corresponding to your issue, get the code read and post back with the p0 numbers.

[HotZ28]

In addition, keep looking for a mechanic that knows what he is doing. Obviously, the first two you tried, don't have a clue!