revgolem

Definatly does sound like wate ror air in the line, though the mechanic might be half right... The air and water had to get in there somehow. Bleeding should take care of the porblem for a while, depending on how big the leak is. I would definatly bleed for now and keep an eye on it.

Might also want ot look at the throttle Position Sensor. sometimes they can develope dead spots and give false readings, causing more or less fuel than needed to be dumped in. Can cause the types of problems you are describing.

Actually, he was right to suggest disconnecting the negative power cable. It DOES disconnect the power on EVERY vehicle... no loop, no power... and EVERY manual, book and professional will tell you that you ALWAYS disconnect the negative cable first. The entire vehicle is grounded to the negative side of the battery. With the negative cable disconnected you can safetly accidentally touch either side of the battery and nothing will happen. If you disconnect the positive side, any accidental contact between the battery terminal and any metal portion of the vehicle, say, with a wrench, will cause a closed loop and spark and possibly shock you or short out something in the system.

Easy way to check if it's the timing belt. Take off the dist. cap and try to turn it over. If the rotor turns, the belt is not broken... if not then it is definatly fragged. Though it is possible that it skipped a tooth and is just out of time again, but it will get you a little closer to the culprit.

Official labor time for t-belt is 5.3 hours as i recall, that's what would be quoted from any shop you go to. i just happened to have looked it up yesterday because i'm about to do mine as well. though the water pump is probobly a good idea to replace anyway, to same a some money right now and frustration in case the noises you are hearing don't go away, i would suggest investing in one of those mechanic's stethascopes to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from. i know the bearings in the ideler/tensioner pully tend to go out, and that's a quick fix for usually around $15 bucks or so.

Another thing to try is "Sea Foam", works wonders to clean the top half of the engine. you just pull a vac line and stick it in the bottle (getting just a little at a time so you don't kill the engine). suckes it right up and cleans great. you WILL smoke out the neighborhood though... so if you have any nosey neighbors with itchy 911 fingers you might want to let them know.

Buddy of mine used to have a Pa in his vette... we would use it to order at the drivethrough... give'm a taste of their own medicine...

shouldn't be a problem with the oil, there's really no wat to avoid that... that happens on 90% of the cars out there. but hitting it with carb or brake cleaner wouldn't hurt.

i'm in on this one for two white ones!

i'd go for the rebuilt, just don't be too surprised if you have to make use of the warranty... but it would be worth it once you get a good one. we generally use rebuilts in the shop i work at with great success... though there has been a couple of times when we had to go thorugh a couple before a satisfactory end result.

i wonder if there are any airplane junkyards around. might be something to look into (bulb over head flickers dimly)

have you looked into just replacing the entire axle? if you turn in the origional for the core charge, it's usually pretty cheap and a HECK of a lot easier and really not that much more in cost. and that way you will know that the joints are good as they tend to get pretty worn depending on how ling you've been running with torn boots. the temp 'split type' boots are ok, but you'll be replacing them sooner than you would want to.

If the wires are really that bad it's definatly worth a shot. I've had a lot of cars come into the shop running poorly because of just that reason.

And yes, bad plugs and wires could cause the problems you are experiencing. so could plugged injectors, a bad fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, worn cap and rotor, dirty air filter... I would definatly suggest going through some diagnostics in a manual to isolate to problem(s) before just throwing new parts at it. It will save you a lot of time, money and frustration in the long run.

ABS light indicates that there is either a problem with the circuit for the ABS system, the controller, or a problem with wheel speed sensors. It actually has nothing to do with normal breaking, the system is designed to work normally even when ABS is non-functioning. The only difference is that you will not have antilock breaking in case of an emergency stop. It is not the fluid level or condition, pads, shoes or any component of the normal breaking system. gabod7 - your problem is most likely the e-break switch in the center console.

I really hate jumping in the middle of this long running debate (both on and off these forums)... but I do have an interesting point. Dodge for a long time was having to replace a LOT of engines under warranty not too long ago. When research was done into the cause of all the failures and problems, they were directly linked to K&N filters. As a result, if you put a K&N filter on a Dodge, you immediatly void the warranty completely. But it's like anything, some have luck with it some don't. Just like Stopleak, Freeze12, and remanufactured parts. Personally though, like mws said, once the filter is dirty enough to actually clean the air (which is a funky concept to for me anyway) there's not much of an advantage... and oil from the filter does get pulled into the intake. But that's just this mechanic's humble opinion.

yeah, you should be able to find any thingy you need from a hardware store that worth half a s***. Main thing that MIGHT be throwing you off is finding the correct strength rating... just remember, you can always go to a stronger bolt (and why not anyway?!?) just don't go weaker. Not sure if they have them in your area (or here in WA now that I think about it) but down south CarQuest was the shizznit for bolts and fasteners. always had something that would work and usualy as long as you wern't rebuilding the Titanic they would just give them to you for free.

Then it would be 2.5 for me now!

just wanted to chime in about freeze12. BAD IDEA. they say it can be mixed with the r12, but basically you are just putting in r134. the problem comes from the type of oil they each use, and how they interact. just a drop of either in the other creates this goop that is like putting vasoline into the system. very thick and sticky. this causes major problems for the valves in the system which are only thousandnth of an inch or so. the leaking problem with the retro-fit is usually due to the wrong o-rings being used, so if they are not changed you will leak anyway. as far as the performance issues with retro-fitting, those usually have to do with the overall design of the system. most foreign manufacturers actually did a really good job with the system and retro-fitting shows a minimal drop in performance. using freeze12 would only get you about 50-55 degrees from the vents as opposed to around 40-45 with a retro. can't say offhand about the sight-glass on pathfinders (mines not here right now to check) but it is not an r-12 only component. most systems have one either built into the receiver/dryer or very close to it. retro-fitting and charging really isin't that hard, and most of the expense of having it done is the labor. in a lot of cases it's worth picking up a book and learning how to do it, picking up a set of gauges and a vacuum pump to do it yourself. then, you are all set to do it for others as well... for a small fee of course. sly

Just got back from my first road trip after changing out the fuel pressure regulator/pump on my 95. MPG jumped from around 12 to a little over 17!! WHOO!

Most of the truck rental places (like U-Haul) around here have the tanks to re-fuel. There's probobly a lot more out there than we notice.

another option, if your head has a pre-amp output, is to wire it in from there. mine had the rca jacks on the back for pre-amp, so i made an adaptor to wire those into the existing harness. worked great, and fairly easy to do.

heh, sheer will power.

you know, i seriously think this is because of the lack of relays on the circuit as pointed out my 88. the new part cost me like 50 bucks, and 40 in shipping. a little rewiring definatly would have been/ is still worth it.

heh, I had the exact same problem. Thought it was a loose wire or bad ground at first. Then a few weeks ago the entire system went all screwy. Lights would stay on, driver side headlight would blink with the right hand blinker, one was on high the other on low...etc. Finally took the cover off of my sterring column and saw the the switch for the headlight/blinker combo had been melted away at the connector. Ordered a new switch, but couldn't find the connector end that i also needed. luckely the way it melted the connector was still usable and I haven't had any problem since.