Worth Fixing?

As a rule the idle should increase when the steering wheel is turned. It might be worth finding the switch on the rack or pump and testing it, if it hasn't been done.

Bill

I believe when I turn the steering wheel tight when stopped as sharp as it will go, the idle goes down, and it really messes with the idle if I turn the steering wheel at all when the car is in park and running.

Got the spark plugs replaced. The wires do not look that great, so they'll be getting replaced very soon also. The old spark plugs didn't look that bad except that they had oil all over them. The wires do also, and some have corrosion, so they'll be replaced soon. Also going to get a PCV valve and some gasket silicon for the valve cover again. (The silicon has held up better than the valve cover gaskets have.) After that, that's it. If any more expenses are needed, I'm done at least for now. If the valve cover gasket blows again, I'm done with it.

Bought the silicon, PCV valve, and the new plug wires. We're going to let the silicon set up for several hours and then we're going to see what happens... Dad does not like the design of the oil return on the engine because he said that the oil just sits there at the top and doesn't go back down like it's supposed to. He also said that the PCV valve did not look bad, but we replaced it anyway. He also said we need to run fuel injector cleaner through it.

If you are having lots of oil leaks are you sure the valve cover is not warped and that you are correctly toquing it down when you replace the gasket? Make sure too to get the top of the head perfectly clean leaving no old oil or gasket material on the head. If the valve cover is warped go get one from a bone yard. did you notice any carbon build up inside the EGR Valve? Did you clean that out too? If the wires are older than 3 years they probably need to be replaced.

Def>> Here's the list of issues that mostly need attention and are serious. Do

Well, I'll update you... The spark plug wires I bought are junk... The missing has gotten much worse. We found out that one of the wires was not making contact with the spark plug on cylinder one. After we got that on, the car still missed like mad for a minute, but then began to smooth out. (It also turned over like crap and backfired a time or two.) Perhaps it was because it had messed up the cylinder for a minute or two. Dad said that most of my engine's power is coming from cylinder two. Tomorrow, I'm going to start the car again and if the missing is there again, I'm going to return the spark plug wires and replace them with the more expensive, gold-plated ones. I also saw the SES light come on tonight when the car was running during our work after we were done with it, so I'm going to check it and see what it's reporting tomorrow as well. We did not do much with the EGR valve besides taking it off and putting it back on when we worked on the car. The top of it does look kind of rusty. We thoroughly cleaned all the old silicon off of the valve cover and where it was resting. We scraped it all off, then we buffed the rest off. Dad says he knows exactly why the oil leaks - the oil just sits there at the top and does not go down the oil return right on it, so the oil will eat away at a gasket or silicon over time since it just sits there right against the edge. The old spark plugs and wires had oil all over them, and the old wires had corrosion where they connect to the spark plugs. Dad said that the old spark plugs really didn't need replaced if we cleaned all of the oil off of them.

It fired right up this morning and didn't miss. I also restarted the motor several times and it turned over fine. It still acted like I wasn't letting it turn over long enough though when I started it cold.

If the oil is not going down you have SERIOUS problems, because when you fill the engine, all the oil goes down past the push-rods to get to the pan. The rockers are pressure lubed - and all that oil DOES return to the pan. Make sure the rocker cover flange is DEAD STRAIGHT. Then it won't leak, even with a dry cork gasket.

Well, if I didn't have the valve cover gasket back on already, I'd post a picture of the oil on the top.

You will see SOME oil sitting there, on top of surfaces, but there is a SIGNIFICANT amount of oil flows through the top of that engine. Not as much as on an OHC engine, but enough to make a real mess if run with the cover off!!!!!!

Well, my SES came back on today, so it's not a fluke. Time to check the codes...

Well, the codes were 13, 44, and 45. 13 & 44 were from when I replaced my O2 sensor the last time and both indicate it's running too low of voltage. (We never cleared the codes.) The new code is 45, which is the O2 sensor voltage is too high. Specifically, the new code says that O2 sensor voltage was above specification. Century and Cutlass Ciera was over 0.75 volts for 50 seconds in a closed loop. Lumina was over

0.7 volts for 30 seconds and throttle angle was between 3% and 45%. (I assume mine fits into the Century & Cutlass Ciera.) This is ridiculous. It was only 14 months ago I replaced the O2 sensor and now it needs it again? This will be the 4th O2 sensor this car will have had. (Assuming it didn't have any done before we took it over nine years ago.) It seems a lot of problems on this car that we fix come back within a year or two. It's like on its 4th or 5th muffler, and I've had to tighten a hose that has leaked antifreeze twice, as well as do the valve cover gasket now three times in three years. What's up with this? I got this information from here...

Travis King wrote:>>

Not to mention failing to clear codes or ever verify anything, just replacing parts at random based on codes. GW

FYI - I was not surprised when this car still had problems after doing our work. In fact, I expected it to not fix anything or at the most, slightly help it but not fix anything major. I had a feeling it would likely be a waste of money. It was my dad that seemed certain that plugs and wires would fix it, and he wasn't going to get off of my case until I did something about it. I never had much hope knowing this car. I am also not surprised that I'm having repetitive problems on this car since that's what it's always done. Also, I did not have the SES until after we replaced the plugs, wires, PCV valve, and worked on the valve cover. It's typical of this car since I've had it to have something else go wrong with it once we fix something else. Dad said he does not like the design of this engine's oil return system. He mentioned something about how if he wanted to spend the time, he could put some kind of groove into it to keep the oil inside. I didn't understand what he was talking about, but whatever... He said he did not see any oil sludge and said that he knows it's a design flaw. (I don't know how he knows if he really does...) I have not told him that my car is still running bad because if I do, he'll just want me to senselessly spend more money on getting higher-end spark plug wires, which I'd bet also won't help. It might be the EGR, it could be something with the injectors. I don't know, and I don't really want to play "guess" either to find out. Time to either take it to a shop or get rid of it. (I'm starting to go towards getting rid of it.) I've heard that if the timing gears go out in this car, it will cause MAJOR damage. It's still starting like I'm not letting it turn over long enough. Perhaps that's a sign of the timing going out? Anyhow, I think I'm starting to see the light on what decision I should make whether I should spend the money on it or get something else. My intentions are to get something else by this summer. (definitely want to wait until at the earliest April when we shouldn't have much more Winter weather.)

High is rich. It's intuitive that way, like higher higher fuel trim numbers.

It's important to be able to monitor the data from the sensor real-time to watch the switching, and watch the fuel trim (or in the ancient case, the "Block Learn Multiplier" and "Integrator" values) react.

GW