Hum the last post I can find for the originator of this thread http://members.gardenweb.com/members/drumminfool, is May 2005...wouldn't it be nice if he told us what he found out? Maybe he discovered he didn't understand how to work the mpg arithmetic and was too embarrassed to confess. Well, looks like we have a new question: a lightly used '93 Metro, only 48K miles, that's a little over 3K per year, doing arithmetic in the "head"...and embarrassed if incorrect :>), this must be near a low mileage record. Could that have anything to do with the, what I understand to be, a bad hesitation problem? Maybe all it needs is some "gumout" in the gas and/or directly into the carburetor.

irish girl. You wrote "My main mechanic found nothing wrong with the car but said that the cat. converter was hot so it must be plugged and he sent me to the guy who welded my muffler to have it changed. They changed it but did not believe that that was the problem. That cost $110.00. It didn't help" First of all, a hot catalytic convertor is one that is working. If it's glowing RED HOT, then it's overworking because there is a problem in the engine allowing too much air, and unburned fuel into the exhaust. On top of that, find one good shop and tech and stick with him/her. Stop ping-ponging around. Your only compounding your own misery. You wrote" The other day the check engine light came on and I went to Auto Zone who told me it was the O2 sensor just before the convertor." Looks like you fell for the "free diagnosis" and you got what you paid for, an O2 sensor that cannot be proven you actually needed now. You wrote. "My mechanic changed that, changed the plugs and fixed my brakes and rotors for a grand total of $289.00 and my car is still wanting to stall or stalling." Don't lump in your brake work as part of the total you have spent to fix the stalling symptom. They have nothing to do with each other. Treat them as if the brakes were replaced on a different car. You wrote, and now we are concentrating on the stalling. " It stalls or tries to at lights, in drive-through's and now it stalls if I'm going along at a pretty good speed and stop. I told my main mechanic it was still bad and he said that he would clean the throttle body for me that that could be it." That is a plausible answer to the stalling, a good tech can prove if this service is required, and can perform it easily. It's also possible the symptom can be caused by something else affecting the air entering the engine at low RPM's, and the computers response to correct this is exactly the same as a dirty throttle body, and that is for the computer to command the IAC to open wider than normal. This would be a "cut a tree down to see the forest step" in some cases. Sort of once you find something that can cause a particular problem, you stop looking until you prove the problem still exists. You wrote" The mechanic who changed the converter hooked a machine up to my car drove it around with that thing hooked up to it. He said that all of the sensors are working and things are firing or whatever and he seems to think that the tune-up should have been taken further. He suggests that the boots and coils and that plastic thing that holds it all should be changed." Some more specific information would be invaluable here. I can guess what I think he is feeling in the car, and that is still a missfire. The Quad 4's are prone to having trouble with the coil cover and spark plug boots. If there is a problem there, the plugs should be changed again! The reason the plugs need changed again is the boots could be carbon tracked, and allowing the spark to leak right down along the outside of the spark plug, where the boot contacts it. This causes the new spark plug to also carbon track, and it will in turn result in a missfire, and damage the new boot starting the cycle all over again. "I'm running out of money. What is your opinion?" One shop, one tech for everything. Stop ping-ponging. Find someone that can not only diagnose and repair this, but will communicate exactly what they are going to do and why. The O2 sensor replacement is a clue IMO, to an air/fuel ratio issue. This can cause excessive spark demand under certian conditions, and contribute to the coil cover/ spark plug boot problem. There is no more expensive way to attempt to fix one of today's cars than to pull a code and throw a part at it. That's the limit of the ability of a parts store employee when it comes to diagnosing a check engine light. Just because you pull a lean exhaust "O2 sensor" code from the computer, that does not condem the O2 sensor. If you had showed up here with an O2 sensor in your hand telling me Auto Zone had diagnosed it, I would have sent you away. I definately would not have just installed it, because that is not enough proof to me that you really need it.

Do you have two lamps: one labeled 'check engine' and another 'maint reqd"? If so, the 'check engine' lamp is lighted only when a trouble code has been set. 'Engine maintence required' lamp is lighted for scheduled maintence items such as the oxygen sensor. If you have only one lamp, then it has to do both duties described above. So if this lamp is dark, it implies no trouble has been detected or no maintence required. So, no light means no problem detected. Maybe I did not understand the question. If you referring to the checkout routine the engine controller goes throguh when the key is first turned on and all the critical lamps are lighted momentarily as a check, if the 'check engine' lamp does not come on momentarily, this signals a problem in its circuit, and yes, the car can not be inspected. The problem could be something as simple as the lamp is burned out.

sparkplugs? caddy with northstar. did headgaskets 2yrs ago. put in single tip platinum autolites. not ac-delco dbl platinum's. so i put them in and miss is 90% gone. not perfect but close to it. old plugs were gray and dry. don't think it is injector related.