ldkenned

This message board was very helpful when I had a previous problem, so I'll voice my recent problems: 1) I thought I was going to have a new car by now (of course the money situation hasnt worked out that way), so when I went to replace the tires, I got used ones for cheap, re-used the valve stems and put the tires on the rims myself at the local DIY shop. Now a couple of them have been going flat periodically. Specifically the rear left tire will go, overnight, from looking full to completely flat, rim sitting on the ground. I made a note of which way my tire was facing when it happened the last time so I try to have the other side up when I park. I dunno if that matters. I tried putting soap and water in a spray bottle, spraying them and looking for bubbles but didn't see any. Some people have told me to use fix-a-flat, but I also heard that its bad for your tires and I would like it to last as long as possible. Questions: a) Is fix-a-flat bad for your tires? How long does it last? c) Any other suggestions besides fix-a-flat? If fix-a-flat is just good for like a month I'm just gonna get new tires cause I hope to keep this car another year. 2) If I turn the car on and really quickly shift into reverse, I get a loud thud and the car jolts. 3) I think my heater core is going out. The heater core died on my previous car (91 legacy) and the symptoms were water dripping into the passenger side carpet, that weird smell, the windshield would fog up right at the windshield vents, and the car would overheat. Right now in my 98 all I'm getting is that musty smell. Questions: a) Is it probably the heater core again? Are there any preventative actions I can take to prolong its life? Thanks a lot for your help.

I did not put ATF in where the oil should go. I put in normal oil. I do have over twice the capacity in there, but it is all 10W-30.

Yea the dipstick was annoyingly difficult to read, the getting down to it was a pain. I filled it yesterday afternoon and had to wait until the night for it all to flow down in there before I got a good reading. When I checked it last night (with the car warmed up) it was showing at the low cold level, so I added a little less than a qt. I will check after work today and see where the level is now.

The trans fluid is full to its normal level now, I made sure of that last night. Now the only problem is the overfull oil. Still shouldnt drive it 2.4 miles?

Autozone is 2.4 miles down the road. Would you say to not even drive that? I will be getting rid of the car within a year, so it's long-term life is not an issue for me. What kind of problems can be causes by driving with too much oil?

Yea thats totally my bad Loyale, I guess I didn't read your posts in detail. I didn't see the part about the different drain plugs. Ok I will get some more transmission fluid today when I drain/replace the oil. You say to drain, drive, repeat. How long should I drive it between drains? An hour? A week? Yea I still have the Haynes manual. I will read it more cloesly next time.:-\

Yea that doesnt seem to make the most sense. Well then I am still having the original problem of the car shuddering when making tight turns. When I put the FWD fuse in, the problem stopped so I think it has something to do with the rear differential? I checked the fluid and it was full. Should I make a new thread about this or continue discussion in here?

I feel stupid. Yes it seems like a I drained the transmission fluid and overfilled the engine oil. Crap. Will be fixing this today.

Had posted previously about another problem, which is hopefully fixed, but I discovered a new problem: A friend and I were changing the oil and when we pulled the drain plug and it came out really fast, as normal. The manual says to put in 4.8 qts, but when we put in less than 4 and checked it, it was waaaay above full. My friend thought he had put too much in, so he went to drain it, but when he pulled the plug again, only slightly more than a trickle came out. In other words, the oil is not getting down into the pan. I have been checking the oil once a day or so since then and every time I check it the dipstick is so wet that it drips oil when I take it out the second time. What could be causing the oil to not get down into the pan?

Thanks again guys. Gonna create a new thread about the oil issue I mentioned: "We also discovered yet another problem last night when changing the oil. We pulled the drain plug and it came out really fast, as normal. The manual says to put in 4.8 qts, but when we put in less than 4 and checked it, it was waaaay above full. He thought he had put too much in, so he went to drain it, but when he pulled the plug again, only slightly more than a trickle came out. In other words, the oil is not getting down into the pan."

Thanks guys! I checked the transmission fluid last night and the dipstick was bone dry. I should have been checking the fluids myself on a routine basis. (I was assuming that the oil change guys were checking everything). I plan to fill it up now, and should I still do the drain/fill cycle that Loyale suggested? We also discovered yet another problem last night when changing the oil. We pulled the drain plug and it came out really fast, as normal. The manual says to put in 4.8 qts, but when we put in less than 4 and checked it, it was waaaay above full. He thought he had put too much in, so he went to drain it, but when he pulled the plug again, only slightly more than a trickle came out. In other words, the oil is not getting down into the pan. I assume this means some of the oil orifices somewhere are plugged up with who knows what? Suggestions? Thanks again!

Forgot to check this over the weekend! A mechanic friend of mine checked it out and he suggested putting the fuse in to make it FWD. This fixed the problem (temporarily at least). He thinks its a problem with the rear differential, where the two plates don't slide over each other smoothly anymore, especially in tight turns where one wheel wants to turn a lot more than the other. It could be as simple as the diff fluid being low. I will be checking the fluid level tonight. I would have done it earlier, but I broke my socket wrench replacing the CV axles. Is it bad to drive the car in FWD for long periods of time? I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere in the owners manual or the Haynes manual.

Wanted to get some opinions from you guys on what could be wrong. When I turn, the car shudders and makes some squeaky-type noises. I replaced the CV axles about a year ago, so i am pretty sure those are ok. Me and my friend (who knows more about car repair than I do) took off the outer tie rods last night. The boots on the inner rods are completely cracked, and the outer boots aren't much better. Would replacing the tie rods fix the shuddering problem? Would I need to replace both the inner and outer or just one? Could it be something else?