Thanks sleepwalker,

I'm going to take it to the big dealership in the city, hopefully they can do what you have said.
I'll let you know what happens.

Should I give them one chance at fixing it, or tell them to stop working on it when the repair goes over $6000?

C

 

it won't reach $6k. $3k at most.

they better inform you first as to which part to replace. they can go ahead with the corrections on adaptation value.

 

OK, I'll let you know the result.

C

 

Oops, I changed my mind.

I don't think I'm going to put another $3000 into it. I would rather put the money into a different car, so I'm going to scrap this one for parts.

The only problem, I don't know what else to get. I went looking today, and didn't see anything I liked... I think I'm going to try renting cars, that way if I don't like it I just turn it in at the end of the month. If I find one I like, I can buy my own.

Hmm,what should I rent?

C

 

Sleepwalker,

You were right. It was the MAF sensor. Why could nobody find that problem?
Maybe you should come here and work for this dealership....

The car runs great like new.

C

 

i just want to interject that whatever dealer messed with your car...they should all be smacked around. chances are if they did look at data values on their scanner, they either breezed right through the MAF reading or didnt pay attention to it at all. its obvious, just so long as you are aware of how the sensor operates, that it is malfunctioning just looking at real time data. sucks that that was all it turned out to be.

 

The Dan,

Thanks for your interest. The car is running better than ever.

Yeah, my confidence in them is somewhat shaken. I wish they could have told me exaclty the condition and got me going. But I'm trying to look at the bright side, which is all marginal components have been replaced, and the entire engine is operating within specs now.

The motor was tricky because so many things were reading right on the very low acceptane level.
Like the fuel regulator, which was supposed to read between 38 and 42 Bars, was checking right at 38, for example. And there was a leaky actuator, which just barely passed the leakdown test. And there was a cracked mount on the intake tube, which could have leaked air. So I understand that all these half broken parts complicate the trouble shooting. But the car basically didn't respond until the MAF was replaced. But "WOW" it runs like new now!

C