nipper

how many miles on this car? nipper

a car this old you can have a clogged radiator, i dont think you have a HG problem. It sounds like the previous owner was trying to find this problem himself, and totally overlooked a clogged (or as i have found, all the cooling fins gone) radiator. nipper

clogged cat would be all the time at the same rpm, he says once the car downshifts it goes. A clogged cat acts a s a restriction and would also do it on level ground. If the tranny has never been serviced, it should be done. i still think its a igniton/fuel issue, nothing with starvation, more of a sensor issue. If it was fuel starvation he would have the reverse problem, as the revs increased, the demand for fuel increases. Since it does go once it downshifts, that can be ruled out. nipper

i agree for 700.00 a private shop can do timing belt, oil seals, oil pump seals, water pump, tensioner (maybe). Also what he said about the tuneup nipper

Thumb through this http://auto.howstuffworks.com/clutch.htm its a few pages in but its a great explination nipper

Any noise that is there when the pedal is depressed, and goes away when not is usually the throw out bearing. SInce it happens rarely i wouldnt worry about it untill its happens all the time, unless the car is under warrenty. nipper

Can you see if the peices are aluminum or steel. DO get an anlysis. The oil filter should have traped these unless you have a bearing in the process of going south. What brand filter do you use, how often do you change oil (and kind). Has the car ever overheated? and DO a wet/dry compression test first. What you may think is a bad vlave may be a bad piston ring or worse. nipper

There are circumstances where the ABS will come on when you think it shouldnt, but its working fine. Braking and hitting a pothole is usually when it will do that. Also since you cant see whats under that particular tire, i wouldn't second guess it that much. Ocasional abs light, does it happen on wet roads or in the rain, or when its very humid outside. It could be as simple as a dirty ABS sensor, there is one on each wheel. nipper

Research here on torque bind, you will learn why tires matching are VERY important on any awd vehical. The rough idle is not tranny related, it's engine related, i'll let somone else chime in on that, as thats my weak spot. you need to take the car to an autozone and have them pull the codes, then share with us what the codes are. nipper

Flush the tranny just because. If the only thing your getting is a misfire code and nothing else, can be a sticky fuel injector, bad ignition cable, or a cracked coil tower. nipper

i'll loan you my nerf bat nipper

hehehe but i LIKE the nerf bat, better then my wooden cane nipper

its easy if you have real long fingers aith s joints and an arm with 4 shoulder joints be careful and watch out about making a blood sacrifice to the mechanic gods nipper

im getting the nerf bat back out. There is nothing to clean with the knock sensor, like cookie said it works or it doesnt. The reset wont rid you of codes if the source of the codes is always there. nipper

Most tranny problems are actually engine related. When was the last time the car got a tune up? Didi you notice a puff of black smoke out of the car during this scenario?

OK engine 101. All cars knock (ping is actually a better description) because they run very lean for best emissions and performance. What the knock sensor does is "listen" to the pinging. The sensor itself is a piezo-qaurtz semsor that emits an AC signal to the ECU. The ECU adjusts the engine timing so the pinging is kept under control. All this is done before you can even hear it (sometimes engines just ping, annoying but harmless). You really need to learn to trust the people on the board. Its real simple,the computer is teling you its get no signal from the knock sensor. the knock sensor under nornmal circumstannces is always puting out a signal, and the ecu determins if it needs to do something or not. These things dont get better they get worse. Physically inspect the sensor to make sure its not cracked. Check the connection to the sensor and make sure the sensor is not shorted to ground. nipper You need the sensor. Replace it and be happy.

Can you try this by shifting manually? When was the last time the fluid was changed? nipper

Sounds like a blend motor with a broken gear, and heat itself is just a cable. nipper

On this list this is not considered a problem. This is why when you change a timing belt, you replace the cam seals, the main seal, and reseal the oil pump. you also replce the waterpump. If you have a short cycle belt (60, 000 miles) you do it every other timing belt change, if you have one thats over 80,000 miles change interval or more, you do it with every belt change. This is just preventative maintanence as the car WILL leak between timing belt changes. As cars get older they will leak, just with the soby payout and the placement of the exhaust pipes, it can become very annoying. If you are looking to buy a used one, make sure all the tires match (especially on a manual), and there is no vibration from the middle of the car, and if an auto make sure the tranny fluid is not brown or burned. nipper

I'm going to bet its the VSS. This will also kill your AWD too. There is probably nmothing wrong with the spedo itself. pull the codes first. nipper

ignitors can be finiky, they are fine when cold, but as they heat up they fail. some sooner then others. They can also degrade with heat, so that test really wont show anything since the car does start initially. nipper

Defreost is the default position when something breaks in the hvac system. I agree with whats been said, the blend door. nipper

Its one of several things, only one you have control over. Do a tranny service (thats the one) as there may be gum in the tranny. Otherwise its the front pump or the rubber parts in the valve body/tranny are going bad. nipper

opps posted twice.. ignore this .. the nerf bat got away from me nipper

Yes (and worse) and yes, thats a hard reset. The computer will take about 3 weeks to learn your driving habits again nipper