Clutchbob

Nails!!!!???? So close to the tires?? I hope I never happen to be following you guys with nails falling off your cars!! I have the rattles, too. The screw into the heat shield is a great idea, maybe put a spacer on the top side. Gonna give it a shot.

I had a bad speed sensor, replaced w/ used and had autozone reset the cel. All's well.

My speed sensor is on passenger side top of transmission. There is a buffer circuit in the instrument cluster, signal is processed here before going to ECU. Speed sensor- $100 new. $50 used

I have a 98 OB manual. When cold, it has a ticking sound, kinda like a miniature ping pong ball being shaken back and forth in a cigar tube. It doesn't sound metallic at all. It goes away when warm. Is this piston slap?

I had it diagnosed today. It's the electronic speed sensor, and because the ECU uses it to set conditions, performance suffers.

I have an 98 OB manual. The first thing I noticed was that my speedometer stopped working. A while later, at low rpms between gears, the engine stalled (she starts right up, afterwards). Then the CEL came on. As I was pulling into my driveway, the engine seemed to be misfiring or starved for fuel. I went out again and everything seemed to be fine, but when I let the rpms go down, she'd stall on occasion. I see that the ECU uses info from the speed sensor. Additionally, there's a buffer circuit between the two. I havent checked the code, yet. Am I on the right track?

Unless it has new head gaskets, get a service contract to cover them. Check out the H/G discussions.

I just started having the same problem With my 98 OB manual. In addition, my speedo stopped working. Could they be related? Gonna check the CEL code tommorrow.

Original head gaskets?

Good luck and have fun. I was lucky enough to not have to pay for the work. I regret that anyone would lose money on this. That said, I really like my OB and feel more confident about the engine, having been inspected and overhauled to a point.

Good info here; http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200005/200005.htm I had the black-brown goo forming inside my recovery tank that Cookie describes. My engine never boiled over that I know of (I had just bought it used), it just "puked" coolant out of my recovery tank and my temp gauge spiked. I couldn't detect the smell of exhaust, but had the bubbles after an extended drive.

The 97 OB had a 2.2 also? 1997 was the first year 2.5 DOHC.

It's the CV JOINTS that make noise when they go. You wouldn't have an audible indication if the boots that cover and hold the CV Joint grease were bad until the lack of lubrication damaged the CV joints. A spinning axle will fling joint grease out of a tear in the CV boot.

Your thermostat may be air locked. If exhaust is getting into your coolant system (or system is not bled properly), the air pockets that form aren't hot enough to trigger the thermostat. Gasses pass more readily than fluids. In the typical early 2.5 head gasket failures, exhaust gas enters the cooling system, and you can see bubbles in the expansion tank. The breach can be very small and won't even fail until the engine reaches a certain temp. when parts expand.

I've been through this. Two weeks after buying (98 O/B), I saw the symptoms. My head gaskets were replaced (dealer warranty) at 90,000 mls. I had bubbles whether the engine was running or not, but always after a lengthy drive. It wouldn't always overheat either.It may have been this way for a long time, as it ran great, but a thick black goo had formed inside the expansion tank. I believe the sniffer is similar to the CO2 tester they use for emmissions. Steved, if you didn't go out of time, you did no valve damage, but it certainly sounds like you got "headgasketitis". With new gaskets, your car will be good for another 100,000+, is that worth $1200? Check earlier posts, you'll find good info.