Peakster's Geo Thread
 

Attachment 428

My car has made an unexpected early arrival at the mechanic shop. I drove to school this morning with my usual driving techniques (high throttle loads at low rpm) and everything was fine.

An hour later after my class I got into my car to drive home when I immediately noticed that the Geo had extremely sluggish acceleration. If I let up on the gas it was fine, but unless I was doing 10% throttle loads the engine would simply misfire and it occasionally stalled when stopped at traffic lights, etc.

My "service engine soon" light blinked and I managed to use the almighty Scangauge to find the trouble code: P0303. According to my mechanic it means 'misfire on cylinder 3' so it could be anything really. In the end I parked the Geo in the shop parking lot (I had made an appointment for Thursday anyway for oil leaks).

The only other vehicular option I have right now is to drive my dad's '95 Silverado truck:

Attachment 172 :(

It would probably get 9 mpg at this time of year (to make it worse, it's not compatible with the SGII). I'll most likely just wake up earlier and carpool with my dad and sister to university the next couple of days. It would be nice if I could see a FE improvement after the Geo is fixed.

Misfire #3
 

I'm not by any means a mechanic, but I had this happen in a controlled situation.

When I did the cylinder deactivation experiment, I essentially disconnect power to the injectors via a switch and wiring to each of the 2 injectors, leaving the other 2 alone. During operation, I got the same SG code for each cylinder (as they weren't operational).

I'm going to venture a guess that the #3 fuel injector or related wiring is fouled/failing.

At any rate, sorry about the breakdown -- it's always a pain :(

Regarding the truck, my folks old '92 Carbed 5.7L Chevy Extended Cab, Long-Bed 4X4 with the 4.11 rear-end was lucky to get in the double digits any day of the year. I'm thinking with the right driver, you could get in the low-to-mid teens with the '95 (US MPG). Good luck with the Geo and the truck!

RH77

The Suzukiclone G10 3-cyl has throttle body injection, so I doubt it's fuel related. Kind of points to an ignition component (plug wire, plug, distributor cap). That's my guess!

3 people carpooling in a 9mpg truck = 27 mpg effectively, so it's not so bad. ;)

I just went back to the shop to collect my parking ID in the Geo for use in the truck. The mechanic already had the Geo in a bay and said that the distributor was wet (which made sense since I washed my car & engine bay yesterday). He said he was going to replace the spark plugs anyway because they were corroded.

On the bright side, he tested the compression and only cylinder #2 is lower than 100% (he said around 90%). Not bad for a car with over 150,000 miles. He also said that the car should be ready (oil leak fixed and all) by tomorrow morning.

My dad always uses the Chrysler for commuting in and out of town. The truck is only used in those rare times of towing or hauling... or in my case when the Geo konks out :rolleyes: .

I had the original wires and plugs in my Geo to the end and had a lot of "fun" when the weather was damp (being near the Ocean) the wires would spark a lot through the insulation and give that engine misfire feeling when trying to accelerate until they would dry out. Lots of WD40 would help.

The middle cylinder low compression may be from the misfire washing away some of the lube on the cylinder and it may come back up once you run it some more.

Except it was the #3 cyl that was misfiring.

The middle cylinder compression difference is more likely an exhaust valve issue. It seems to be a problem with these engines, possibly related to clogged EGR passages causing that cylinder to run hotter than the others, affecting the valve.

Search EGR at teamswift.net for more info.

Good diagnosis
 

Good diagnosis Metro. I wonder what sensor, exactly, differentiates the the misfire in 1, 2, or 3. That would help determine the cause. I think the simple solution is the wet distributor.

Since I'm really learning about different engines, does the G10 port injection have one injector that feeds the entire manifold?

RH77

I got the Geo back today and the car is all good now. Oil leaks are fixed, new plugs, and timing belt were installed. The mechanic said the timing was a bit off too.

No more driving the nasty truck!

Glad to hear.

Where was the oil leaking?

The cam/crank and the distributor seal, according to my invoice.

1st Speeding Ticket: "did it make you feel special to pull over a 50hp car?"
 

So yeah, I got my very first speeding ticket on Saturday:

Attachment 191

I was driving on highway 46 near the Regina oil refinery heading out of town when suddenly I hear a loud police siren behind me. I've never pulled over so fast in my life as the Dodge Charger patrol unit freaked the living crap out of me. The Charger passed me in a hurry and pulled over a big Chevy truck in the distance. When I approached the stopped vehicles, the officer flagged me to pull over too.

The officer said "you guys were doing 80 (km/h) back there" and hurried to his cruiser to write us both tickets. I really don't think I was going as fast as the truck, but nonetheless I was probably doing 70km/h (it was a 50km/h zone).

I just think it's ironic that of all the sporty/high performance vehicles I've owned, I got a ticket in a lousy 3 cylinder car :rolleyes:.

Bummer. Can you take defensive driving so it will come off the record in Canada?
Also why is the speed limit on a highway 50km/h? Did you explain to him that unless you are going a minimum of 70km/h the cabin temperature will plumet to 20 degrees. :D

Oh, believe me. The officer's total verbal transaction with me lasted only about 7 seconds so there was no way I was getting out of it. I mean he just caught 2 drivers in one shot, how lucky is that for him?

Yeah I know, 50km/h is pretty darn slow considering how little traffic uses that corridor. Then again, the 8 lane Trans Canada Highway leaving the city from the east was 50km/h for years before they finally raised it to 70km/h.

I don't think speeding tickets affect driving records in Saskatchewan because my dad uses the same government insurance agency and he's had his fair share of tickets in the recent past. The insurance costs for his vehicles aren't affected. I think only criminal offenses while driving are counted.

On my car, it cuts one injector at a time and looks for the one that does not affect the engine. That tells which cylinder is misfiring, or not firing at all. I'd imagine yours would work somewhatly the same, except using ignition instead of fuel?

Peakster's Grille Block: BUSTED!
 

That's right. Turns out there's no aerodynamic benefit to my grille block whatsoever.

Attachment 258

Date: March 11th, 2007. ~1:00am
Speed: 45mph with cruise
Temperature: -1*C, winds @ 13km/h coming from the south
Drove the same route as the previous "mirror removal test".

Grille Block on: 58.3 mpg
Grille Block off: 58.4 mpg

Perhaps a block that's flush with the bumper exterior would be more effective?

Interesting with the GEO. Was that several runs or just one run comparing numbers. Even if there is no aero effect you still have to consider warmup and maintaining heat which will increase FE.

I'm not really surprised that the effect was harder to measure on your car compared to mine:

https://metrompg.com/posts/photos/grille-comparo.jpg

The '95-97 Metro (left) had a more streamlined front treatment. Compare to the restyled '98-00 bumper, which has 50-100% more area in its grille openings - a better opportunity for improvement.

Still, like Z says, I'd leave it blocked if you can for the warmup & heat retention reasons.

It was only 2 runs (A-B) one right after the other. Since the car was completely warmed up and both trips were nearly identical, I didn't think it to be necessary to try it with the block on again. Since my grille block wasn't flush with the bumper, the large space was maybe acting like a parachute. I plan to make a new block that fills this space soon (and test it out, formally).

Actually, I had the opposite problem.

Replacement wires on The Green Clam would arc to the head bolts in the wet, the 12 year old factory Sumitomos did not. So back on they went.

A can of WD40 was under the seat until the day I sold the car. Old trick from Saab V4 days.

I'd have to agree with this theory, time to test it!

I got the regular all-season tires installed on the Geo today. 45 psi for each tire.
Attachment 261
The person working at Canadian Tire also said that my passenger-side lower-front ball joint is getting loose and gave me some big horror story of my wheel flying off on the highway (before quoting it a $230+ fix). I've driven some pretty sketchy cars in my past and never once had a wheel fly off on me. I told him that I'd get my personal mechanic to look into it.

The all-season tires stick to the dry pavement like bubblegum now, I love the handling.

Bustin' Joints
 

The CT guy may have made it more dramatic than he should have...

...but I'd have your personal mechanic look at it. If the Ball Joint busts loose at speed, the wheel generally doesn't fly off the car (depending on the design), but rather rips away from the tie rod and embeds itself upward. I've seen this on a RWD car (a Merc. Grand Marquis with 160K miles) -- it happened while backing up and it just popped and turned that wheel wherever it wanted to go (independent of the other). It's no picnic if you're moving faster than 5mph.

RH77

I'd imagine it would have to be pretty severely worn (ie you'd be hearing clunks & rattles over bumps) before it would break. That said, have someone check it.

The bad thing about these cars is you have to replace the entire lower control arm - the ball joint is integral to it.


Something to consider is your alignment will get further off as the joint wears out with implications for rolling resistance and tire wear.

only 32 mpg @ 70mph
 

Ever since Canadian Tire put my all-season treads back on my car, the rear axle has been making a weird grinding noise at speeds above 25mph. Also my acceleration and coasting seems held back. So I jacked up the Geo tonight and found that 2 of my wheels don't really roll freely in neutral.

I took my dad out for a drive and he says that my car simply is getting worn and old (253,000km on it now). Usually wheel bearings squeak when they're worn so who knows what's wrong. I'll eventually take my car into the mechanic again to get him to look at it.

By the way, my dad told me that I was shifting too soon while we went for a drive :p. He said that I should be shifting at around 4000 RPM :eek:! I demonstrated that the engine was screaming at 2500 RPM in 3rd gear @ 30 mph and he said "Oh that's nothing". Talk about a FE buster!

Edit: My personal mechanic has rediculous waiting times so I made an appointment for the morning of the 21st at the Chevy dealership here in town. It will probably be a little more expensive and I just know they'll have a huge list of other things 'wrong' with my car, but at least it will be quicker. I'll make sure I don't get suckered into anything more than fixing the grinding noise (hey, the car runs and drives. What more do you expect for something with 157K miles on it).

With the car going into the shop tomorrow, I want to see if the fix will have an effect on my FE. So I slapped together a highway test today (with the grinding noise coming from the back axle):

Temperature: 7*C
Winds: SE @ 11km/h
Direction: Driving West to Moose Jaw SK.
Cruise control for 2 miles at each speed.

35mph: 71.0 mpg
40mph: 64.6 mpg
45mph: 65.3 mpg
50mph: 60.7 mpg
55mph: 53.6 mpg
60mph: 43.9 mpg

Hopefully those numbers rise after the problem is remedied. Only 43.9 mpg @ 60 mph is pretty sad.

Wheel bearings are replaced. Here's the FE outcome:

Temperature: 2*C
Winds: SE @ 13km/h
Direction: Driving West to Moose Jaw SK.
Cruise control for 2 miles at each speed.

35mph: 77.4 mpg
40mph: 64.9 mpg
45mph: 63.0 mpg
50mph: 59.4 mpg
55mph: 54.6 mpg
60mph: 51.3 mpg

Some numbers went down a bit (maybe due to cooler temperatures?) but the 35mph and the 60mph speeds had a good increase in FE after the repair.

I had some fun today teaching my friend how to drive my car (she had never driven a manual transmission car before). I like passing the Geo vibe to other people :).

Here's the video of her learning in the the cemetery and in city traffic.

Ooh i remember trying to teach my ex-gf how to drive our 5 speed Nissan Sentra. She killed it about 5 times, when she finally got it going i told her to try second, so she rammed the gear shifter down with out the clutch :S :S :S

Finally did a quasi-permanent exterior mirror removal on my car:
Attachment 323Attachment 324
I did what Basjoos did and velcro'ed a driverging mirror to the door. To remedy the blind spots I have a huge diverging rear-view mirror too:
Attachment 325Attachment 326
Mirrorless!
Attachment 327
I did this once before but this arrangement is scary in winter when the windows are frosty/snowy. It shall stay this way all through summer now. I double checked to make sure this was legal in my province and it appears that it shouldn't be a problem.

Edit: After driving the Geo back to school, I'm amazed of how well this new mirror setup works. Virtually no blind spots. As soon as a vehicle exits view from my rear-view mirror, it pops in sight in the mirror on the door. Also when the vehicle leaves sight on the door mirror, I can already see the front of it in the corner of my eye out my side window. There's virtually no downside to the change.

I'm liking the mirror deletes. I plan to do the same on my CRX but State law requires me to keep my driver's side mirror.

Very shmoooooth.

I waited until winter was over to remove my passenger side mirror. With the snow and frost I need all the visibility possible, but in the spring/summer/fall I don't need as much.

Yeah, that was definitely my thinking.

Just to spite the system, I'd replace your driver side mirror with a 2 inch circular diverging mirror :p. "Look officer, I DO have a driver side mirror".

Nice work, Peakster.

With the delete of my pass. mirror, and folding in the driver's side for highway use, the only thing I don't like is sometimes I check to see what's (far) behind me on a curve, which I used to be able to do with my side mirrors. But that's about it.

One word:

Velcro.

RH77

Look on page 20.

I thought that mirrors were required in my state also but unless you're towing the minimum requirement is rear view mirror. If your comfortable driving without the side mirrors go for it. Remember Safety first. YMMV

I'm apparently lucky to be alive...
 

I was driving back home from university this evening when suddenly my car veered to the the ditch. Desperately trying to steer left I somehow made it to the road again. I stopped and looked at my front tires...

Funny, I thought. My tires aren't blown and the tie rods aren't pooched. What's going on?

I got back into my car and started driving again, but immediately noticed I had NO STEERING! I could litterally give the steering wheel a good spin and it would make about 5 revolutions before settling to a stop.

Attachment 398

Anyways, I flagged down a driver to use his cell phone and called my dad. My dad inspected the car from the road and realized the connection from the steering wheel to the tie rods was broken :eek:! He said that he's NEVER seen that happen to a car in his entire life and said I was lucky that it didn't happen in the parking lot, on the freeway, or pretty much anywhere other than where I was at that point in time (at least with a broken tie rod, usually one tire can be still be steered. In my situation, the tires were completely free to go wherever they wanted).

So looks like I'll be driving the Intrepid again until the Geo is fixed:

Attachment 401

Good Grief!
 

Good Grief, are you OK? Having a coupling break is VERY rare, indeed. Man, good thing you weren't at high speeds...

Wasn't the steering system just inspected by a mechanic???

Metro- Is this a problem other Suzi-Clones have experienced?

Sorry to hear, Peakster. I hope it gets repaired in short order, and cheaply.

-RH77

I don't think the steering system was checked at any time of owning the Geo. The only times it's been to the shop were when I had an oil leak some time ago and when I had worn out wheel bearings a few weeks back.

As for myself. I'm fine. I didn't even know how bad the situation was until someone else pointed it out to me. It's a good thing that it was only a ditch though. Could've been a pole, curb, building, pedestiran, etc. Imagine telling that one to my insurer (not to mention having a crunched up car).

Holy Crap! I've only heard of that happening once - and that was a manual steering box (splines stripped out somehow).

You sir... are very lucky indeed.