lovemyp-car

Started out tucked away from the snow in our *garage* At the beginning of last week most of the snow was gone...so i pulled it out and tried working on it. Got an obdII code reader and hooked it up...ran it until it died and wouldn't start, then linked up and read the codes.

I got a bad optispark (distributor) code, which was exactly what i DIDN'T want to hear...they run around 500 bucks new...so i decided to take a look around locally to see if i could find one used. I ran up to Crazy Rays in Jessup, MD and after 2 hours of searching i found a car with an opti...but i didn't have all of the right tools to get it off. I came back early the next morning and grabbed it off of there...for a steal too! $24 for a perfectly good opti (i hoped).

So i took it over to my buddy's shop, put it up on jack stands, tore it down, and replaced that opti. I even scared the hell out of myself in the process. The first time i put the new opti on, i didn't line it up quite right, so it wouldn't fire...then i caught my mistake, fixed it, and she started right up on the first crank.

I had also bought a new fuel filter, figuring that i'd had this car for two years now and i personally had not replaced the filter, so i figured it should have it done anyway. I put the engine back together, and then lifted the rear of the car to replace the filter. When i finally got it off it dumped nasty, brown juice into the catch bucket i had underneath. I looked at the date on the filter...it was dated 1997!!!

So the moral of the story is...if something goes wrong...it's the opti, and REPLACE YOUR FUEL FILTER!!! When i got the filter on and started the car, the idle was much smoother initially and the car was MUCH happier!

DO IT!!!
Ethan Cooper

p.s. pics for your trouble! (and of my trouble...haha)