Bought this machine a month ago for $900, 12 blocks away the engine coughs and dies. Turns out the pin connecting the timing gear to the crankshaft sheared off. Severe damage to valves in head. $1600 later, all's well.
Recently, noticed small difficulty in starting, and had tried to use keys my wife bought at the hardware store and got the P0503 error, which is wrong key We needed programable keys from the dealership, which wanted to charge $81 per key and $45 programming fee. I passed and am still using the key I got from the seller.
Now, over the past 3 or 4 days, I have noticed sporadic coughs and hiccups from the engine, which I was ascribing to bad gasoline from a Safeway gas station which had extreme poor draw rate, indicating I was drawing from the bottom of the station's holding tank. The draw was so slow, the gas spilled down the side of my car because the automatic nozzle shut off was not invoked.
So the coughs I was hoping were just water or some other pollutant which had gotten into my tank. Then I noticed that the dashboard lights would flash very briefly, the headlights were dimming and going brighter, and stalls would happen when stopped, or, especially every single time I put it in reverse.
I could restart every time, so I kept thinking it was just gas pollution.
Now, I arrive home, and, while backing up into a parking space, experience the same stalling problem with this important difference: the dashboard goes dark, and I cannot get any juice to restart the car. I ask my wife to get in the driver's seat so I can push it all the way into the space, and when she opens her door suddenly the lights go back on and everything is alive again. I get back in, turn the ignition and BOOM! All dark once again.
It should also be noted that today before the Main Event above, I had been driving around the city and on the freeway. Once while going around 60 mph, the engine coughed violently, but seemed to restart itself due to the velocity of the rpm. I was hoping this was gas related ... but ???
Bought this machine a month ago for $900, 12 blocks away the engine coughs and dies. Turns out the pin connecting the timing gear to the crankshaft sheared off. Severe damage to valves in head. $1600 later, all's well.
Recently, noticed small difficulty in starting, and had tried to use keys my wife bought at the hardware store and got the P0503 error, which is wrong key We needed programable keys from the dealership, which wanted to charge $81 per key and $45 programming fee. I passed and am still using the key I got from the seller.
Now, over the past 3 or 4 days, I have noticed sporadic coughs and hiccups from the engine, which I was ascribing to bad gasoline from a Safeway gas station which had extreme poor draw rate, indicating I was drawing from the bottom of the station's holding tank. The draw was so slow, the gas spilled down the side of my car because the automatic nozzle shut off was not invoked.
So the coughs I was hoping were just water or some other pollutant which had gotten into my tank. Then I noticed that the dashboard lights would flash very briefly, the headlights were dimming and going brighter, and stalls would happen when stopped, or, especially every single time I put it in reverse.
I could restart every time, so I kept thinking it was just gas pollution.
Now, I arrive home, and, while backing up into a parking space, experience the same stalling problem with this important difference: the dashboard goes dark, and I cannot get any juice to restart the car. I ask my wife to get in the driver's seat so I can push it all the way into the space, and when she opens her door suddenly the lights go back on and everything is alive again. I get back in, turn the ignition and BOOM! All dark once again.
It should also be noted that today before the Main Event above, I had been driving around the city and on the freeway. Once while going around 60 mph, the engine coughed violently, but seemed to restart itself due to the velocity of the rpm. I was hoping this was gas related ... but ???
Anyone have any ideas??
- jasperh, New Haven, CT, US