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Car troubles...
Disrupter
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all, I know nothing of cars, but I am having some issues.
The car itself is a 2000 Buick Century. It has like 190k miles on it. It had a new engine around 100k.
For a long time the car itself had no issues. Though a few years ago I had scary incicdents where it just shut off in the middle of the highway, it did this roughly 3 times in a 2 year period and hasnt done it since.
Lately though, I switched to a job where im driving like almost 100 miles a day, and she seems to be having some increasing problems.
The first is, she doesnt always start anymore. Sometimes it will take a few tries to get it going. I am not a car expert, but it sounds like its about to turn over and then sort of hiccups and sputters.
This is getting worse. Today, I drove to subway fine at lunch, hopped back in my car, and then trying to drive back to work it took like 10 minutes to get it started (i ate my lunch and called my lady to talk about how my car was most likely dead...)
Issue two, hiccups. My car is an automatic. When I am driving it sometimes hiccups. I believe it is doing this when changing gears as it seems like the RPM gets really high, it starts shaking for a a moment and then it sort of hiccups and everything is cool. This has only happened a dozen or so times in the last year as far as I can tell.
Another issue is that, starting on monday, the car seems shakey. When I am on the highway, the floor is trembling. I also hear a thud-thud-thud, which at first sounded like a flat tire, but I checked and I do not have a flat.
Ive noticed, the shaking seems to be a common theme. When it DOES start after having issues, it seems to shake and do that hiccup thing when it eventually goes.
Any idea whats happening?
One thing I could be at fault for is, since starting my new job I havent gotten an oil change. Its a good bunch of miles over the next schedule. I just havent been used to driving so much. I plan on getting one this saturday.
The car itself is a 2000 Buick Century. It has like 190k miles on it. It had a new engine around 100k.
For a long time the car itself had no issues. Though a few years ago I had scary incicdents where it just shut off in the middle of the highway, it did this roughly 3 times in a 2 year period and hasnt done it since.
Lately though, I switched to a job where im driving like almost 100 miles a day, and she seems to be having some increasing problems.
The first is, she doesnt always start anymore. Sometimes it will take a few tries to get it going. I am not a car expert, but it sounds like its about to turn over and then sort of hiccups and sputters.
This is getting worse. Today, I drove to subway fine at lunch, hopped back in my car, and then trying to drive back to work it took like 10 minutes to get it started (i ate my lunch and called my lady to talk about how my car was most likely dead...)
Issue two, hiccups. My car is an automatic. When I am driving it sometimes hiccups. I believe it is doing this when changing gears as it seems like the RPM gets really high, it starts shaking for a a moment and then it sort of hiccups and everything is cool. This has only happened a dozen or so times in the last year as far as I can tell.
Another issue is that, starting on monday, the car seems shakey. When I am on the highway, the floor is trembling. I also hear a thud-thud-thud, which at first sounded like a flat tire, but I checked and I do not have a flat.
Ive noticed, the shaking seems to be a common theme. When it DOES start after having issues, it seems to shake and do that hiccup thing when it eventually goes.
Any idea whats happening?
One thing I could be at fault for is, since starting my new job I havent gotten an oil change. Its a good bunch of miles over the next schedule. I just havent been used to driving so much. I plan on getting one this saturday.
Disrupter on
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Hiccuping: Have you checked your transmission fluid lately? If that gets low, it will have trouble shifting at the right times, and you get ragged shifts and high revs in weird places.
The Shaking is probably in the wheels or suspension. One of your tires could be out of balance, or you could have a CV-joint or some other piece of your suspension broken. Any place that sells tires can check your balance and alignment.
Are you looking to fix these yourself? Do you have money to take it to a mechanic for a lookover? A lot of times you can take it to a private mechanic (IOW, not the dealership) and let them know you want to squeeze the life out of the car. As in, you want to know what all needs fixed, but you will only spend a certain amount to keep it on the road and will let the cosmetic/convenience things slide.
I checked my transmission fluid yesterday. Seemed fine.
Also, I am not sure if its turning over. Like im not even sure what that means. But the feeling I get is almost like it gets to the top of a mountain and then slides back down. And when it finally does start, it gets over that top. So I assume it ISNT turning over...
It also seems to never have the starting issue after spending the night in my garage.
As for my plans.
Well first i plan on getting an oil change on saturday.
Then, I am buying a house, so I am not supposed to make any major purchases until after we close. Which is April 9th. So I would likely want to bring it in the next weekend to see what we can do to save it.
Though, with my new drive it may not be too costly to buy a new, fuel efficient car since Im spending boat-loads on gas right now.
Like I said, I dunno crap about cars. Would they do that as part of an oil change? Can I do it myself? Can I switch to fuel which needs not to be filtered? (joking...on the last one...i think.)
do the hiccups and shaking sound louder/harder when you accelerate fast?
Turning over mean when you turn your key it sounds like the car will start.
the reving during gear change probably means that the transmission is going and there's nothing you can do about it short of spending tons of money.
FYI fuel filters can be stupidly easy or stupidly hard, some are under the hood some are on top of your fuel tank between the body and your tank, meaning you have to drop the tank. Some can be done with a wrench others will need special tools, they often use "quick connect fittings" which are stupidly hard to get apart sometimes.
Something to ponder as well, most of your issues are not simple things, your looking at possible transmission, among other engine issues not to mention possible tire/wheel issues. 190k, you many consider a used car off craigslist may be cheaper than the repairs.
The starter could be getting old if the chugga chugga noise doesn't seem to happen as fast. This isn't gonna cause the other issues though. Some of the fuel air mixture sensors are probably messed up.
but they're listening to every word I say
As a 25 year old male...I am quite babied by my parents. I flat out told him not to do anything and that I would handle it. Within the hour he came downstairs talking about how he called his mechanic...
Oh well, Ill likely learn how to deal with things like this on my own in the next year or so....
For frame of reference, how much would a replacement catalytic converter run me? Google seems to say anywhere betwen 250-1200...
I know if the tranny is bad, its probably not worth replacing on a car in this shape. But thats about all I know.
And yes, it goes chugga chugga, so it is turning over, its just not starting. It goes chugga chugga pretty quickly too.