Hey guys, I just bought a 1999 cobra about a week ago for 4000, which is a pretty decent price. It has 163k on the chassis and the motor was rebuilt and has about 60k on it. It's completely stock. Of course with a car that cheap its gonna have some problems.
1. ABS light is on and I'm not really sure how to get rid of it.
2. Sometimes the odometer just dies out while driving and reappear when it feels like. Sometimes it won't even come back at all.
3. When I start it up it shoots out some gray smoke out of the exhausts
4. This didn't start up until this afternoon, but when I'm idling, I lose all oil pressure but it goes back up when i give it a little gas.
5. The idle is almost never steady
****ALSO i forgot to add, when I tried to punch it, the cars seems like it stops pushing around 4500 rpm + and makes this higher pitched engine rev. IT's hard to describe, but it doesn't sound good.
And when I'm driving and get to a stop, the idle lie to stick up really high like 1500 rpm, and slowly dies down.
What I have done to it so far is clean the air filter and change every single fuse, they were all burnt out
First, did you get a car-fax when you purchased the car?
1) inspect brakes.
-ensure sensors are installed properly (perhaps previous owner hit a light pole and never replaced a smashed sensor during repair)
-does the car have H.I.D. headlights (the funny blue/pink/green colored bulbs?) -- if so, unplug them and see if this removes the ABS light. If so, relocate the ballasts on the HID kit further away from the wheels
-is your fluid low/high?
-did the previous owner install different axles? anything done to the rear-end of the car?
2) does the odometer stop with the speedo? or does one work (speedo) and the other doesnt (odo)?
-this is probably related to the ABS light. inspect the ABS sensors as well as the ring-gear on the spindles (front) and axles (rear) to ensure they are not missing or damaged.
3) is it gray? or white? or blue? it could be burning water. check your oil and coolant over flow tank. do either one of them look like chocolate milk-shake? if they recently did a "upper engine rebuild" they may have installed the headgaskets improperly. Does it do it when driving?
4) as everyone else said - get a real oil pressure gauge on there. the OEM isnt known for being good for anything. lol.
5) replace your intake air control module. it will take 5 minutes and rule out immediately.
6) this doesnt sound good. could be a worn chain tensioner (if they did the upper-engine rebuild, they may have re-used the old ones -- big no-no) or something going wrong in the transmission/diffy. where is the sound coming from? can we get a video of it?
7) replace your IAC (#5) and we can go from there.
8) if ALL your fuses were blown -- we've got big issues. there's something massively wrong with the electrical system of the car. are you exaggerating, or was every fuse really blown? the car wouldnt operate in any way if every fuse was blown.
- take the car to pep-boys (or wherever) and have them test your battery, your alternator and the charging system.
- clean the battery terminals
- inspect your serpentine belt while you're there (stretched belt can reduce the efficiency of the alternator. although this isnt what I think is wrong with your car, check it anyways.)
- inspect the grounds on the car. There's one for the battery (you can follow it from the battery terminal to the body/frame) and theres one for the engine (on my 1996 mustang it was on the drivers side frame, under the car going to an engine mount.)
Things you should do so we can help you:
#1) change the oil.
- is there glitter in it? if so, bad news - this explains the low pressure and the probably the funny rev sound. You've more than likely spun a main bearing. once the bearings are dis-aligned oil flow can be compensated and can cause gauges to read all sorts of strange things (mine read very low at idle, very high at driving). if oil flow is compensated it can change the flow at the top of the engine as well, eating through your cams (which is what i would assume your strange sound is.)
#2) once your oil is changed, replace your IAC (#5 and #7)
- this is a small device on your intake system. It allows the engine to breath air in during idle while the throttle plate is closed. it is *not serviceable* - you can't clean the old one. You have to get a new one.
- this is kind of pricey (~$50.00) but if it fixes the issues, its better than slapping on a home-made band-aid that will only mask the problems with your idle.
#3) clean your MAF and IAT sensors. You can get a can of CNC MAF Cleaner from your local pep-boys (or whatever) for like $4.99.... use this can on both your MAF and your IAT (intake air temperature) sensors. (the IAT sensor is in the inatek pipe after the MAF and before the throttle body.)
#4) inspect your spark plugs -- take pictures so we can look at them. this will tell us if youre running rich/lean/burning water or oil/ etc.
#5) let us know if you have an off-road exhaust (one without cats) or if your cats were gutted/removed.
