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I have a 1997 geo prizm question....the knobs for the climate control broke off.so a friend brought me some misc knobs to put on there.they kept falling off.so another friend thought it would be a good idea to super glue them on.not a good idea.the knobs were froze.upon turning them they busted off with the male part stuck into the knob.the fan is stuck on med-low. will i have to buy a whole other climate control or can this be fixed? thank you
Colette
I checked the spare in the trunk, and made sure it was tightly secured, as well as the jack, but whenever I go over a moderate-sized bump in the road, it seems noisier than the old car. I'm pretty sure it's coming from the back end of the car.
In looking in the trunk, I noticed that there seems to be very little sound barrier between the trunk and the passenger compartment. I was wondering if it would make sense to bolster the barrier between trunk and passenger compartment with some kind of sound-deadening material. The first thing that came to mind was my wife's old yoga mat.
Any ideas?
Put the car on a jack, and try to push up the suspected wheel. Some say if you can lift the wheel up by hand, the suspension mount is worn. Can someone verify this?
What you can do easily is to make sure that it is not the jack or spare tire in the trunk that is making the clunking sound over bumps.
You could go for a test drive with a mechanic and see what he says. If a full replacement of strut assembly is recommended, you can call around and see if anyone will replace only the worn part.
Good luck.
Thanks!
Within the last year and a half I've spent $3600 due to one break down after the other. That doesn't include all the other repairs that it needs that I can't afford. At about 120,000 miles, this car turns to mush. So what it has a toyota engine, it just isn't worth it. If you fix this I guarantee you have a host of other problems just around the corner. If you have't already. This car is a sinking ship.
While I'm all for paid off cars, this is riduculous. I so wish I had traded it six months ago.
I have had this commuter car ever since 11,000 miles but now need to repair or replace the side bolster of the driver side leather seat because of wear (and a tear).
Does any one know a site that I can find a replacement leather (not cloth/cover) seat or a shop that repairs/re-upholsters leather seats?
Thank you very much. Good forum...
Joe
Maintaining Leather Maintenance/repair
Does anyone know where this noise is REALLY coming from???Are there any solutions to solve this obtrusive noise. ?
Thanks in advance
rick
I have priced replacement belts on the Internet and it looks like I can get something for $80 to $90 dollars. None of the Internet sites,however, give any hint whatsoever about removing the door post trim to get at the old seat belt mechanism. And I'm not finding anything helpful using Internet searches either. Is there anyone out there who can give me some tips on how to remove the trim without damaging it? I'm also a bit confused about how one gets at the upper anchor for the shoulder part of the belt. (It's attached to an adjustable post somehow, but for the life of me I can't see how to unattach it.) Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I ordered a replacement online ($80) so I'll post the result when I get the part.
The plastic cover on the door post just comes off when you gently pull on it.
The loop on the anchor for the shoulder part-if you look carefully you'll see that the anchor part can be popped open with a flat head screw driver. Once it is opened, you'll see a 14mm bolt (the same size as the lower anchor bolt) you have to remove and the thing comes off.
M
I bet the noise is coming from the exhaust manifold. When you open the hood, you will see a big cast iron manifold located at the front of the engine, covered with a heat shield. (The part that burns your hand when you try to remove/install the oil filter!) The manifold cracks often on these cars, and exhaust gas that would otherwise exit through the muffler can leak a little bit, causing a loud noise upon acceleration and deceleration. The part is available at Advance Auto Parts for around $150 I think. You might be able to spot a crack in it without removing it.
M
I have bought a geo prizm 97 model, 1.6L. It is so far running well. I was going to change the spark plug, when i ended up with some issues.
According to Haynes manual, the gap is 0.031.
According to automoile spare shops like, orielly, walmart etc, the gap is 0.042 for a 97Prizm and 0.032 for a 97 corolla.
I am not sure which one is correct. Can someone help me here?
If the walmart gaps are correct, then how come corolla and prizm have different settings if they are the same?
Thank you
My doubt here is whether the auto store database is wrong. This is because, if corolla and prizm are the same then they should have the same gaps. and 0.032for corolla is close to 0.031 from haynes.
So I am a bit confused. :confuse:
I would presume the dealer has the correct info regarding the gap.
M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_engine#4A
It is an LSI with 104k. Very clean. The front door auto locks don't work, not too big a deal. It also will need brakes and perhaps rotors, but that looks like a decent diy job.
thanks for your thoughts.
-Heating/AC Fan went out (this was an easy repair - fix
of a resistor). Just check if the fan works at all
speeds - mine gradually went from not working at hi-
speed to eventually not at low speed either.
-Radio dying (more major of a fix - the amplifier
completely died). Pretty easy to tell if this doesn't
work.
Good luck with the car, I'm hoping to get at least 150k out of mine.
Dealer part costs about $150. I will start calling junk yards around my area.
Dan
Dan
Thanks!!!
Julie
Besides oil changes and brake replacement, I haven't done too much work. It seems like the hardest part to this job would be removing the steering wheel. Any advice would be great. Thanks.
I just ran into the same problem this evening. Was anyone able to shed any light on it for you?
Dennis
No one here was able to help, BUT, we figured it out. And the whole set up seems rather evil, like "they" don't wan't you to figure it out.
Prefirst, unattach the battery! (That's how I got into this whole mess!.. )
First, you'll have to unscrew the screws that literally attach the whole fusebox to the car because you're going to need to get at the bottom of the box. Once that's done, you'll be able to pull the box up a little, although the wires running into the box will still prevent comfortable movement.
Second, take hold of the nested box that contains the block of high amp fuses from the bottom, squeeze the sides with one hand, while you push the block of fuses from the top. The high-amp block should sink from the surface of the main fuse box. If it doesn't sink for you, you can stick two screwdrivers into those little slots on both sides of the high-amp block and squeeze the box that way (we did it that way first because we had no idea what was going on, but that didn't seem like the official way to do it).
Third, assuming you've been successful with step two, you'll see that you've got some heavy duty wires running into this little high-amp unit that you've separated from the main fuse box. We did not figure out a way to officially get the bottom cover off of the high-amp box. We stuck a little screwdriver into the seams and at the same time put pressure on the plastic (it's thin, and somewhat flexible). We were able to get it off, but maybe you'll have better luck figuring out the "official" non-mickey-mouse way.
Fourth, once you've had success getting that little bottom cover off of the high-amp box, you'll see that you just have to unscrew the screws that secure the wires through the 100-amp alternator fuse, replace the fuse, and reverse the steps.
After reconnecting the battery, you will finished a journey that seems to be totally undocumented, even in the official shop manual for the Prizm. What a pain!
Let me know how it goes.
Julie
Any suggestions? I asked my husband if after it was lined up if the tire could need to be re balanced and he says no. so i thought i would come here to see if i could get any other suggestions because he has had enough of it but i want it fixed. it shakes for a reason. and the car is in good shape for what we paid for it.
Thanks for your help :confuse:
The 1997 Geo Prizm manual on page 6-65 under "Replacement Parts" states that the gap should be 0.031 inch (0.8mm)
I will use 0.031 spark plug gap instead of what the auto parts says.
I have the manual on PDF format if anyone is interested.
I had a brand new compressor put in (on the recommendation of the service manager who said the quality of rebuilt ones these days was very erratic) and the problem was solved. It did, however, set me back $892. But on those sweltering humid Southern summer days, it seems money well spent (or at least that's how I rationalize the expense).
I waited several months, and then had it replaced, but the check engine light came on again, and the mechanic said that an O2 sensor needed replacing, so he did that as well.
Well, 45 miles later, the check engine light came on again. I took the car in, and the mechanic said he was getting a "RUnning Lean" code.....but that he checked everything on the car, and nothing seemed to be wrong. So he reset the switch, turning the light off, and told me to drive it again to see if the light would come on again.
Exactly 45 miles later (again) the light came on.
Now I'm $900.00 in the hole, and my SMOG check is due immediately, for registration (lucky me). And I will have to take it back for him to do a deeper search.....but I would really appreciate any advice on this scenario...and what the potential problem might be.
Thank you
leeaooa@nycap.rr.com
Thanks,Lee
Thanks, Lee