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Help with the free geo
Topic Started: Oct 27 2012, 02:35 PM (979 Views)
LenHolsworth
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Hello, this is a follow up to my introduction and free Geo. My friend gave me this geo. I put in a new battery and it started right up. It makes a loud popping sound. I drove the car around the block and it seems like its kind of low of power. I have a few wires under the hood that are disconected and I don't know what they are Also the yellow part of the headlights have bulbs in them but they never go on. What are these for. Someone in here suggested the egr valve gasket and I took the air cleaner off and there is no egr valve. It looks like it is blocked off from the factory. It is a 1997 geo metro LSI 4 cyl. , Auto with air conditioning. As far as I know it is a California car. I really want to start driving this thing but I need to fix it first. I just purchased the factory shop manuals on ebay but won't get them for a week or so, I think I got a good deal on them 21 bucks. I made a short video of the wires and popping sound. The popping sound is much louder in real life than what appears in the video. Any and all help is appreciated. I will post a link to the youtube video. Please excuse me if I am doing something wrong. I am a total noob. Thanks

http://youtu.be/WL8raTzZ2rc
Edited by LenHolsworth, Oct 27 2012, 02:38 PM.
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geogonfa
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first thing to do with any new to you metro is do a compression test, start
here:
http://geometroforum.com/topic/2574993/1/

they post your results, this always helps when doing any diagnostics...
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nwgeo


Yep do a compression check if you can. For a down and dirty quick and easy poor boy check to see if eletric and compression are working, get a plastic baggy or plastic glove start the engine(hopefully it will hold an idle) put on the plastic glove or use the plastic bag to protect your fingers from shock and pull one of the wires on the distibutor then put that one back on and do the next. The engine speed should slow and become ruff and may stall, but just put the wire back on, restart the car and go to the next wire on the distributor. This way you verity that each plug is getting spark or not. And if you have a cylinder that is bad it will NOT make a difference when you remove a wire---the engine will sound the same but keep on running, howbeit running ruff. Each time you take a wire off if you hold it close it should have a nice spark to the cap plug in point. This works when you have no compression checker.
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jvartan64
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The first wire in the video doesn't go to anything, I also have this loose in my car. I think it is for a feature that the Swift or more "luxurious" model would have. The other wire also doesn't plug into anything. If you look on your hood there should be a diagram about how to short the computer when you adjust the timing. The computer can automatically adjust the timing a bit, so when you are manually adjusting timing you dont want computer interference. You basically cause a short by putting a paper clip or something between 2 of the wire slots in that plug and it stops the computer from trying to correct the timing. Do a compression test and get back to us. Is it throwing codes?
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LenHolsworth
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Thanks for all the great info, The check engine light was not on until I took the air cleaner off. I put it back on and the check engine light is now on. I don't know what you mean by throwing codes. How do I tell if it is throwing codes. Thanks NWGEO, I will try the poorboy way of checking the spark and pulling the wires right now.
Thanks
Len
Edited by LenHolsworth, Oct 28 2012, 09:59 PM.
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LenHolsworth
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OK, so i did what nwgeo suggested and bingo. The first wire I pulled the popping sound went away. It ran normally, I then pulled the other three and it started to stall on all three. there was spark on all of them. Any ideas anybody? I can take a video of it if anybody wants to see what it does when I pull the wires.
Thanks again.
Len
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metroschultz
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Please just call me; "Schultz"

The popping sounds like a valve hanging up.
Do the compression check and let us know what you find there.
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patrickbruce
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average teenage gearhead

thats a valve...... time to pull the head :smackface
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LenHolsworth
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OK, so my neighbor has that gauge for a compression check. Thank goodness I have a neighbor that knows mechanics. So he did a compression check for me and showed me how to do it. Here are the results. The plug that was making the popping sound is #1

Dry / Wet
#1 - 115 / 150
#2 - 110 / 170
#3 - 90 / 170
#4 - 95 / 170

the weird thing was when we were checking #1 it started popping again. The popping is coming from the throttle body I think. There is also oil in the air cleaner cover. He thinks something is wrong with #1 valve. He was kind of suprised that it had any compression, he expected it to be zero. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.
Len
Edited by LenHolsworth, Oct 28 2012, 06:20 PM.
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LenHolsworth
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Anybody ?
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clarkdw


I would start by pulling the valve cover. You might have a broken valve spring. Still having compression on that cylinder is a little confusing. The popping out the throttle body is a dead giveaway that there is a valve issue of some kind on that cylinder. Now you have to find out what it is. Valve cover is the first step in that.
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LenHolsworth
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Thanks, do you think if I did the valves and rings that it would increase the compression? How long should it take and how much should parts be. What exactly are the parts I need and where would be the cheapest place to get them from. I don,t have a lot of money and just want to get it up and running. I will do a complete engine rebuild when I can afford it.
Thanks
Len
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LenHolsworth
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Thanks, do you think if I did the valves and rings that it would increase the compression? How long should it take and how much should parts be. What exactly are the parts I need and where would be the cheapest place to get them from. I don,t have a lot of money and just want to get it up and running. I will do a complete engine rebuild when I can afford it.
Thanks
Len
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sheananigans


LenHolsworth
Oct 29 2012, 10:31 PM
Thanks, do you think if I did the valves and rings that it would increase the compression? How long should it take and how much should parts be. What exactly are the parts I need and where would be the cheapest place to get them from. I don,t have a lot of money and just want to get it up and running. I will do a complete engine rebuild when I can afford it.
Thanks
Len
Changing the valves/ rings would definitely increase compression. Price and amount of time required will depend a great deal on where you get your parts as well as how familier you are with the engine itself.

When I did my rebuild it took me 3 full days of working on it as well as about $400 in parts. (seals, bearings, rings, new pistons, new valves, cylinder head resurfacing, and gaskets.) I was able to find all of these parts fairly inexpensively on ebay.

If you are thinking about replacing the rings/ valves then you are looking at having to do a full rebuild. You *could* technically just pull the head and replace the valves, valve seals, and head gasket, but you would still have to pull the oil pan to pop the pistons out and re-ring them.

However, I would not do that without replacing all of the other seals, gaskets, and bearings in the engine as that would be adding a lot of extra work for yourself in the future. Its best to do it all at once.
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mauurgp
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absolutely fresh fish

i would encourage you to take clarks advice - open the valve cover and post a pic of it.
youre at a place where you could easily find yourself heading down a slippery slope if you dont.
rings and valves involve the whole engine - one is in the head, and the other is in the block.
your numbers appear to be indicative of rings, your popping and oil appear to be indicative of the valve.

since youre trying to save money, i would approach one thing at a time, and the valve should be most pressing to you.
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