Faults:

I bought this car at the end of 2017, thinking I was getting a steal; I paid 1100$ total with 143xxx on the odometer. I figured it still had plenty of life considering it was a five speed. I started it and test drove it and it ran amazing.

Three weeks after buying it from a used car dealership, it took a dive, I ran low on gas and the car just died, so I figured I must have ran out of gas. I put 20$ or 5 gallons (give or take) in the car and it still wouldn't fire up. Needless to say I had it towed home and since then I've replaced the ECU, the distributor, the ignition coil, the ignition control module, the fuel pump and filter. To my amazement none of which has fixed my car; it will start briefly when cold and run for about 15 seconds, then die no matter if I touch the throttle or not. I've had some people say a ground issue, but I've went and cleaned the two grounds on the intake, the one on the passenger strut, the two behind the passenger headlight, and checked the main one to the engine block. I'm lost here, does anyone have any ideas? I get power to my coil, then suddenly it's gone like intermittent spark.

General Comments:

Comfortable, and enjoyed how peppy it was.

Faults:

Original engine replaced at about 111k.

Radiator replaced at 120k.

Exhaust replaced.

Injector replaced at 170k.

Front spring broken at about 120k.

General Comments:

This has proven to be a very good car for us, in spite of the engine problem. I bought the car as is, and a few weeks after we owned it, it lost all coolant and overheated the engine. Still not sure why, but maybe a hairline crack in the radiator. Engine was replaced with a junkyard motor, and it has been smooth sailing since.

I do all my own work, so my gauge of a good car is how much I don't have to work on it, and this has been a good one. It was my wife's car, and she needed something absolutely reliable, and this met the challenge.

It is a solid car, although some things were cheap, like electrical connectors.

The engine in the car is incredibly smooth. I want to buy one with a manual trans, as I expect it would be fun to drive. The automatic is reliable, but not smooth. It gets me where I need to go.

Car is being handed over to my son, and I expect we will get many more miles out of it.

Faults:

I lost power at all speeds, but the car idles fine and does not stall.

My gas mileage also dropped from 30 to 24 mpg, but part of this is probably because I have to drive in a lower gear to make up for the lost power.

I replaced plugs, dist. cap, wires, air filter. Anybody have any ideas?