1991 Geo Metro lsi convertable from North America - Comments

I just bought a 1990 Geo Metro Convertible with a bad 1.0 3 cylinder motor. I bought a 1995 1.0 and swapped them out, it was about a 7 hour job.

When we fired it up, the alternator was squealing so we tightened it up and it ran great till we got it to 2500 rpm, then it started surging between 2500 and 3000 rpm.

I called around to local shops and was told that it was either the MAF or TPS. We changed both of them out, at a large cost, but it didn't help.

We started taking sensors off the old motor, but still no help. We spent a total of 14 more hours trying to get it the run right, the last time we went to start it, the alternator started to squeal again, but this time, tightening the belt didn't help, so we swapped out the alternator with the old one from the other motor. To our surprise, it stopped surging and ran like a top. We took the alternator to the shop and it had a bad regulator.

So folks, if your Geo starts to surge, disconnect the alternator before you spend big bucks and see if that's the problem.

I was told that "this is one for the books".

I have 3 Geo Metros. My 95 has 224,890 miles, my 96 has 154,000, and now my Convertible with a new motor had 142,998 before the owner toasted the motor for lack of checking the fluids... they are great fun to drive, and with gas on a steady climb, very cheap to operate and maintain.