6000 miles

[saronian]

Originally Posted by ergoproxy

Open and close the gas cap. I did that, no change, light still on. My major concer is the shift button issue. Lubrication perhaps? I will let them figure it out, it is still under warranty, get it fixed and sell the car, that simple.

The shifter is an easy 1 minute fix. Check out this thread with video.

The check engine light is also an easy fix. Check this thread, P0410 Secondary Air Injection System Malfunction.

I've had both and it's been easy to resolve with the information on this forum.

Scott

[ergoproxy]

I am kind of superstitious. I have owned over 60 cars since 1978, most of them small cars, from the 1973 VW Beetle, 1977 LeCar, Fiat, Toyota's, Honda's, Mitsubishi, Datsun (before they were Nissan)Mazda Rx-3,4,7, Opel (the mini Corvett hack)... you name them, even a Yugo, yes that little disposable car. Let's put it this way, I sold a 1971 Mustang Mach 1 for 900 dollars when I enlisted in the Coast Guard back in 1981. For me cars are tools, not wife's, I use them, maintain them, but if they give me a sign that eventually will become a lemon, I sell, no qualms or feelings over it, that simple, I have had my fair share of bad signs throughout the years to make me ...superstitious to say the least. If I have to sell I sell before I get involved in a major headache.

In the mean time, WD-40 solved my little stuck shift button issue and the check engine light is still on, but the warranty will take care of it before the 2 tears or 24k miles expire. I will mention to them the stuck shift button anyway.

As for the selling it, I have several offers above what the car already cost me, no biggie there.

Oh, I already had to replace then windshield, a pebble cracked it, Insurance handled it smoothly.

I did not like the post about a guy with only 2k on his car and the tranny went dead, that is bad juju. Reminds of the Yugo, hopefully I am wrong and it is just an isolated incident.

Thank you all!

[SuperGeek]

There are so many thousands of parts in a car that's built on an assembly line, I'm amazed they work at all straight off the line. I doubt they have time to test drive 600 cars a day... some of the problems won't show up for a couple hundred miles of vibration. My '97 Grand Am had to go back to the dealer four times in its first year for some problems that were fixed on later models, problems more serious than most of the Smarts are reporting. I'm talking about ABS failure, AC failure, starter relay failures. The Smart problems are mostly cosmetic, easily fixed otherwise, and still very rare. Only a few complaints out of hundreds or thousands of forum members.

If you're superstitious, that's fine... but your engine light is telling you to get to a dealer now, before whatever problem gets worse. Knowing that you've ignored it would worry a buyer. If you don't want to pay attention to the car computer, maybe you could buy a 1970s carbureted car without a check engine light. It'll happily just quit in the middle of the road without advance warning. At the very least take your car to Autozone and have them connect a code scanner. That takes two minutes of your time.

[ergoproxy]

And, may I ask you where did I say I was not taking the car to the dealership??? Where did I say I was not paying attention to the problem? Your ability to jump into incorrect assumtions surprises me. But I am not here to discuss your assumptions.....

Anyway, last Tuesday I took it into the dealership and they cleared the light and fixed the stuck shifter button by lubricating the entire unit. They said they will send me by mail all the paperwork with what they did on my little yellow roller skate. They did mention bad oxygen valve, but did not went into detail.

Cheers to all

Originally Posted by SuperGeek

There are so many thousands of parts in a car that's built on an assembly line, I'm amazed they work at all straight off the line. I doubt they have time to test drive 600 cars a day... some of the problems won't show up for a couple hundred miles of vibration. My '97 Grand Am had to go back to the dealer four times in its first year for some problems that were fixed on later models, problems more serious than most of the Smarts are reporting. I'm talking about ABS failure, AC failure, starter relay failures. The Smart problems are mostly cosmetic, easily fixed otherwise, and still very rare. Only a few complaints out of hundreds or thousands of forum members.

If you're superstitious, that's fine... but your engine light is telling you to get to a dealer now, before whatever problem gets worse. Knowing that you've ignored it would worry a buyer. If you don't want to pay attention to the car computer, maybe you could buy a 1970s carbureted car without a check engine light. It'll happily just quit in the middle of the road without advance warning. At the very least take your car to Autozone and have them connect a code scanner. That takes two minutes of your time.