1.) I crawled under the car (near the driver side rear tire) and found that there is about 1/8 or less of a turn, of play in the driveshaft. No play was found when I wiggled it up, down, or side to side.

How much if any, play should the driveshaft have if the car is off and in park?



2.) The economy gauge is pegged all the way to the left while the car is in park or neutral. When in drive or reverse the economy gauge is 1/4" away from being fully pegged to the left. This is all at idle mind you.

I have also noticed while cruising the economy gauge will be pegged to the left but as soon as the car is coming to a stop say, at a red light, the gauge starts to go back to its location, 1/4 from being pegged left.




3.) Transmission shifts and even kicks down smoothly; however, when going from park/neutral to drive/reverse the engagement is rather rough. Reverse seems to be the harder of the two.




4.) Car smells rich. Engine Idle surges about +/- 50rpm from 650rpm, seems more noticeable when the car is in drive or reverse.

I just replaced the wires + spark plugs and air filter. PO had the fuel pumps and filter (rear filter) done a year ago, less then 10k miles. Also looked around to check for vacuum leaks by looking at hoses and even spraying starting fluid, nothing. One last thing was to check the EHA and O2 sensor by unplugging both, one at a time with the engine running. I noticed nothing really happened, it just kept running as if I hadn't done anything. EHA had a voltage of 9.15 DC and o2 sensor had 13.64 +/- .04 (increased with throttle). The cars check engine light did come on after unplugging the EHA.

Could this somehow be linked to problem #2 or #3? Maybe a bad cat or o2 senor?



5.) There's a loose metal sound coming from the front end suspension. I crawled under and found it to be the steering damper. The sleeve of it appears to be loose and is hitting the inner tube, very annoying (my car sounds like a metal shopping cart as it goes over bumpy roads). The alinement's is also off, leading me to believe the center link is toast too. Bushings looked ok though.

Is there anyway to check if these parts are actually still good?




I know alot of similar items have been discussed before on this forum but, after a few days of searching and alot of reading nothing has really hit the nail on the head for me. Thanks to everyone in advance and hope to get some good feedback!