Midnight probably does need new plugs; but her transmission is fine so she'll just get a drain and fill, plugs, an air filter, and a coolant replacement this weekend. Changed the oil already before I drove it (the crashed silver car had a brand new oil filter in the trunk, yay!). Hopefully I get to the ministry after work in time to get a sticker for Midnight; but it's a long weekend ,so that might not happen.
Connie has been kept completely up-to-date maintenance-wise in the 4 years I have owned her. She idles fine; 750, higher when it's freeszing cold first thing in the morning.
I did the plugs in her last fall, so they aren't old at all. Maybe 60k km on them.
The transmission is probably just dying; it does have over 400k.
I'm going to try re&re-ing the solenoids this weekend. I'm also going to swap throttle bodies because the cruise control latch on Connie's broke about 3 years ago (jamming the throttle wide open in I-77 in West Virginia; but that's another story), so it'll have a nice clean throttle body too.
I also think my A/C compressor clutch is making a terrible rattling sound at certain RPMs and I'd like to do something about that, and since it's almost time to do the timing belt and water pump for the third damn time, I should probably do that too. It might be the PS Pump, but I'm leaning towards A/C. I know it's an accessory because it goes away if the serpentine belt is removed.
I haven't had A/C in years and don't plan to fix it (there's no receiver/drier, no condenser, and some of the lines are missing), I just want to shut it up before the compressor seizes right up like it did on my old 92 (melting the belt in half in the Sonoran desert).
I don't think there's any way to run a smaller belt with the compressor removed; but that's what I'd like to do for this car. I got lucky being able to just run a belt for a no-a/c car on the 92 (and also learned Mexico has AutoZone), but it wasn't a serpentine setup like the 02.
