New Fiero Owner and having small problems!!

[SobeLegend]

Whats good? My girl just bought a new (new to her anyway) 86 Pontiac Fiero which she adores...I dont blame her, its a hot car and Im kinda jelious..

Anyway, shes having a couple bugs in the car and its down to me to try to find the problems. We bought the car from a dealership and the car itself was the "pride and joy" of the dealerships top mechanic. Sounded great at first, but we are slowly learning this guy apparently has no idea what the f*ck hes doing.

First problem is the light for the MPH gauge doesnt work but all other lights on the dash work fine at night. After having taken the car back to the dealership the mechanic gave us a part number and told us we needed to buy that because changing the bulbs did nothing. The part is the little rolling dimmer switch thingamabobber. This sounds fishy to me so input here would be appreciated.

Second problem is the gas guage. When we bought the car, the car showed 3/4 full, but after driving some miles, the gas gauge moved closer to the full side instead of the empty. We took it back to the dealership and they removed the tank, took a look around, closed it up and called it a day Im guessing. Later that day, she ran out of gas but had no idea she was out of gas because...DUH...gas gauge still read 3/4 full. After getting the car back from the dealership, the guage now goes ALL the way to the right...and by all the way, I mean that sh*t points skyward...but then after a few seconds itll settle in at 95% full and wont really budge. This is a bit of a problem because, although I love her, my girl isnt the sharpest tool in the shed if you know what I mean and refuses to learn to do the simple gas math.

Third problem is the car shuts off randomly. At first, we choked this up to being out of gas because...she had in fact run out of gas. After having put gas in the car though, every now and then the car just dies when it gets put in gear (auto tranny BTW). Dealership said it was a vacuum line (really?) and they took 8 hours one day to check, test, and replace any and everything they could think of that would cause the problem but as of this morning, it turned off on her again and Im stumped and pretty sure the mechanic doesnt know what the hells going on.

As of today, shes had the car almost a week and really...couldnt be happier. Once these problems are ironed out, I think shell love it even more. This is one of the cleanest fieros Ive seen around and Im still jelious she gets to drive it everywhere, lol. Ill get pics up soon of how it looks. Its a gorgeous white and grey 2 tone, completely stock unmolested v6 with the original grey wheels. Interior is in rediculously good shape for the age. I think the only gripe I have with the interior is the headliner is coming out just a tad from the sunroof.

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[Oreif]

First off, Don't take it to the dealership. It sounds like they are very unfamiliar with working on Fiero's.

The speedo light. If they changed bulbs and that did not work, It could be dirty connection on one of the connectors. One is on the bottom right and one is on the left side. You need to remove the rear cover and then the front cover to get to them. There is also a chance it could be a broken wire as well.

Gas Gauge is a common issue. There are two ways to fix this. Buy a new sensor/float assembly from the Fiero Store ( www.fierostore.com ) they sell for about $325.
Or pull it out and fix it yourself. See http://www.fieropride.com/tech.php?techArticle=Gas_Gauge

As for the imtermittent shutting off It could be a couple of different things.
Vacuum leak - If the engine idles steady and runs well normally it probably is not a leak.
Fuel pressure - From running it dry it could have damaged the fuel pump and it over heats and shuts off. Did the intermittent stopping start after they looked at the gas gauge problem? If it did, they could have messed it up as well. I would drop the tank, remove the gauge sensor and pump (both are on the same assembly) clean the sensor as described on the link above, Clean the fuel pump screen and replace the fuel pump. That way you know everything is new working and will last a long time. Total cost is about $40 and a day of your time.
The last part would be ignition system. The Pick-Up could could be corroded. Take the distributor cap and rotor off. You will see a plastic ring with wire wrapped around it. It sits around the distributor shaft. If it looks corroded it may be causing your problem. They are not very expensive (about $20) but to replace them you need to pull the distributor out of the engine and disassembly the distributor itself. Not too hard to do.

Finally, You can download the factory service manual from here: http://www.fieronews.net/fusion/downloads.php?cat_id=13
This will help you maintain the car easily. It shows all the info like schematics for checking out the speedo lights and such.

 

[SobeLegend]

I appreciate the help, thank you. The car shutting off problem did start after we ran the car empty so Ill look into replacing the fuel pump. I dont think its a vacuum leak since it runs extremely well 98% of the time. Ive looked around a bit...but being 6'4 still makes it hard to see all the hoses in the engine bay, lol.