Am posting this for a friend who doesn't utilize the forum but needs some advice. Anything you can offer is appreciated, as he has someone who has offered to help him fix it - they just aren't totally sure of where to start. I'm posting his whole chronology below in case it matters for the outcome.
"My Fiero developed an oil leak, so bad that I was not permitted to take it into a local Lubrication Shop for an oil change. Since there are no reliable auto shops in our area I finally took my Fiero to a local Chevy dealer and asked if they could fix the leak for me. The intake manifold and all of its parts were removed and from there up it was given new seals and gaskets. I got the car back in about a week and was assured that the oil leak had been fixed. So I paid the bill and drove my car home.
But something was wrong, it just didn't perform right. After several short trips I had the engine cover up and inspected every nook and cranny around the engine, nothing looked misplaced or loose. As a last resort I started to check the adjustment of the Kick Down cable, and it was frozen in place. Inspection revealed that it had been crushed but the outer cover did not show the damage.
The next day I replaced the cable and took the car for a short ride, and found out what was bothering me.
A hard push on the gas peddle did not drop the transmission into second gear, and when the car started up a slight hill it shifted back into second gear then back to drive, fast and repeatedly. The only cure was to let the car slow down or manually put it into second gear.
I returned the car to the dealer and pointed out the problem. The Tech Writer appeared to be aware of the situation from my last visit but said nothing. The shop readjusted the kick down cable and told me that the problem was fixed. So I went to find a hill and found no improvement. They broke my car, and I informed their service manager that I would get it fixed and give them the bill. There was no disagreement.
However, the down side is that I can find no shop locally that understands a Fiero problem, they don't know where to look. By the way, the Tech. Writer was fired by the time that I got back.
If you can relay this to a smart Fiero owner and get his impression as to the problem, there is a transmission shop down here that will do the repair, if I can tell them where to look. (Their words) I suspect that this has happened before and someone knows the answer."
