I'm trying to figure out whats wrong with my car, and i thought Id give those codes a shot, and see if they turn up anything. are they a reliable source?

Yes, the trouble codes can tell you quite a bit about your engine. Read all of them, and then post your findings here.

Has your service engine soon light come on recently while driving? If it has, there is at least 1 trouble code stored in the ECM's memory.

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'87 Coupe 5spd.
AIM:FieroJoe87

Just remember, if a trouble code indicates a certain area like EGR, it can mean many things. Don't automatically replace the EGR solenoid. It is a good starting point for narrowing down the problem. Do you know how to read them yourself? Also, what are some of the symptoms your car has?

Problems with her? well.....hmm.. where to start? about 2 months ago she just...died. from what it seemed tho, it was the battery. I replaced that, and she ran for a few days before giving out on me again. the alternator tested good, so...we thought it might be wiring. I just bought a new battery, and shes run now for 2 days, with the check engine light periodicly coming on. Shell start now, no problem, but randomly die. When she does tho, i just have to put her in park, and she cranks up again. That happend 2 times today, and about 8 times yesterday. someone told me today that it could be my stereo causing a short with everything, cuz everytime i turn off the car, the entire radio restarts, preset stations delete, clock goes back to 12:00. So, im at a lose of what it could be? ed parks told me that its my 12v energizer wire?....but i cant seem to find anyone who knows what that is. being a college girl, without financial aid from my parents, makes it really hard to...fund trips to the mechanics. Last time i went, they charged me 200$ to replace a burnt wire, only to have her go out again 2 months later. so....any ideas of what her problem is would be great Thanks.

If you burnt the same wire twice, I would say you most likely have a dead short somewhere. Personally, I can't troubleshoot electrical shorts (opens & closed) over the internet so you will most likely have to try to find someone experienced at troubleshooting electrical shorts in order to zero in on it. That is a problem though because even though some shops 'specialize' in electrical repair, they may not have someone on staff that is 'gifted' or even talented w/ short tracing and they end up checking A thru Z and charging truckload of $$. From your description, the problem could even be in the ignition switch since the radio resets as you turn it off. GL

I dont think it would be the ignition switch. the radio gets power from the battery all the time to store its presents, and it gets power from the ignition switch to turn on - you if you are loosing the presets it means power between the battery and the radio is being lost. since this happens when the car dies - power to the ECM, ignition, or fuel pump is also being lost at the same time.

be like Sherlock Holmes - these are very important clues! You could have a bad battery wire that is intermittant, or you could have a short in a wire that sparks to ground for a second - if its a shorting wire it would have to be related to the radio and the ECM or ignition or the fuel pump somehow - its possible its the one fed by the fusable link wire that has burned out on you twice - maybe they replaced it without putting the fuzable link back in?

Problem with these intermittant things - its stops, then its ok a few seconds later - they are very hard to locate - when something stops working and stays not working then you can start at one end (like at the radio connector) and trace the wires all the way back to the battery to see where it is loosing power.

the best someone can do for your car is look for wires or connectors that are dirty, corroded, or maybe damaged (copper wire is exposed).

The fuze box would be a good place to look, also the main wires to the battery - and the ground wires from the battery to the chassis and to the motor block.

the good news is this is not a hard thing to fix once you find the problem, you clean or tighten the bad connection, or you splice a new piece of wire in to replace a damaged section and tie wrap it up into a safer place.

One simple check you can do yourself. Take the cover off over the battery and see if the cables to the battery posts are loose. You should not be able to move them up or down if you wiggle them (dont pull real hard). Its the most logical place to look first. If they are loose tighten them up gently till they are snug - remember you are screwing a bolt into lead - which is very soft - it doesnt take much torque to strip out the threads in the battery posts. I always keep wiggling the wire when attaching the battery - when the wire terminal stops moving then stop tightening, no matter how the bolt feels on the wrench.

this is one of those problems that takes time to trace down, but its not real hard work. If you want to take a shot at it let us know and I can give you enough info to at least take a stab at it.

-Ken

Sounds like someone has done some custom re-wiring. Usually fuses blow before wires melt in short circuits. Check for stereo power wires with bad tape jobs .