Well, now that my Fiero (1985 2M6 Notchie) is up and running and my daily driver, I figure I should treat the ol' gal pretty good. So I've got a few simple questions.

The first is to do with the headlight. Had to replace them gears that grind away, but I just cut up two gears and epoxyed them together like a madman. So now, it goes up and down fine, when it's warm. But when it's sitting outside for awhile in the cold, the headlight makes a load of noise and takes some time to lift up. Today I tried it and it didn't flip up until after the drivers side headlight had come up. And a few days ago, it wouldn't go down until I went into the house, looked out the window, and oh, it's down. What could be the cause of this problem?

The second problem is the "Ajar" light. It's annoying the hell out of me. Blinking every two seconds. I've realized that it's the passenger door that's causing the problem, anybody know any fixes?

The third problem is the window seal on the drivers side. When it gets cold, the window seal contracts and so when I get into the car after school and shut the door, the seal is broken and it won't seal up until the heat has kicked in and warmed up the car, which I'm sure is a lot harder when there's snow and cold air blowing in through the window, or sometimes, if you roll the window down and kind of pull it inwards as you roll it up, it pulls closer to the seal and "sort of" seals it. What can I do?

The fourth problem is (Okay, maybe more than a few problems now.) gas mileage. I'm not all that good with kilometers and distances and such, so I'll put it this way, should I have to fill up my Fiero once a week if I'm just driving to town for school (Maybe 5-7 km) and back home with a bit of town driving here and there? I'm getting the feeling that it's something to do with my THM-125C transmission, as I've had some issues with it. But are there some easy things I can do to increase fuel efficiency? And if that seems like I'm filling too often, does anybody know why? I had a new muffler put on a while back it absolutely rusted to hell, so I put the stock muffler back on and cut off the tips and just put a big pipe on the end. It seems to be putting out a lot of exhaust fumes, but I'm thinking that's just from the cold weather. But could this old muffler that sat outside for a while be adding to the problem?

Also, is there anything else I can do just to make the car overall run/feel better?


Any help would really be appreciated.

[This message has been edited by Valkyrie (edited 12-10-2007).]

I have the same engine/tranny and I got 29.9 MPG on the highway doing 75-90 MPH, and I'm sure you know the engine's running pretty fast at that speed. And that's with only a WCF intake, stock everything else, and two completely horribly leaking exhaust manifold gaskets and a couple of broken bolts.

I don't think the muffler is going to have any appreciable effect on fuel economy. Run 87 octane, or no higher than 89 on this engine. Any higher isn't going to do you any good except it will cost more and burn less efficiently, giving you even worse mileage and power. Some people who think premium octane = power are just bass-ackwards wrong... that only applies in a high compression engine when you're using too low of an octane so the engine is already automatically retarding to prevent detonation.

Probably the quickest, easiest power/MPH gain on the V6 is a good cold air intake (WCF or WCF-style, not the type that pulls warm air from the engine bay), and to port the obstructions in the manifolds and Y-pipe. But taking the exhaust off is a PITA and risks breaking bolts, so it's best to do that only if you're planning on having it off anyway, or if you're planning on dropping the engine cradle out and don't mind drilling a broken bolt or two. Also, you'll want to first have the manifolds reinforced with welding where the flanges meet the pipes. The pipes are all some type of stainless, and the flanges I believe are mild steel.

Someone ran some "tests" that tried to "prove" that a direct cold air intake with a cone filter is no less restrictive than the stock box, but mine made a very noticible difference in power and fuel economy! From what I hear, the tests were done by comparing stock system to running with an open throttle body. Duh.... the intake flow is smoothed and improved by having a decent intake versus an open throttle body, not to mention an open TB is sucking in hot engine bay air....

[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 12-11-2007).]