Hey everyone, I'm new to the forums and new to the Sonic and I need help urgently.
Backstory on my Sonic:
It's a 1.4L 6speed Manual. I bought it used this past June with 28,000 miles (the guy who owned it previously traded it in for a Corvette). I now have 42,000 miles on it. Ever since I've had my Sonic it's felt some what funny in means of transmission shifting and engine idle. Have only had to take it in to the dealer for replacing the sway bar links which were recall anyways.
Now for the issues. After reading how people were using high octane gas in their Sonic's and getting better performance/fixing idle, I decided to bite the bullet and buy High Octane Gas at the local Pilot gas station (I live in the country so it's the only close gas station). That was over a week ago. I didn't do much driving after I got the gas last weekend, so with the start of the work week this past Monday I wanted to really try out the new gas and see if their was a difference.
Well Monday morning, I drive the car to work, didn't really notice any difference (if anything maybe the idle was a little worse). So getting out of work, I'm driving home and look at the dash and the Check Engine Light is on. I'm freaking out trying to think of what is going on. Did I let the oil stay to long since the last change? Is it the way I'm driving? Was the gas I bought last week bad? These were some of the questions I started to ask myself. I call my wife and tell her I'll be late getting home because I was planning on stopping at the local Advance and getting the code for the Light. Stopping in there they quickly checked the code and said that the Oxygen Sensor was running to lean and was causing the light.
So now with that information I'm trying to figure where my course of action is. I contacted the dealer about the light and they said since I was outside my bumper-to-bumper warranty there was nothing they could do unless I payed upfront $100 for them to simply diagnose the issue (then pay for the repairs). But I'm having this thought that maybe the gas I purchased at that Pilot could have been watered down or had impurities in it.
It had some questionable idling before the gas (which I think could be the spark plug gap), but this is the first it's really started acting like this.
On a side note, I noticed yesterday that when driving at lower speeds (3rd or 4th gear), that if I let off the gas and the rpms are at 1500 and I apply pressure to the pedal to accelerate I can hear inside the cab a crunch which sounds like the transmission engaging upon acceleration. I repeated this a couple times and it had the same result each test.
I know this is a lot of information, but I'm in desperate need of finding out what's going on with my car. I mean hey, I'm still making car payments on this thing and it feels like I'm putting money into the garbage right now.
Anyone who can help me diagnose this I appreciate it and thanks for reading!
Taylor
Backstory on my Sonic:
It's a 1.4L 6speed Manual. I bought it used this past June with 28,000 miles (the guy who owned it previously traded it in for a Corvette). I now have 42,000 miles on it. Ever since I've had my Sonic it's felt some what funny in means of transmission shifting and engine idle. Have only had to take it in to the dealer for replacing the sway bar links which were recall anyways.
Now for the issues. After reading how people were using high octane gas in their Sonic's and getting better performance/fixing idle, I decided to bite the bullet and buy High Octane Gas at the local Pilot gas station (I live in the country so it's the only close gas station). That was over a week ago. I didn't do much driving after I got the gas last weekend, so with the start of the work week this past Monday I wanted to really try out the new gas and see if their was a difference.
Well Monday morning, I drive the car to work, didn't really notice any difference (if anything maybe the idle was a little worse). So getting out of work, I'm driving home and look at the dash and the Check Engine Light is on. I'm freaking out trying to think of what is going on. Did I let the oil stay to long since the last change? Is it the way I'm driving? Was the gas I bought last week bad? These were some of the questions I started to ask myself. I call my wife and tell her I'll be late getting home because I was planning on stopping at the local Advance and getting the code for the Light. Stopping in there they quickly checked the code and said that the Oxygen Sensor was running to lean and was causing the light.
So now with that information I'm trying to figure where my course of action is. I contacted the dealer about the light and they said since I was outside my bumper-to-bumper warranty there was nothing they could do unless I payed upfront $100 for them to simply diagnose the issue (then pay for the repairs). But I'm having this thought that maybe the gas I purchased at that Pilot could have been watered down or had impurities in it.
It had some questionable idling before the gas (which I think could be the spark plug gap), but this is the first it's really started acting like this.
On a side note, I noticed yesterday that when driving at lower speeds (3rd or 4th gear), that if I let off the gas and the rpms are at 1500 and I apply pressure to the pedal to accelerate I can hear inside the cab a crunch which sounds like the transmission engaging upon acceleration. I repeated this a couple times and it had the same result each test.
I know this is a lot of information, but I'm in desperate need of finding out what's going on with my car. I mean hey, I'm still making car payments on this thing and it feels like I'm putting money into the garbage right now.
Anyone who can help me diagnose this I appreciate it and thanks for reading!
Taylor
