I have a 2000 LX that died in the one snowstorm we had out here. I was 1/4 mile from the house when it died. That was early December and it's still dead. Why? Because I hate it. It's a great, fun little car while it's running right, but when something goes wrong, it's never an easy fix. The miracle of FWD packaging, isn't.
Mine got a new alternator a year ago.
The driver's seat recline handle stripped and quit reclining. So I unscrewed the handle and used a pair of pliers to adjust, the adjuster then broke. You can still grab what's left with a pair of Vice grips to adjust though. CD player quit working, gives me an error now.
Can't use the highest setting on the A/C heater fan. 1, 2, and 3 are all fine, 4 requires fiddlage to get it to work and stay on.
What symptoms did it have before dying? Maybe it's the same problem as mine. The engine died and when it restarted (after pushing it through the snow to within 100 feet of my house), it had no power, couldn't give it gas or it would die, but would idle in gear into the yard. I replaced the fuel filter, it got a little better, I could coax it up to 15, but then it would sputter real bad, no matter what gear I was in. My brither in law took it over to his place to check on it and thinks the computer is stuck in limp home mode. A friend with a shop picked it up and were told by the Ford dealer (over the phone consultation) that it's either a plugged cat or a bad valve. They can't figure it out any further than that as now it won't even idle over to the exhaust shop to check. So, we're getting it back, and if we can't figure it out, I'm just going to sell it cheap. If we do, I'm still selling. I've got a little 85 Nissan truck that needs some lovin...
