Dear Tom and Ray:

I wrote to you guys a couple of months ago, but I guess my problem doesn't rate, because you haven't answered it yet. Here it is again. My '88 Olds 88 stalls on my wife and me once or twice a month. It just stops running and we pull over to the side of the road and wait a minute, and it starts up again. Our mechanic has put in a new computer, alternator, battery, fuel pump, fuel filter and water pump, and none of those things has stopped the trouble. Do you have any other suggestions for us? -- Ray

Tom: Well, the only thing you haven't changed is the air freshener, Ray. So I'd swap that out next.

Ray: Actually, you've already tried a lot of the stuff we would have tried. But if you're still in an experimenting mood, the next things on my list would be a new ignition module and new coils. So I'd give those a try.

Tom: And sorry about not answering your question sooner (and this goes for everyone who writes to us), but we just can't answer every piece of mail and e-mail we receive. We're overwhelmed by the amount of correspondence we get. We get thousands of letters a week -- OK, hundreds if you subtract the ones that come from the IRS. But even hundreds is a lot. So thanks for bearing with us!

Changing your oil regularly is the cheapest insurance you can buy for your car, but how often should you change it? Find out by ordering Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1997 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Back to the May 1997 index