Hi guys-

My son owns a 95 Pontiac Sunfire that I handed down to him and which I've had for about 10 years. It's a good little car, that has lasted quite awhile, but here lately we've having a couple of problems with it.

Firstly, it has a rough idle. The engine feels like it's shaking fiercely under the hood when the car is in park, but once you get going, it's fine. I've gotten a new fuel filter installed, and it's done nothing to alleviate the problem. Finally, the car just went kaput and i had to get new pistons installed, as the old ones were corroded from lack of a proper regular tune-up. So it's been about three months and now the car is doing it again! It's not as bad as the last time, where the car is shutting off if stopped too long, but it's still worrying. The car has over 170,000 miles on it. I think I had new spark plugs put into it as well, but I'm not sure.

The second problem I'm having is the car makes a popping noise whenever we change the gears. It's an automatic. Example: whenever we put the car in reverse, it'll shift, there'll be a pause as I lift my foot off the break, and there's a popping noise from the underbelly of the car. It doesn't seem to impair the car's functioning, but we're worried that it could be symptomatic of a looming, expensive issue - if so, best to nip it in the bud now rather than later!

Thanks!

-Randy-

new plugs and wires for the shake may help.

Thanks - yeah, I'm thinking it's probably the same thing.