chanchla@watdcsu.UUCP (K.G.Chanchlani - Chemical Engineering) (03/22/86)
I have a '78 Dodge Omni. I am interested in hearing the positive
and negative experiences other people have had with such cars.
With my car, putting on the heating/defrosting system introduces
a trace of gasoline smell (very irritating !!) in the inside
of the car. Any pointers as to the cause of this problem
or any suggestions to the solution would be highly appreciated. marauder@fluke.UUCP (Bill Landsborough) (03/27/86)
In article <2188@watdcsu.UUCP> chanchla@watdcsu.UUCP (K.G.Chanchlani - Chemical Engineering) writes: > > I have a '78 Dodge Omni. I am interested in hearing the positive > and negative experiences other people have had with such cars. > With my car, putting on the heating/defrosting system introduces > a trace of gasoline smell (very irritating !!) in the inside > of the car. Any pointers as to the cause of this problem > or any suggestions to the solution would be highly appreciated. A lady friend of mine is at this moment having her second engine in her 1978 Dodge Omni completely overhauled with the engine out of the car and the block stripped down to bore it. I don't know what happened to the first but after the clutch went out on the second engine and she had that replaced, the headgasket blew allowing all of the water to go into the engine and then as she was trying to limp home on a late night, the engine overheated and warped the head so badly that it has to be thrown away. As far as your problem, I would guess that you have a gas leak near the intake of your heater although that usually is on the outside just below the windshield, or you have gas or oil in your water and have a heater core leak which allows the smell to get external.?? Hard to guess things like that... Check the coolant for evidence of oil/gas and look for any gasoline leaks. Bill Landsborough
ccrse@ucdavis.UUCP (Steve Ehrhardt) (03/27/86)
> I have a '78 Dodge Omni. I am interested in hearing the positive > and negative experiences other people have had with such cars. > With my car, putting on the heating/defrosting system introduces > a trace of gasoline smell (very irritating !!) in the inside > of the car. Any pointers as to the cause of this problem > or any suggestions to the solution would be highly appreciated. I have owned two of these cars (an '81 and an '84), and have been very pleased with them overall. They have tended to occasionally bug me with a rattle or other odd problem, but I have had almost no mechanical problems with them at all. I also have numerous friends and acquaintances who also own various vintages of the model, and have worked on most of them. One thing about these cars is that they have steadily improved over time, with the major improvements taking place in the '81 and '84 model years. The former introduced the 2.2 liter engine and drivetrain, while the latter gave a revised under-hood layout (for greater ease of maintenance) and a revised interior which eliminated 99% of the rattle problems of the earlier models. The '78 model is a first-year car, using an engine and transaxle manufactured by Volkswagen, and very similar to those used in the Rabbits of that era. Being a first-year car, especially one from one of Chrysler's "down years" in the 70's, it had more than it's share of teething problems. Still, they seem to hold up pretty well, if they're well maintained. You will probably have more success with the car if, in addition to maintaining it well, you also know what to watch for with regard to the car's weak points. With this is mind, following is a list of the the things which, in my experi- ence, have given people the most trouble with this model in the past. Please accept my apologies in advance if I insult you by pointing out things which you may already be well aware of, but I have tried to make the list as complete as possible. Carburator - '78-'83 models have carbs mounted on rubber shock mounts, which tend to deteriorate. This could be the cause of the gasoline odor you complain of. Grab the top of the carburator and wiggle it back and forth to check for this problem. If the mount has deteriorated, movement at the base of the carb will be noticed. (The replacement for the mount is a metal plate, so this doesn't happen twice.) Be sure to clean the pivot points for the choke shaft with solvent at least every few thousand miles. The owners manual should men- tion this as being necessary, but few people seem to bother. Failure to do so causes hard starts and premature wear to some carb parts. Valves - Like the early rabbits, and many other cars I could mention, it's not uncommon for these cars to start sucking oil past the valve guides once they reach reasonably high mileage (usually 70-90K+). There's not much you can do to prevent it other than to change your oil regularly, but forewarned is forearmed. Distributor - The early Omnis tend to eat distributors due to bearing failures. Probably not much you can do to prevent it, but check for excess play in the distributor shaft at tune-up time. Also check for this should you find a cracked distributor cap. Alternator - There was a recall associated with this a number of years ago. It seems as though they isolated the alternator in rubber shock mounts without providing it with any way to ground back to the block. The recall was to install several ground straps from the alternator housing to the block and mounting bracket. Make sure these straps are present on your car. Transaxle - The Volkswagen transaxle had a bad combination of problems. They tend to leak, and some bearings in them run dry if they loose only a fairly small amount of fluid. (By reputation, the automatic need only loose a half pint below the minimum mark for this to occur.) Once again, there's not much you can do, aside from keeping a very close eye on transmission fluid levels. Brakes - The rear brakes on all Omni's (till '83, I think) are *manual adjust*. If the emergency brake lever pulls up more than three clicks, the rear brakes need adjusting. On most of the cars I've seen, the brakes never appear to have been adjusted, and problems with warped rotors on the front are a frequent result. CV joints - This is common to FWD cars in general, but it still bears mention. Be sure to check the rubber boots on the drive shaft constant- velocity joints for cracks or tears at *least* at each oil change. Replacement of the boot and lubricant is not too difficult or ex- pensive, but failure to catch the problem in time can make repairs very expensive indeed. Hope this is of some help to you, and don't let it scare you too much. I've known quite a number of people with '78 Omnis who've gotten very good service out of them. They just don't tolerate abuse/neglect very well at all. Good luck!
quint@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (Amqueue) (03/28/86)
I never saw the original article, nor do I know how to reply to just the message id, so Im stuck with posting. sorry. It really is long... In article <261@ucdavis.UUCP> ccrse@ucdavis.UUCP (Steve Ehrhardt) writes: >> I have a '78 Dodge Omni. I am interested in hearing the positive >> and negative experiences other people have had with such cars. My boyfriend owns a '78 hatchback model (as opposed to the sports model), currently with (we believe) 130K+ miles on it. We bought it with 91K+ about 2 years ago, but there were some indications that the milage was off, but we are not sure if it was high or low. There were signs that it could have been either. It seemed to have been well maintained, and then neglected for a period of time just before we got it. Problems it had when we bought it included a dead front wheel bearing, lack of bumper side guards, damaged grill, crappy tires, lack of bushings in gear shift linkage (it is a stick shift). However, it was an incredible bargain, so we took it. The body is in excellent shape. We have done most of the fixup work ourselves. To get it truly road worthy took about $1200. The front bearing was so bad it sounded *better* after taking the car through a car wash. We took the front end apart and got the wheel bearings out, took them and a new set to a machine shop, who were only too happy to press the old ones out and the new ones in. >with them overall. They have tended to occasionally bug me with a rattle or The car does rattle. securing the modesty panel on the hatch seemed to help most of that, though. The entire dashboard is rattling now, tho, and we havent traced it down yet. (yes, obviously it is loose and needs tightening, but how did it get loose?) >The '78 model is a first-year car, using an engine and transaxle manufactured >by Volkswagen, and very similar to those used in the Rabbits of that era. yep, the engine has a label on it saying made by volkswagen. the entire car is a rabbit clone, with slightly more room (about an inch or two in the interior) and slightly inferior interiors. > >Carburator - '78-'83 models have carbs mounted on rubber shock mounts, which > tend to deteriorate. This could be the cause of the gasoline Also be careful of the spring clips holding the air filter in place. Ours have been rather flaky, and at times that entire assembly has gotten loose enough to vibrate alarmingly. It is also an incredibly rotten placement and orientation, and if you have to do anything with the carb it is likely you will have to suspend your self upside down over it to see what you are doing... bletch. >Valves - Like the early rabbits, and many other cars I could mention, it's not > uncommon for these cars to start sucking oil past the valve yeah, we have to add a quart of oil about every 2 tankfuls of gas... about 400-500 miles. havent been able to find where it goes, either. >Distributor - The early Omnis tend to eat distributors due to bearing havent seen this, but it is possible that it was before our time... >Alternator - There was a recall associated with this a number of I believe we have replaced the alternator once. Havent had any other problems. >Transaxle - The Volkswagen transaxle had a bad combination of problems. They > tend to leak, and some bearings in them run dry if they loose only > a fairly small amount of fluid. (By reputation, the automatic We have a problem with the shifting, in that the stupid thing does not like to go into first. We *think* it is a problem with the linkages, but it is just possibly a problem with the transaxle. I can report that the rabbit transaxle is a problem, tho, cause another roommate who has a bunny had it trash its transaxle on a long road trip, $150 worth of towing from anywhere at all. (for those interested in a story of a trip fraught with cranky cars, mail me personally and I will relate further...) This is an automatic. >Brakes - The rear brakes on all Omni's (till '83, I think) are *manual adjust* yup. pain in tush to get to the star wheel, also. One thing we had to do to get the car roadworthy was change the front brakes... the disks looked like a record album, lots of really nice, concentric, deep grooves. We have not since had problems with warped rotors, but we are also rather good about keeping the readjustment current. It is definitely noticeable when the car is braking with only it's front brakes. the nose dips *lots*. >CV joints - This is common to FWD cars in general, but it still bears mention. > Be sure to check the rubber boots on the drive shaft constant- > velocity joints for cracks or tears at *least* at each oil change. > Replacement of the boot and lubricant is not too difficult or ex- > pensive, but failure to catch the problem in time can make repairs > very expensive indeed. heh heh heh. this was one of the things we had to fix to get hte car driveable. some <expletive deleted> had fixed a crack in the boot with *black plastic pseudo-electricians tape*. We were not amused. Other things we have had problems with: The gear on the driver's window was stripped... had to be replaced 3 times, twice by us and once by Dodge, who finally found out that it had been reengineered to prevent this and got the right parts. It still sticks when being rolled up. If you push on the lock button while holding the handle in, the pieces can slide past each other and you can no longer open the door. This is the only way we found to reproduce the problem... we have no idea how it happened the first time. We became very good at taking the door apart... The bushings (or dingbats, as my boyfriend calls them) on the linkages are plastic and prone to wear. If you dont have them on, the linkage parts can unhook themselves and you can find yourself with only 2 gears... usually the most useless two for the situation (ever try to drive in traffic with 3rd and 4th as your only gears?). We are currently still lacking one, mainly cause we cant figure out how to get to the place where it belongs. I think to do it we might need to pull the transmission... ha ha ha. The steering wheel is cracked in two places by the smaller ring around the steering column itself. It doesnt seem to affect steering however. the accelerator cable froze, and the clutch cable frayed. But the clutch is easy to adjust... we cant find the timing mark to save our souls... we think they have it in invisible ink or something... We *think* the rear wheel bearings are going... the car has a strange vibration at about 60-65 mph, and we have tightened the castle nut (?terminology?) on one side 3 times in the past 1000 miles... btw, you have to remove the rear wheel bearings to get at the rear brakes, but not to the nut to adjust for the brakes (thank ghu!). At the start of a long trip last summer, the car started overheating. The nearest we can figure is that the fan was randomly deciding whether or not to run... We arent sure what we did, but we jiggled all the connections and it started working again... so we called it good and kept going. No repeat that we have detected... (yes, this is the same trip as the aforementioned illfated one... it was fun!) We have factory installed air conditioning... an interesting tidbit is something called the Anti-Diesel Relay which sits under the dash on the passenger side... as near as we can tell, it turns on the A/C to stop the engine when you turn the car off... (no lie, that is what hte circuit diagram looks like! the behaviour of hte car bears it out...) I would love to know what happens with a car with no A/C... If you want to work on the car yourself, and have a mechanic for a friend, do your best to get the Shop Manual for it. It is much more detailed than the commercially available books, and is necessary for some things. Warning!!! I dont know how common this is, but the car recently tried to immolate itself. There was a small leak in the gas line in the area to the left of the engine as you look toward the windshield, which dripped on something electric... the only reason my bf noticed was cause the hood insulation caught fire and made smoke. Dodge "fixed" this by running the gas line *over* the engine... which now makes it even more difficult to maneuver the wiring harness... ack. this is too long already. If you want more info, I can grab my bf and sit him at the tty to tell all, but I think I have covered most everything. (sorry folks... ) I think the car is a beauty, and we havent had major problems. Good luck with yours, whereever and whoever you are..... vrooooooom! /amqueue