OK don't laugh, but I am in dire need of some advice! I traded my boat for a 97 Avenger with 155000 miles this weekend. The only thing I was told was that the check engine light was on. Supposedly a diagnostics was done and the spark pugs needed to be changed. The guy said he looked at then and that they are cheap plugs so he did nothing. I was trying to help out a friend that needed a car soI wentandpicked the car up about 50 miles from where I live.It seemed to drive fine on the way back but to be honest I was not looking for something like that. It was all highway so there was not a lot of shifting. Itdid takeabout 1/2 tank of gas to get home. It sat for a few days other then to go around the block.When my friend took it for a more lengthy drive he found that it wont shift into 3RD. It hits hard when you take off or slow down and a times it feels like it wants to shift into 3RD but just doesn't. When you let off the gas it slows down fast. The rpms are running about 35 at 55mph.Its blowing black out the exhaust. Today I took it to a tranny shop and the guy could not get thediagnostic toread the car. He tried on the engine side and same thing.When he looked at the fluid it was red/clear like it may have been possibly recently replace. He mentioned the limp mode and said maybe changing the plugs would fix the black smoke problem and maybe that would fix the check engine light and the tranny!!?? The guy I got it from naturally says it was fine when he drove it down to meet me. The only place that said they maybe able to do somethingwill cost me a minimum of$200.00 to see if they can tell anything.I just need someone to point me in a direction of where to start and be honest with me possibilities of the problem. You can call me stupid I have been doing so all week as well as my friends and family have!!!!!

 

hey, it sounds like u may have a damaged head gasket, pr the plugs could be messed up, it could also be the shift solienoid on the transmission

 

I DOUBT plugs will fix the tranny they are unrelated .... Go to Autozone ect and get the codes from the Check Engine light that might give us more info to give you advice

 

that would be the best way of doing it