So I bought an EL Fairmont for $800 and found that EVERYTHING was faulty somehow. I've managed to fix pretty much everything, but there are still a couple issues with it and was wondering if anyone could help me confirm what they are:

1. The revs drop to 0 sometimes while driving. The car has done this 3 times, and jabbing at the throttle pedal seems to kick the car back to life. All electrics stay on and the car seems fine apart from no RPM.

2. The car won't start sometimes. It'll fire then IMMEDIATELY stop and not start again. Sometimes it'll fire after a few tries, sometimes it won't. Spraying some Start Ya Bastard into the TB kicks it into life.

3. The car seems to struggle to get up hills after a while of driving, especially at high speeds or on the highway at high RPM's. Going up even a slight gradient after a while requires me to put my foot almost halfway down, which kicks the engine down a gear or two but produces little to no actual momentum, just high revs. The car goes hard, so I'm not suspecting a power issue. The throttle cable is rooted though (doesn't feel slack, but the metal tube is rusted, exposed and does not sit in place. I've had to cable tie it to prevent it from moving when the pedal is pushed), and I was wondering if that could be the issue.

4. The throttle pedal feels nice and loose when I first turn the car on, but seems to slowly get stiffer and harder to push the longer I drive. This is accompanied by the above issue, i.e. harder to get up hills, car goes changes gears to compensate but doesn't go anywhere very fast.

BONUS: Only one of my brake lights is working, according to my friend. I replaced the brake switch about 4 months ago. Could it need replacing again? Both bulbs are working fine but only one increases in brightness when the brake pedal is pushed.

Cheers guys.

i had similar with AU ... had ta wiggle globe in socket ta get ta work. otherwise its a blown globe

Answers in red.

I guess there's a reason it was $800.

1. Car does not 'die' as the electrics and all that still work fine, the guage just drops to 0, but I don't get any throttle response when it is sitting at 0. So technically yeah, it dies.

2. I'll check the ISC, but have cleaned it recently, same with the throttle body. The car also has new leads and plugs.

3. The cable ties are around the throttle cable tubing near the master brake cylinder to prevent the tubing from moving erratically when I push the pedal. It's hard to explain, but the issue was there way before I tied the thing in place. The car also has a brand new cat/extractors so my theory of a blocked cat causing the low power went out the window.

4. Cleaned recently, but I'll give it another shot just in case.

5. Yeah, it was a filament. Easy fix.

Ah, cheers man. I'll look into the dizzy.

As for resetting the ECU, yeah I've tried it. Doesn't seem to change a thing.