Ok, I give in. I can't get this car figured out. I have tried and tried and asked a million questions on forum boards and nothing.

So....I am going to take it in. My question is, Is the dealer the best way to go? Or should I go to a local shop?

Find a shop that is familiar with DSM's... I made a huge mistake when I was 16, took my car to the shop... ended up having to take it back there at least 6 times to keep correcting shit they fucked up.

The horrible thing is, I had to argue with the guy over whether Mitsu or Chrysler made the engine. "Its a mitsubishi engine" they said, and I was just a dumb kid, they were fuckin retarded. Never again will I bring my car there again.

Yeah, my car spent 2 weeks at a shop before because the mechanics had no idea what was wrong with it. It just turned out that some bearings in the timing had gone bad and the water pump was "leaking internally"... fine by me, that thing had 134k on it and never had anything done with the timing beforehand.