Just a follow-up on my own fuel trim readings.

Both banks were reading rich at idle but settled down under load. These are the results with transmission in Drive foot on the brake and a little throttle applied.


Driving at 20 MPH the fuel trims were nearly ideal.

If your fuel trim remains rich you may have to run a fuel injector balance test. I don't believe the Tracker PCM supports a scanner-based fuel injector balance test but the link below shows how to perform the test using a stand-alone fuel injector tester.



On my V6 engine the injectors are not easy to get to, however all the injector wiring passes through a 9-pin connector (C102). I can run an injector balance test from that connector.


If your injectors are unreachable, the 1.6 engine also has a C102 connector. I might be able to help with connector pinouts.

 

My 98 4x4 CT automatic transmission has been working fantastic since we changed the fuel pressure regulator. We didn't have a way to test this the tool seems to be expensive and not something that all my mechanics would have. So I made the decision to just go ahead and replace the part it was around $99. I no longer have a check engine light on and I went from getting 12 miles to the gallon to 30 miles per gallon. I don't know that that 30 MPGs is going to be consistent so I'll take an average over time. At the advice of both of my mechanics and because this other thing I'm about to say doesn't fit my personality very well we are going to change my muffler out it had been replaced with a small glass pack Cherry bomb muffler. On inspection of the exhaust system we find that there are four different sizes of pipe from the manifold to the tailpipe at the end and it's such a short distance that we have all decided that as soon as I can afford it I will go to a good muffler guy and we'll make a good a better choice of of possibly turbo flow muffler. But mine is running so good I can do 60 miles an hour up a hill we have an 8% grade near me I was able to keep it right around 60 going up that. Pretty happy right now I still think that having wider tires which meant that I needed to have a two inch spring lift kit accommodate those 235 75 R15 tires the handling is different and you know short wheel base it's not the kind of vehicles I've had before and it's been a learning curve but I'm so much more comfortable with it that I'm not upset about my tire size anymore and I probably will get used to them if I was advising another woman my age maybe not mechanically inclined I would probably tell her to just get some kind of all-terrain tread that's the stock size tires because I think it would be more comfortable for road travel and and pavement travel.
Appreciate all the time and effort the people on this forum have put in to help me with this and I continue to watch it because I'm learning so much I'm not saying there won't be another problem but I really appreciate it so talk to you all soon

 

Which $99 part did you change?

 

Oops I thought I said it in the message I decided to change the fuel pressure regulator and it was a $99 part

 

In an earlier post you had mentioned replacing "a fuel pressure dampener" and "the fuel pressure regulator. I am not familiar with a fuel pressure "dampener." Can you describe what it is or what it does? Also, I was under the impression the engine was running rich after the fuel pressure regulator was replaced. Maybe I confused the timeline.

For anyone who may stumble onto this post later, here is a burb on how the pressure regulator works and why a faulty regulator can cause a rich condition at ide.

 

The engine was running rich after the fuel pressure dampener was replaced.
Damper - GM (96055538) 1998 Chevrolet Tracker https://www.carparts.com/details/Suz...E&gclsrc=gclsr
Please understand I have mechanics working on this for me and I don't always understand everything well. I am however trying to provide as much information for the next guy or gal having this glitch.
If I remember correctly the order of the parts that we changed was this: MAF sensor, fuel pressure dampener, O2 sensor, replace that same O2 sensor, and lastly I personally woohoo changed my first engine part while a mechanic watched me and it was the fuel pressure regulator.
It appears that changing the fuel pressure regulator was the thing that solved the running rich issue
I hope this was as clear-ishSimply,
Lesa

 

Well you taught me something new today. The fuel pressure damper was used on first generation Trackers and Vitaras from 1987 to 1998. My 2001 is a second generation Tracker and does not employ the damper. That's why I did not know what it was.