1. Front Brake Pads. Excuse me if this has been beaten to death already, I looked back through some of the older posts and found nothing pertinent.

Front factory pads were worn out by about 30,000 miles. Bought a set of "premium" Wagner pads - HORRIBLE!!! Squealed like Ned Beatty in "Deliverence", and eventually caused some harmonic problems at low-speed braking. I don't buy the story that the factory pads HAVE to wear out in 30k in order to function properly, I've seen too many other cars that stopped at least as effectively with much better pad life.

Anyone have any suggestions on aftermarket pads? I know that Carbon Metallic is considering offering us a pad sometime in 2001, but that does nto currently help me.

2. Front Passenger-side door "spring" - the mechanism that keeps the door open has malfunctioned on my car. When the door is opened to the point where it should "catch", instead I get an obnoxiously loud "twang" sound. It appears that the mechanism that keeps the door open has broken/come loose inside the door jamb or fender.

Anyone else have this happen? Anyone know how to fix it?

3. Gas tank mounted emissions valve - This is some silly little valve that performs some rather mundane function dealing with gas vapors to the charcoal cannister, or something similar. It FIRST failed right after the warrenty expired, and it cost me $275 to have it replaced. Within 3 months, it had failed again. Within a WEEK, it had failed a 3rd time. It now appears that it may have failed once again!! The dealer has not charged for the subsequent replacements, but still this is ridiculous!!

The dealer (although helpful) is located over an hour away, and it is a pain to waste a whole day dealing with this issue. Does anyone know of a way to permanently fix this problem, or at least keep it from activating the "Check Engine" light?

A less than satisfied 850 owner,

Lee