Need help! I have a cool 96 tracker with a 1.6 L engine that I've had four maybe five years. When I purchased it it was running reasonably well, idled fine and could push it to 55-60 on highway. Does burn off some oil on startup after been sitting and also has a leak thats small. When I took it to a shop to try to get it to run better they put a bunch of hours into tuneup,changing spark plugs changing sensors like mass airflow , throttle Etc. Also injector cleaning, gas and oil treatments with Seafoam. I'm in lower DE Ocean City MD area. Looks great but the more mechanics mess with it the worse it runs. Right now so poorly I can't use it at all. Any idea what's the problem? Could bad pcm module be making it run like crap?  Short of an engine and related parts swap can anyone recommend a mechanic within 100 miles of me who has extensive experience with this vehicle? Just a fun weekender, beach vehicle. Not looking to turn it into a daily driver. 3024486009. Paul

When running good, it should run 55-60 MPH easily.
The burning off of oil is probably valve stem seals. Most higher mileage 16Vs have that issue. That will not cause a poor running issue.
No sensors should have been changed out unless they were verified to be bad. I would assume they didn't test them and just started throwing parts at it, to see if it would help.
I doubt the PCM (ECM) is bad. The 96s weren't known for the common ECM issues like the early 90s ones were.

How many miles are on the tracker? With proper maintenance and common sense driving these motors should run 200,000 miles fairly easily.

There is nothing special about a trackick engine compared to any other engine out there, when it comes to diagnosing, tuneups, etc.
Sounds like to me the mechanics you took it to just wanted to swap a bunch of parts and charge you what I am sure was a shitload of money.
Of course I do not know any mechanics in your area, since I am not remotely close to your area. But I can give you some basics on what should be done (in my opinion), when diagnosing an engine that seems to be down on power.
Make sure the check engine light is working and isn't on. If it is on, work through the issues that the codes indicate until the issues causing the codes are resolved.
Compression check
Timing check/adjustment
Valve clearance check/adjustment
Test the various sensors

For tune ups, I suggest...
New plugs (I like the NGK brand)
New plug wires (16Vs are bad about spark plug wires causing poor running issues, in my experience)
New distributor cap and rotor
New timing belt (every 100K miles or so)

I have a Suzuki SideKick 96. Its in great running shape. I use 10w30 synthetic oil. Each spring I clean the injectors with STP (silver bottle) injector cleaner. Wait till you have to go on a highway drive, add the STP to a half full tank, fill the tank full & hit the highway. The combination of high speed & extended driving thoroughly cleans the injectors. I also use only supreme gas. If you have any idling problems check the EGR valve. I took my truck to 3 garages (spending over 1K) & no one could find the problem. Checking the Suzuki forums, someone mentioned the EGR valve & the 4th garage fixed it for $60. Clean air filter. Check/replace fuel filter.

I have a Suzuki SideKick 96. Its in great running shape. I use 10w30 synthetic oil. Each spring I clean the injectors with STP (silver bottle) injector cleaner. Wait till you have to go on a highway drive, add the STP to a half full tank, fill the tank full & hit the highway. The combination of high speed & extended driving thoroughly cleans the injectors. I also use only supreme gas. If you have any idling problems check the EGR valve. I took my truck to 3 garages (spending over 1K) & no one could find the problem. Checking the Suzuki forums, someone mentioned the EGR valve & the 4th garage fixed it for $60. Clean air filter. Check/replace fuel filter.

Replacing the air filter and fuel filter are 2 things that should be done if you don't know or don't recall when they were replaced last. I should have had them on my list.

Thanks I appreciate the input. Yeah we've changed the fuel filter and air filter, all kinds of things. One thing I haven't done is drain all the fuel out of it. I'm thinking maybe there's just enough water in the tank because it's at quite a while before I purchased it. But that's not the whole story I'm sure because when I first got it it ran decently, enough to use it and it hardly runs at all at this point. I'll talk with a mechanic who has worked on it the most about the EGR. I don't think that's something that he considered