Thread: My wife's car is boring

And it's novel time.....


What a nightmare. Got halfway through the install and the wife called said she was feeling sick and needed to be picked up. Car was still somewhat apart so I quickly put everything back together and it wouldn't start. Decided to leave it alone and go pick her up in my GP, boy was that mistake. Transmission started to overheat and slipping got worse. Finally get there and sat in the 100 degree weather while it "cooled" off. Waited 45 minutes started it up and didn't cool off at all. Said screw it and attempted to drive anyways. Got out to the main road and wouldn't shift out of first. Limped it into Sonic and had to call a tow truck.

$85 and we are back home. Started to tackle the car once again and couldn't figure it out. I was already pissed from having to tow the other car home. We were going to pick up the GTO from the shop later and I didn't want to wait another day to get it. I take everything back off and realize one of the ears had broken off(issue 1 for no start). FML! I'm assuming I had over tightened one of the plenum bolts and it snapped, but didn't notice it earlier. No problem I have an extra L26 intake I have sitting in the garage I was going to use for my turbo build. Move everything over but the map sensor and install it. Uninstall the original MAP sensor off her car and the top part of it falls right off. (Not wanting to run issue 2) I'm like my day can't get any worse than this. Okay easy fix I'll walk over to autozone and get a new one. 30 minutes later after I'm back at the house with a new one in hand ready to put this behind me. I go to put the plastic retaining clip that goes over the PCV valve and its not wanting to go in. That's odd what's going on here? Take a close look and realized it's not a full circle and it appeared the person who sold it to me had taken a pry bar to the that piece and bent it in. Well that's fantastic so I attempt to hammer it gently and it's not moving. At this point I'm so frustrated and pissed I grab some pliers say a few choice words at the car and snap it off. Call local parts stores and no one has a upper plenum. Rock auto has it, but it wouldn't be here in time for our trip. So I make the dreaded phone call to the dealer which they happily tell me it's $185. Whatever, I'm so pissed right now I could careless I just need this car running. Head up there fork over the cash and on the way back the shop calls and tells me the condenser they received for the GTO has a huge hole in the middle of it. They have to ship it back and it doesn't matter anyways cause its a cheap one and won't even bolt on right. Fantastic, lets go with the dealer one since its only a $100 more. Why they didn't do that in the first place is beyond me. Also my car won't be ready till the following day. Get back to the house install the 3rd manifold and it fires right up.
So $310 later, $400 if you include the junk manifold I bought last year her car is running and driving like a stock GP. FML Now I'm waiting to hear from the shop to pick up my GTO later today. Which is hopefully soon cause I need to rip some gears on the highway to relieve the stress I just caused.

PS- I don't want to hear another person on this forum complain of prices for their GP. They obviously haven't priced anything for a GTO. That is all....

If I'm feeling froggy I will go back and reinstall the insert at a later time when we actually have a 2nd vehicle here that is reliable.

Wow bad day

You have a TK trans in your car don't you?

Damn.... however people ask why i never work on my car and don't do things. Same reason. Although I can typically fall back on my pickup. (which needs a pile of work itself).

Night I decided to rocker/Gen V my car.. yeah I had a loud tick from the valvetrain upon startup and took the truck to work.

Originally Posted by dsmuts

Wow bad day

It was a bad day, but it could have been worse. I'm still alive, wife's car is running, and she just shrugged and said **** happens when it comes to cars. You know your wife is a true car gal when she thinks this way. Then she got all sad and said "so no vroom vroom for me?" Lol

Originally Posted by GMR Badass

You have a TK trans in your car don't you?

Yep.

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

Damn.... however people ask why i never work on my car and don't do things. Same reason. Although I can typically fall back on my pickup. (which needs a pile of work itself).

Night I decided to rocker/Gen V my car.. yeah I had a loud tick from the valvetrain upon startup and took the truck to work.

I hear ya! You know I've been working on cars the past 16 years and have my good and bad days when it comes to them. Just the luck of the draw when it comes to working on cars. It's the part I dislike the most when things don't go as expected. However, there does come a point in time when being able to afford having someone else work on cars comes about. There is something nice about dropping a car off at a shop, going about life, and picking it up later ready to go.

People like to argue, well I built this and that person had a shop do the work. Its like they are better than them and it's a sad argument. At the end of the day the work is completed and the car goes just as fast. One just chose to sweat their ass off and gain a little more knowledge on how to do something. I've never been to a car show or dragstrip where someone was awarded extra "points" or was thought of being more "cool" cause they did the work themselves. If people feel otherwise they are living in fantasyland. It's all about time and money and how someone wants to spend it.

Yup.. I once dropped my truck off for a couple cats, o2's and a fuel sender. Considering the cats were free (warranty) the o2's and sender were effing expensive.

Plus..most wouldn't want to work on my car. You look at most things on it and they don't make sense for the car/year you have in front of you.