Where in Jersey do you live? I know this guy who lives in Jersey and would work on your car for reasonable prices ... His name is Scottydoggs
|
Where in Jersey do you live? I know this guy who lives in Jersey and would work on your car for reasonable prices ... His name is Scottydoggs
I should caveat that he's a little intimidating due to his 6 4ish height.. he's a nice enough and laid back guy though
I said intimidating, pretty sure I've never seen you stand up straight either. hahaha
Im in north jersey. While I appreciate the offer, this car is a lost cause. Fix one issue and another comes up. I guess that's normal for an 11 year old car though.
Thanks
The issue is everytime this guy works on my car, my CEL comes on. The first time around my car was overheating and he said it needed the heads and valves serviced. ok did that. then he said that I needed a new radiator which I agree with because I never had heat in the winter. 2 days after this was done my car stalled 2 miles from my house. Had it towed to him and he said that something corroded and he fixed it for free. Great. Next day, CEL comes on again. This time code is for upstream O2 sensor and crankshaft sensor. Had him do the crankshaft sensor and I did the O2. CEL still on. That was back in August of last year. Been riding with it on until my power steering went. He replaced the rack and pinion and cleared my CEL. 2 days later is when I got the message about reduced engine.So I go back to him, he clears the code again. Then the CEL comes back on. He read the codes but I forgot them. Needless to say, I dont trust him and what are the chances of all this happening on its own? I think if my car stalled right in front of his shop Id have it towed somewhere else!
well imo if the car runs fine as in it starts up idles and revs smooth. then the heads and valves are fine unless your looking for high hp but overheating really has nothing to do with those things unless you cracked a head or something which I've never heard of on a grand prix and even then i think a cracked head that thing would have a hard time idling. but all those other things are routine maintenance especially for the mileage you've owned the car. but like we've been saying go to the auto parts store oriellys, advanced auto, autozone, and i think napa too they should but ive never went there for it so i cant confirm. they will all do it completely free and even give advice on what needs to be changed if they can if not give us the code and we will get down to it best we can
radiator doesnt cause no heat in winter- pluggered up heater core does. overheating is usually a water pump/plugged cooling system issue.
there is a very good reason WE should get all of the replaced parts when work is done- he very well could have just flushed the cooling system and cleaned up everything to make it look new.
im wondering if anyone on here knows a trustworthy mechanic in your neck of the woods.
i swapped out my radiator and if took care of an overheating issue i had but my radiator had that dex-mud from previous neglect even after the ChrisFix flush haha but youre are right about the no heat in fact i feel my heat got WORSE with a new radiator. not anything noticeable maybe like 10 deg or so i might be biased haha but i can tell you for a fact my heat didn't get better.
You could buy a $100 code reader and clear them your self and see what comes back. And diagnose from there.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I actually had a neighboring mechanic do exactly that twice to fix my heat problem. He flushed my heater core. Once in November 2017 and again in March 2018. The last time he did it he said something about me possibly having overheating issues in the future but didn't say why. 2 months later, that's exactly what started happened. No matter what I did, the temp went straight up, but never actually overheated.So I went to this other mechanic who I recently went to, I'll call him "Charlie", and he said I needed my heads shaved, valves redone...something like that..costs $1750. I just had taken out a loan and was about to have a few weeks off of work so he said it would take about a week so I figured, perfect timing. I get back from vacation and he said "Oh by the way, I didn't want to interrupt your vacation but you also needed a radiator which costs an additional $200". He said he wouldn't charge me any labor. I looked around and some people said that was nuts and others said it could possibly fix the issue, so I went with it and I have to say I never had problems with my heat or overheating again. Now whether or not the heads shaving deal fixed it or maybe he did something else, I dont know. Thats the thing, I know the basics about vehicles but not enough to tell if I am being screwed. And regarding the code reading, I did go to advanced auto 3 times and all 3 times it gave the same oxygen sensor message even after I replaced it. It said it was upstream. Can't figure this car out.
i have no idea what head shaving would do other than flatten a warped head and i dont think ive ever read or heard of these heads warping and warped heads typically show up with water in the oil,loosing coolant due to coolant going into a cylinder,and/or white smoke. ive had it happen after a serious overheating, but that wasnt a GM.
on the o2 issues, i dont know how these 3.8's are but i had a 96 taurus driving me nuts with o2 codes. i put 90,000 more miles on it without finding the problem. ran great and gas mileage was still great.
O2 wise.. don't use a bosch sensor in a 3.8L GM. Same with bosch plugs.
For some reason these cars will eat the plugs/sensors in record time and you'll spend forever replacing them/dealing with issues.
i missed this post lol if you want to take a step backwards in years. im letting my regal go in a months time. its super reliable and pretty fast. the body has a load of miles but everything under its been replaced. the trannys got maybe 3k on it. engines got like 115,000. more new crap in the last 2 years then i care to type out.
I went to advanced auto the other day and had them scan it with their cheapo scanner. The lady who scanned it said it came up with “P0420” three times. I didn’t look at what each one said but of course she said it is probably catalytic converter related. She said it could also be the downstream O2 sensor which I could replace myself. What do you guys think?
Originally Posted by BillBoost37
.. don't use a bosch sensor in a 3.8L GM. Same with bosch plugs.
Good thing I don't always listen to you guys. LOL
Originally Posted by Jamcor
The lady who scanned it said it came up with “P0420” three times. I didn’t look at what each one said but of course she said it is probably catalytic converter related. She said it could also be the downstream O2 sensor which I could replace myself.
Yes, could be catalytic or O2. I had this code many years ago and the cat was the culprit.
What are some of the signs of a bad CC? I thought it was the rotten egg smell and if you knocked on it and heard rattling inside then it was bad. Also if it got red hot while warmed up. I have none of these. I am assuming and hoping its a bad downstream O2 sensor. I can do that in 10 minutes.
When I bought my 02 it had a hose clamp with a big thumbscrew head. I had not seen one before but the previous owner said the car ate pumps (he must not have known how to bleed the PS) but considering the location of and potential messes from a loose clamp, one of those might be a good idea so its easier to check. That is, if you can get it tight with the thumbscrew.
« Previous Thread | Next Thread » |
Tags for this Thread |