I'm back. New project. LOL.

[Gregorius]

My red 98 GTP is now my brothers rusted out work car. Still on the road with 200k + though.

I had been looking for a new shell for a low mile 3800 S2 I have sitting in the corner. Until this weekend. Ran across something I couldn't pass up.

She is a 2004 GT2. Metallic Tan. 160k. Totally stock with no blower. Nice chrome 16's, sun roof, leather. A rustless Montana car, hard to find here in the salt belt of Iowa. Runs with lots of issues, but motor trans body interior are all solid. It was calling my name when saw it.

The price was...in the 3 digits...so....there goes my summer.

[Gregorius]

Oh, sweet dammit. Been meaning to add something here forever.

The "list" has been much larger than expected. I kind of wanted to make a project thread, but damned. I spent 3 weeks putting out fires and making headway to driveability land. Took a week off. Insured it. It's on the road, still with issues.

Fixed/replaced dealt with: in no discernible order.

Rack and pinion. Dorman? part autozone. Shot from running without fluid.
Powster pump. Same as above.
Powster return line, rusted thru. Caused the above.
Powster pressure line. Because well. Derp. Why not.

ABS/Traction off light/messages. Seemed to be dirty/oxidized connector at the abs pump. Still have a flaky wheel sensor on the driver front. Edit: nope still bad, FIXED. Negative battery ground to the inner fender corroded. See Below.

HUD way low/not visible. Pulled dash cover. Took unit apart. New hole for mirror spring. Kinda fixed. Rebuilt Console Control wheel. HUD good as new.

Pass rear trailing arm. Bent ! ? U shaped channel sides were touching about 9 inches from the body mount, arm bent "up" 1.5 inches. Ditched? Jumped a parking block? Some jackass jacked the car up on it? Straightened it up on the press at work, then whacked it with a "ford wrench" to shock it. Good as new.

Rear Brake pads. Ceramics autozone parts. No squeaks.
Semi Frozen rear caliper pins, both sides. Freed, cleaned, wire brushed, regreased. Oh look. The brakes work.
Painted Rear Brake calipers Red. Why not? Better than oxidized aluminum.

Leaky front coolant elbow. Not seating. Aluminum. Erh? You don't suppose... YUP. Removed 1/4 inch of old plastic coolant elbow from intake. 1 coolant leak down.
Lower Intake Manifold gaskets. 2nd coolant leak fixed. Felpro.
Upper IM. Yup. Yuck. Felpro. Series 3 Aluminum Upper. Not leaking from egr or melted. Sweet.

Beast wouldn't warm up. Thermostat. 185 deg. Drilled small 1/16 in hole in the rim away from the gasket. Should help bleeding. Fixed.

Stock single CD player. No display, not taking a cd. Took bastard out/apart. 20 bucks got a crappy similar unit from my fav graveyard. Swapped out player unit. Someone had removed a jammed disk with what appeared to be air tools and a bad attitude. Got replacement bulbs from Radio Shack. I still have one of those here. 5 bad bulbs. Head unit good as new. Then, added aux input jack to the faceplate. Stole the leads from the XM unit. Sweet phone tunes. Keeping the stock unit for hud/steering wheel controls. And stealth. Accumulating stereo parts. 3 amps, sub and wires from a past vehicle. Nothing too crazy... a few 100 watts. o.k., 500 per but whatever. Shopping for 6x9's and component 6.5's. Leaning towards Kicker.

To be continued.

[WarStryker13]

It's an 04, but it came with a plastic UIM?

And pics. lol

[Gregorius]

Con't:

Car had 1 decent tire on it. Previous owner had to replace a bad tire out of town. A Falken 828. Still like new. Replaced a really freakin bald somethign with another Falken 828 from Discount Tire. Manager was a Knob. So good fronts. Backs are 3/32's left on Multi-Mile crappo walmart tires. One with a pulled belt, it seems. Oh well. Budget. Next week.

What else. Oh.

Headlights. Attempt to refinish. Hand sanded with 320 grit till uniform to get the old acrylic off. Wet sanded 600 then 1500. DA polish with buffing compound. Not terrible. Rattle can acrylic clear. Rustoleum? Drive side Nice! Just a bit of foggy and some stress cracks. Pass side well hrmm. Lots of tiny cracks, foggy clear...too thick. Wasted time. Better than they were. But...SCREW.
Ordered TYC replacements for both sides yesterday from ebay. 118 shipped. That'll fix em

Gas cap ! Gas cap ! Gas cap ! CHECK ENGINE CODE 404? 440? large leak! OH NOES!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHECK YOUR GAS CAP!! DIC Gas cap !
Did I mention it was reminding me that maybe the gas cap was loose? Cannister Purge valve? In side the rear bumper. Valve stuck. 16 bucks thru the place I worked at. Fine. I hope the car feels stupid. The gas cap was fine.

Oh holy crap. The cruise control started working now that all the dash lights aren't blinking and fussing. Contacts still need cleaned up or something in the stalk. Probably oxidixed from disuse because the previous owner was an IDIOT and just drove it into the ground in stead of.. fixing something? Anything?

Tranny filter and almost 8 qts of dex/merc fluid. Much better, shifting better, it was really "bubble headed" on 1-2 shifts and lazy dropping into 1 from park. Fluid is an acceptable color now. Filter postmortem revealed some goop, no metal or gasket material. Magnet had a reasonable amount of flour on it. Sweet.

Yeah, Oil after the Gaskets. Straight old school Full Syn Mobile1. None of that high mile crap. Extended use STP filter. It looked ok inside:metal valve thick filter medium. It and 5qts of the above oil were 31 bucks on sale...so...eh give it 7k or so I guess.

AW HELL. Coolant leak #3. Sigh. Long one. Loosing 2 quarts of coolant every 30 mile trip. No puddles parked. Waterfall sound under the dash and an empty jug let me know I had an Issue. Ut oh, I says to myself. Damn - Head gasket. Looking under the car running, no drips. No coolant under the hood. Dammit. Well....****. It's idling just beautiful <still thinking to myself> Like Perfect. Sewing machine. Not a single missed beat in 20 minutes perfect. Can't be a head gasket.. can it? Wishful thinking? I'm too lazy, I don't wanna pull heads... and there is no white in the exhaust.. it has to be something?? Had me stumped for a few days. Then the coolant consumption spikes. WTH, man? Another poke under the bumper....OH HELL look at that! 4 drips off the radiator support. The freakin mystery radiator leak tank got me ! Well, more money but...Relief. No Bad head gasket! Next day I pull it up to the shop to swap in a new radiator......pop hood..... and I hear a faint hiss. Like a sizzle. Erh? What in the hell... oh noes. *facepalm*
You know that gasket? The one they give you in the kit.. the one that goes well... over there... and screw that. The extra crap you don't need? The leftover one you don't care about? Yeah. The one you *would* replace working on someone else's car because it's there, but on your own stuff maybe you say... those don't fail.. F*** it. Yeah THAT gasket. The square one. The Coolant bypass gasket that goes on the end of the intake manifold behind the exhaust crossover pipe? Yeah, that bastard blew out a section an inch long on the top. Squirted coolant at the firewall and onto the exhaust only after the therm opened after it warmed up on longer trips.

To be Cont !

[Gregorius]

It's an 04, but it came with a plastic UIM?

And pics. lol

Yes it was was aluminum. Just remarking that I was happy not to be spending another 75 bucks for another piece of plastic like usual.

Oh god Pics. I have none. I'll get something posted.. erm. Someday.

[WarStryker13]

Oh! was confused there for a moment. lol

On the headlights, mine were about the same lol but I found a trick on GPONA to use 1 part spar urethane and 1 part mineral spirits, comes out really nice and even, blue shop towel dipped in a cup of the stuff.

Mine was in almost the same place two years ago, but making the trip from Germany to Alaska on a boat just about destroyed the suspension... And I have an axle that's on it's last legs. yours seems to be coming along pretty decent, good luck with everything else!

[Gregorius]

Oh! was confused there for a moment. lol

On the headlights, mine were about the same lol but I found a trick on GPONA to use 1 part spar urethane and 1 part mineral spirits, comes out really nice and even, blue shop towel dipped in a cup of the stuff.

Mine was in almost the same place two years ago, but making the trip from Germany to Alaska on a boat just about destroyed the suspension... And I have an axle that's on it's last legs. yours seems to be coming along pretty decent, good luck with everything else!

Interesting recipe for headlights there..I'll tuck that away for future use. I wonder if it would fill those little stress cracks...

Axles are $40-50 delivered from assmazon. Fix it now, dammit ! LOL

I learned the hard way long time ago... snap an axle on the side of the road...and Park no longer means PARK ! I had to swap a shaft into an '82 Olds Omega from the bottom of the ditch it rolled into after I got out and walked home. No cell phones in those days. I came back later in the day and the car was gone! Then saw it had rolled down 50 feet down the slight hill I had parked it on and into the ditch. I was young and didn't realize that um...well yeah....

[WarStryker13]

Well... in reality it's still fine, only a little bit of play in it. but the outside boot came off the end during the trip overseas and salt water had to have gotten in there. It's clunking like crazy over bumps, but no grinding yet. I need a few paychecks to get everything it needs, so it's only one trip over to the garage... but the list includes struts, mounts, bushings for everything, AXLES, sway bars, springs and exhaust. Might swing for some lowering springs and thicker sways, and maybe a nice set of mufflers, but the modding shall commence slowly. This car's got some life left in her still. lol

[Gregorius]

Con't somemore.

Well. Gonna clean up the list. Misc stuff I have forgotten...

Gas Gauge. Sender in the tank. Access panel in the trunk you can work on from the back seats... if they lay down. Sweet. Just did the Sender, it was 12 bucks or something.

One sway-bar link was loose, Driver front. It had a semi-stripped <sae?> nut of the wrong threads on it the top. Let the Link rattle around and must have been clunking a long time, as it had egg-shaped the hole in the strut ear. 2 washers and um, a nut. Link was still tight... cheap fix.

Tires!
Upon further review, found a nasty 6 inch flat-spot on crap rear tire. Same side/axle as the bent trailing arm. Gosh. Maybe that's what that sound is. Always assumed I had a bad suspension part related to the bent arm.
Screw the budget, replace those. I wanted a matched set of tires, so back to a *Different* Discount tire, one without a dick for a manager. Paid for matching Falken Sincera 828's for the rear. Tires installed, off I go. I had crap to do ! After a short trip I had the chance to actually look at the tires. Erh? Right size, right brand.. aw hell. What is a G4 AS ? Wrong Tires ! Back I went to DT. I walked up to the counter and non-dick manager was like , "Oh Hi. What happened?". He went out and looked. Seems someone needs to go back to tire pulling school. The Falken G4 AS is a better tire, 20 bucks more ea. He said, well, we can swap the right tires on, but I can see if you just want to keep them.. They are very similar to the 828. Longer rating 65k mi vs 50, same Trac/load/temp. A little thicker tread and they are asymmetrical <they have a This Side Out but not a rotation direction>. They look the same viewed from the side, same shoulder tread, and from 20 feet look identical to the fronts. I kept them. Might be more fun to drive. Car rides um.. Nice now, I was surprised.

[Gregorius]

More Cont.

License plate light out. 2 bulbs. 94's? Fixed.

Repaint 1/3 of the rear bumper skin. 12 chips showed the black plastic underneath, like someone always backed into the same cinderblock wall in the morning. Lots of coats with rattle-cans, and wet sanding in-between and polishing after. Long Project. Looks nice, no drips, no swirl. Color matched. 4 color coats, 5 clear coats. Also patched a dime-sized spot of rust under Drivers Rear fender lip. Since Duplicolor doesn't make the 929L Cashmere Metallic match I had a can of a Toyota Beige from my old Camry. I checked it by spraying a little under the trunk lid. Dead on. A better match to the color of say, the doors, than the color match between the hood and the plastic nose of the original paint. Really good. Should be listed as a cross match at Duplicolor. Dupli-Color BTY1581 Almond Beige Pearl is the actual name.

Pics, yeah I know.

TYC Headlights came, and have been installed. Damn. Nice! Good parts. $118 shipped, 3 days to arrive. Ebay. Came with new rubbers and bulbs installed. Identical to stock.
Open hood, pull white lock up, pull old assembly out. Disconnect 1 plug. Reverse new ones in. Took 3 minutes to swap both headlights. Perfect. New "eyes" make a Huge difference. The car looks 5 years newer. Aw dammit. Now I need new fog/turns cause they don't match.... !!!


What follows made my week: a break-thru !

So much time and energy put into this car. I was getting fatigued. Every dammed thing was broken. Every system on the car had needed attention, fixed or replaced. Well, o.k. The windshield wasn't cracked and the regulators all worked. The money was still making sense, but the time/energy was getting a bit much. Because the car still had Deamons: buggy crap that would be require trackdown time and maybe piles of money. Time is in short supply for me in the summer. Those deamons all had to do with:

Brakes/abs, Cruise control, Odd low speed steering.

Sometimes, at low speeds, the ABS would engage on braking and buzz the pedal for a second. No service lights, just Traction Control Engaged would flash up then poof, just like I was sliding on snow. Other times above 20-30 MPH I would get the full ABS disabled/Trac control off crap and both warning lights would stay on until the Key was taken out and the door opened. Sometimes an ABS Pedal buzz backing up, sometimes flashing lights... when turning left. It all mostly went away for a week or so after cleaning the harness at the ABS pump, but soon returned. I hadn't gotten around to re-scanning for codes, but it had had stored ABS codes when I first bought it last month concerning both front hubs. Signal issue Right, No signal Left..etc. The exact p-codes are lost to time. Worrying issue. Deamon #1

The Cruise actually started "working", after all the warning lights and codes were dealt with <exception being the intermittent ABS> but it was... not right. I thought the stalk was bad, it acted like it had bad contacts. Sometimes you could set the cruise, the DIC would say Cruise Set, but it would instantly cancel itself. Then, most of the time, pushing the Stalk up to accelerate or resume would do nothing or flash that it was trying but then your speed would just slowly settle. 1/5 times it worked like I thought it should. Unusable. Irritating because I constantly drive cars with the cruise control as soon as I'm over 30 MPH. Really. Rarely use the gas pedal. So that SUCKED. Damn Deamon #2

Steering effort was too stiff at low speeds: Sometimes. And the assist curve seemed off. After replacing the ENTIRE DAMN SYSTEM I thought maybe I had gotten poorly rebuilt rack. Or it didn't like the Fluid? Hmm. I mostly blamed Poor GM engineering, maybe the newest gen of GP's had crap steering. I have read how easy it is to get a badly rebuilt rack, and the high failure rates from the factory didn't inspire confidence. Was becoming convinced that Magnasteer II just sucks. The steering "boost" wouldn't drop out and come right back like it was doing originally.. and no Lights/DIC messages.. it just.. felt crappy. I was going deal with it, but other priorities were at hand... a pain in the ass that I shouldn't be having UGH.... Deamon #3

I went after Daemon #1 2 days ago.I started with a continuity test of the front hubs while wiggling the harness. Both sides rock solid, 1157-1160 Ohms. Not a twitch. You could induce 3-5 millivolts if you spun the wheel. Check. Pulled the connector off the at pump and probed while tugging the wires around.. Same. The harnesses and hubs seemed fine. There are 2 grounds out of the harness that carry the ABS wires, both go to a bolt on the Trans. I had previously cleaned those up. They were eliminated as a problem. Hmm. I started wondering which hub sucked and my butt puckered when I saw on my phone that they were $150 each locally. Yowch. Well.... despite the previous codes concerning the fronts, I conceded that I needed to go thru the back hubs/harnesses before I threw money at the problem. I took a break before swapping the jacks/stands around, lit a cigarette and stared off into space
.
And then IT happened. Sometimes.. sometimes it happens. That little voice chirped a little something in the back of my head.
It said: "Hey, what about that thing that guy said in that post on that website?" What, that Ground Wire thing? **** off, I'm busy. Well, I can look...he said something about the ground connection from the negative battery sucks and the cable is about a foot and a half long and bolts into the upper fender right under the fuse box right about... oh hey. I bet that's it. Huh that uh.. yeah. That looks like crap. So I started taking it off. And lo and behold, it did suck. The eye connector was bolted to a painted surface, so the juice had to go out one side of the eye to the bolt head and thru the bolt threads into the rusty crap threaded crap into the body of the car, and it had rusted, and was crap. And was oxidized and looked hideous. And was ugly and fat and no one liked it anyway. It actually had white corrosion fuzz trapped between the top side of the eye and the bolt head like a corroded battery terminal. Sandpapered off the paint, and the connector, and a wirebrush to the bolt. And Dielectric grease on all of it. I called it a day. It was dinner time. I wondered if it would help the ABS issue.

I didn't wonder long. I knew as soon as I pulled it out of the drive way. The steering was light reversing out onto the alley, where there was loose gravel. The rear tires slipped slightly but didn't trigger a protest from the ABS when braking to shift R to D. Huh? It was all gone. The steering effort was, and 2 days later, is still exactly what I think it should be at all times. The ABS hasn't made a peep. And the cruise control works consistantly, Flawlessly.

I'll be a sonofa*****. All that from one crappy connection? What a relief. That post from that guy, was from a guy on here. Now I gotta go find that post and send someone a cookie. Or a beer. Something.

DEAMONS #1 #2 #3 DEAD.

[WarStryker13]

hmm... Now I need to check mine. lol

btw got that axle replaced