Thread: New owner, Question about maintenance.

Originally Posted by cheatah faheatah

On Advance Auto website elbows can be found by searching "heater hoses and fittings". As stated above definitely go w/alum. ones. If you haven't already, sign up for adv auto rewards. 20% off for ordering online, and 20$ reward when you purchase 100$. Example: buy just over 125$ minus 20%=just over 100$ so you get 20$ of your next purchase of 50$ or more. So if you buy just over 62.50 minus 20%=just over 50$ minus 20$ reward=just over 30$ which gets you a 5$ reward off next purchase of 20$ or more. So with careful selection of items you can really kill it on the savings. Sometimes I come up short a little bit, so I just add something small like brake fluid or turn signal bulbs(might not need right away) to break the next reward level. Also check their rebate page, brakes&rotors, struts, plugs,etc. are always on there. I got 100$ rebate for 4 struts recently! [ I do not work for advance ] E.

PS: rewards are not instant but mine show up within a week.

Awesome thank you!


One last question for now I hope

Seems to be a sort of chirping/squeeking sound coming from where the belts and pullies are located.
Is there a pulley in particular that is/are notorious for making sounds when needing to be replaced or is it sort of a crap shoot at which one it is?

In addition, i was looking over all the pullies it appears one of the idler pulley does not use a standard bolt to hold it down as i would have expected, it looks as if its some sort of star bolt or alan key perhaps, any insight on that would be much appreciated.

Thank you all so much!!

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

that lower pulley, #9 in the pic is a torx bit, T 50 iirc.

they all wear out, take the belts off, spin the pulleys by hand, see if they wobble, the one thats not spinning smooth is the problem pulley.

Thank you so much!

Was just looking around and noticed that where the rear strut mounts seems to have rusted through =( its cracked up in the part in the trunk pretty bad.

Don't suppose there is any salvaging that is there? I can probably provide pics later when i get home if it helps, my camera phone isn't the best.

But basically where the struts attach in the trunk the area around that appears to have cracked through.

=( =(

Originally Posted by cheatah faheatah

RUT-ROH, RELROY !! Lets see the pix.

I know right. luckily long story short this car was a gift to me and with the exception of these rear wheel wells and really just the rear right, it is in i'd say 9.5/10 condition all around. So that being said I don't mind spending a little money on it to get it driving safely.

I'm not made of money but i'd be willing to invest a little into it since at this point i'm only in for the cost of title transfer and plates.

That being said what's the worst case scenario/going rate at a body shop for something like this?

I have my dads good friend who knows how to weld looking at it tonight to see if he can patch it up but he said if it's too rusty he can't I'm not sure what too rusty is haha

here are some pictures.

Also most importantly for now, is it safe to be driving? and if so what restrictions aside from avoiding pot holes (damn Cleveland streets) and how long could it go like this before getting worse ?

The safety of the car as it is right now is definitely compromised by the look of those pics. I'm sure it is throwing off the wheel alignment slightly. Good News is anything can be fixed if you so desire and have the money to spend on it. This simply needs to have the rust cut out and new metal welded in and is a fairly common issue with these cars, along with Rocker Panel rust.

Is this something that could just give out at any given time or is it something that would be okay so long as it doesn't take on large force from like pot holes/curbs etc.

I'm not sure if its normal or not but it looks like there is some type of foam next to the crack that is visible in the trunk, was this someone covering up another crack?

Does anyone thing that something like the job listed with pictures on this http://www.grandprixforums.net/threa...6-Strut-towers post would be possible on this one?