Thread: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions

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  1. #1 New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    Hey all. Just stumbled upon this site a few days ago and have been reading through a ton of threads. I've been wanting to start doing some minor things to my '05 GT for a while now but I literally know next to nothing about vehicles and electronic hardware. I was hoping people could suggest some practical, easy and cheap ideas for improvement to my vehicle (performance improvements are welcome too, although i don't care about performance related to power or speed - only fuel efficiency, comfort, etc.).


    First, the backstory:

    I'm a 21 year old kid going to school. My first car, a '96 white ford taurus inherited from my mom, lasted as long as it could, with the radiator blowing my freshman year of college and warping the engine. My next car was a '99 neon, which had engine trouble of it's own 3 years down the road (hopefully my GP breaks my current 3-year trend, especially since i have a loan over 4), so I was searching for a new vehicle last July. Long story short, my uncle in law was getting rid of his 2005 Grand Prix (don't know the letter code, but it's the most base model around). I bought it with 105k almost all highway miles for $5,000 almost a year ago. Only picture I have of it at the moment is here:




    I'm a delivery driver off and on and put about 21,000 on it so far this first year, and have had a number of minor problems, including a dirty throttle bore, filthy transmission fluid, bad heater motor, a few flats and etc. It was a rough year, but it's been being great to me lately and I want to take care of it really well for as long as I can keep it.



    A few things I was thinking about doing to it... I saw a lot of stuff on here about LED lights, inside and out. How much do these kinds of things cost (for interior lights, front headlights/rear headlights/etc.)? I love the look of almost all of them! I'm planning on installing a new deck and one or two subs sometime this summer (probably going to get a cheap double-din deck to fit that big radio space, was thinking about this one, which can change colors ). I also wanted to get two transformers autobot emblems to put on my front quarterpanels :P call me a nerd but i've been a transformers nut pretty much all my life. I was thinking about debadging (don't really know how to do this/how easy it is), getting inserts for my rear bumper and was thinking about putting the car's name, 'Stacy', on there but I'm not sure if I could find the Pontiac "font" anywhere.

    I also might have to wait to do most of that stuff until I repaint it. I don't know if that's necessary, and will try uploading pictures for your opinions. Basically, there's a few chips and a lot of scratches all over, and if you look close you can see that the front bumper is uh..i don't know, worn or something (that's not dirt), and even when i scrub it pretty good it still doesn't have a great shine when you look close, I don't know how much of this could be fixed with different products? Maybe using some clay, wax and etc. would help, I'm not really sure.



    Anyways, my to do list for the summer includes getting all the upholstery inside cleaned really well (can I do this myself?), replacing at least the interior lights if not the exterior as well, getting a stereo and sub(s), possibly replacing the grille, getting the autobots and letter emblems and inserts and either giving the car and tires a really, really good cleaning or getting it repainted.

    What do you guys think I should do to my car? Thanks in advance for any replies!
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  2. #2 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
    Fuel For The Soul RegorHtims's Avatar
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    Welcome! Cold air intakes are pretty easy and usually improve fuel economy. Cleaning the throttle body is extremely easy. Just take it off (4 bolts forget the size) and use a tb cleaner spray on it. Tranny fluid and filter change is pretty easy too. As far as the LEDs I got all of my interior lights including shipping for like $10. Also, you should read this thread: http://www.grandprixforums.net/safel...car-17482.html And reading is your friend
    SMGPFC Member #7.5
    05 GTP Sold, Still Missed 02 GTP Coupe Sold 06 GXP Intake, Hayden trans cooler
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  3. #3 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
    GTX Level Member cerick08GP's Avatar
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    First thing first, welcome.

    Well, these cars were really meant to be work horses, so you picked a pretty good car to pile on the miles. I totally get were you are coming from on a lot of your ideas, most of them seem reasonable except I’d caution you against a paint job. GPs pick up paint chips left and right, its an unfortunate fact of life for us. Get your self some touch up paint and wax. Look around the site there are tons of posts about appearance projects. I just happened to write one myself on replacing the interior lights with LEDS. I’ll post the link because you mentioned it.
    http://www.grandprixforums.net/inter...mod-23909.html

    As you may have observed already GPs get pretty good mpgs on the open road, and pretty average mpgs in town. It’s another fact that these cars are not small or light by current standards. That said they are very fuel efficient (for what they are) and there isn’t much you can do to them that is cost effective to increase the mpgs. About to only thing that can be done is to maintain the efficiency that came stock. That said, I’d bet your due for a new set of spark plugs.

    Look around the site a bit, pretty much everything you want to do has been posted or discussed many times. Once you have some specific questions you’ll probably get a lot more responses.

    Ten years of continuous driving excitement and counting!
    2008GP
    ||HV3 insert||PowerSlot rotors w/Hawks||LED interior||MSD 8.5mm
    2002GP||sold
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  4. #4 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    Quote Originally Posted by RegorHtims View Post
    Welcome! Cold air intakes are pretty easy and usually improve fuel economy. Cleaning the throttle body is extremely easy. Just take it off (4 bolts forget the size) and use a tb cleaner spray on it. Tranny fluid and filter change is pretty easy too. As far as the LEDs I got all of my interior lights including shipping for like $10. Also, you should read this thread: http://www.grandprixforums.net/safel...car-17482.html And reading is your friend
    Thanks for the link! How do cold air intakes work? I hear a lot about them but don't really understand how they operate.


    @cerick, I actually got my spark plugs and wires replaced about 5 months ago mechanic wrongly told me that was what was causing my startup problems, when in fact it was the dirty throttle bore, but I got them replaced nonetheless!
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  5. #5 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
    Fuel For The Soul RegorHtims's Avatar
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    Basically you put a big filter somewhere either further away from the engine or insulated from the heat better. Most people make their own (search fender well intake) but you could also go for something like a wizaired intake which is pre-made. You want something like this W Body Store (which you can make yourself for a lot less if you're up to it) or this ZZ Performance
    SMGPFC Member #7.5
    05 GTP Sold, Still Missed 02 GTP Coupe Sold 06 GXP Intake, Hayden trans cooler
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  6. #6 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    the idea is it flows more.

    but it'll be louder.
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  7. #7 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
    GTP Level Member FriboRage's Avatar
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    It sounds good though, it makes a deeper, throatier sound on acceleration, I love the way mine sounds and it's just a cone filter on the stock tubing for now.

    Definitely definitely read around, read everything and then read it again. When I got my car and started coming around here I knew almost nothing about anything, and now with about a year's worth of reading under my belt Im starting to get the courage and money to begin my own hands-on engine mods.

    It's scary getting going cause I worry I'll break something but so far I've removed the stock airbox to make room for my intake. Along with that I removed my MAF and throttle body to clean and reassembled it all. I dropped the tranny pan to do my fluid and filter. Just last week I removed my front exhaust manifold and everything necessary to get it out, and installed my power log, (which is a redesigned front exhaust manifold sold for out cars for better exhaust flow). Within the next month I'll be installing a new downpipe for the exhaust and removing the upper intake manifold to install an hv3 (Another specialized part for our cars sold by zzperformance.com).

    None of what I did is anything special, it's all pretty minor compared to the experience a lot of guys on here have, Im still a beginner. My point is that when I bought my Grand Prix, if you would've asked me if I'd be taking on modding my engine on my own, I'd have said, "No way I know nothing about that." But just by reading EVERYTHING and trying to take on little things at a time, I feel like I've come a long way personally.

    Even just with automotive in general Im much more knowledgeable than I was because I even read the threads not related to my particular engine.

    Im almost the same age as you btw, the car you bought has a lot of potential to be a fun car if you want to take it there.
    Go forth, and LEARN!
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  8. #8 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    To be honest i never noticed much of a difference going from a modded stock box to a FWI setup. This was when I was N/A.

    I just hacked up the box to attempt to make it flow as well as possible.

    Made a difference in throttle response and noise.

    As I previously said, no noticeable "seat of pants" difference.

    Then again, I dont think my car is quicker with a 3.4 vs 3.8 pulley with the same timing.
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  9. #9 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    So if I had a friend help me (and by help I mean do all the work, of course!) making an intake system for $100 or so, how much of a difference will that give me in fuel economy? I realize it will be minor, but how long until it pays for itself I guess?


    I'm not really familiar with how car paint works, especially touching up things. What kind of process is involved in that, can I get the exact same color easily and even if I do, will it look the same as paint that's 6+ years older? Any info on that would be really greatly appreciated.

    Only other thing I can think of right now would be if anyone has any suggestions for cheap, double-din stereos (I would say $225 or less), if anyone knows where to find letter decals in a Pontiac font or any nice font for that matter, and if anyone has any other really neat, complimentary visual mods they would suggest.

    Thanks for all the responses! I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking.
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  10. #10 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
    Grand Pricks cameron92's Avatar
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    awesome site here : Audio Savings | Welcome to AudioSavings.com

    they have a daily deal so keep your eye open.
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  11. #11 Re: New here! New to cars, looking for advice and suggestions 
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    Welcome!
    Reflective Concepts has all the stickers you can dream of (they can custom make too).
    And they are vendors on here and do super awesome work!
    Front and rear inlays will help with some exterior looks if you want that.
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