Now that you mention it, when I turn the car off there is a sound of compressed air escaping in the area of the orifice tube. The car's AC has always worked fine (except this of course) so I figured if there was a leak bad enough to make this loud of a sound, the freon would be gone by now. I'll get ...

Hi all, the car is running great, it's summertime now and I'm having a bit of an issue.

When I drive on the highway below 70 mph, the AC works great. No problem. If I drive faster in the long stretches between towns, around 85-90, the AC slowly begins to shut off. Sometimes I can kick it back on by ...

Hi all, I have a combo CD player and cassette radio in my 2004, and the CD player has a hard time reading CD's. If I put one in, the motor inside will make a loud skipping noise like it's trying to fight a plastic gear, then it will eject the CD. But it doesn't eject the CD all the way, the CD ...

I fixed the rear door vapor barrier over the weekend. It was such a pain removing the old butyl tape. I peeled off as much as I could, then on the door I used a plastic scraper to get underneath it. Cleaned up with iso aocohol and it was done. On the vapor barrier side I again pulled it up, but then ...

Yeah it does feel good to have all clean and new cooling system parts. I topped off the tank a couple times over the following day and the low coolant message hasn't come back.

Next on the list are the timing cover seal, front main, and tensioner/idler pulleys, all four shocks, and the driver's ...

Ok the stuff came in the mail so I got to work. I undid both oil cooler hoses from the car, which was super annoying. They each take a 1" wrench and you have to do the drivers side first and last in order for the wrench to fit on the fitting when you go to do the passenger side. The o rings I ...

I had some time off work last week and banged out some stuff on the car.

First was to install the new water pump, water pump o ring, tensioner pulley, and belt. It looks at first like the water pump is askew in this picture, but I triple checked and it's in correctly. I also had to make sure the o ...

Ok, got an update

I got into the water pump shaft deal. If you recall there were rust deposits on the end of the shaft. I pulled the water pump pulley off to get to the rest of the shaft and when it came off I saw there was no rust underneath where the pulley had been installed. Which means when I ...

I was happy to see them in that condition.

I'm considering tackling the oil pan gasket as part of the work I'm doing this year. The service manual

https://charm.li/Pontiac/2004/Bonneville%20V8-4.6L%20VIN%20Y/

says to remove the engine. I'm not going to do that. I'm thinking of using an engine ...

Yesterday I went back to the junk yard and grabbed the rear valve cover and ignition coil set, just in case. Pulling the valve cover was definitely annoying, esp doing it in the rain, sitting on top of the motor, hunched under the hood, while the yard was closing.

These are the tools I started ...

Here are the newer style coils installed along with the valve cover. The 06+ style worked fine with no issue
https://i.imgur.com/9ISVKdw.jpg

Pulley back on. The napa tool worked fine for this. Once the tool bottoms out the job is complete
https://i.imgur.com/gM5C38W.jpg

I used the newer style ...

So here is the weird stuff with my front valve cover
https://i.imgur.com/KLPIwrm.jpg

I took it off and cleaned it and the paint is bubbling beneath the surface in spots and it's just generally weird. I wanted to find a replacement. I looked up all the part numbers and everything is discontinued ...

I did some mild research and found the pulley puller tool to remove the water pump drive pulley. It's an O'Rielly's 67010, or a Napa whatever this is since O'Rielly didn't have it
https://i.imgur.com/4rFSYVR.jpg

It attaches like this
https://i.imgur.com/OZv3fDb.jpg

and uses a 21mm wrench and ...

So I decided to go for the water pump assembly/ front valve cover.

I removed the coil packs. The wiring harness was heat aged and not friendly, and I'll have to work that out later on.
https://i.imgur.com/oC3AvhB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Juw5FZI.jpg

Then there was a bracket/shielding on top ...

OK, back at it today. Here's the bolt. Pretty easy to see, just look at it

https://i.imgur.com/8msu6eq.jpg

Here are my tools
https://i.imgur.com/s6fYRTT.jpg

Got it. So annoying
https://i.imgur.com/dUwZy1T.jpg

But then the fans still wouldn't come out! I poked around with a flashlight and ...

Ok I put it off all winter and now we're back outside. Last year I had removed the underneath part of the dash and found the heater core bone dry so that was rewarding. We had a few good rain storms which washed the salt off the roads and I've been driving the car around. I've noticed a new puddle ...

Yesterday I got underneath the dash and removed the panels covering the heater core. I also removed the center console, which came out pretty easily. Both lower bolts are accessible with the seats and backrests all the way forward. The rest is just a bunch of torx screws and electrical connections ...

I've spent more time with an eye on the coolant res etc and have narrowed the coolant leak down to a specific set of circumstances. I've had my bmw in the garage the past week waiting on some parts to replace the valve cover gasket and it's been getting colder, which has allowed me the opportunity ...

Today I was graced with the "low engine coolant" warning message, always a fun time. I believe it's a failing heater core. When the heater is on I can usually hear air bubbles behind the dash, in addition to a funky rubbery-old pipe smell emitting from the front of the interior. At first I thought ...

I got the car back together. I got an email from GMparts giant saying that the OEM lock cylinder had been discontinued, so I purchased one on rock auto.

It came disassembled and I had to key it to my car. This isn't difficult, I've done it before with a different car. To start, you take your cut ...