Anyway, I have been super busy with work, and 3 other hobbies. The other hobbies are my fish tanks, my new 5 ft long refractor telescope with a 6" aperture, and photography.
The car has gone through some rebuilding as of late. I had a noise rumbling in the right front back in May, so I changed all the motor mounts. Still had the noise after a few days. I recently found out why, I blew the front trans mount. I drove the car on a 600 mile round trip weekend to Cincy, Ohio and on the way back it was acting up a bit. So I babied it a while longer but things got worse.
At 195,000 miles(last 50,000 hard miles! LOL) I started to have just too many problems. I thought long and hard for a whole 2 hours on whether or not to retire the Pearl to the big junk yard in the sky! Here was what was going wrong....
The rev limiter started going off at 4,000 rpm and staling the car like it was in neutral. It turns out my 1,2 and 3,4 solenoids were going bad. So to limp the beast a little longer I just had to tap the the throttle in between shifts. This was working, but I wasn't sure if it was electronic or the trans, or the computer brain box, or what. Then out of no where it started to crank slow on starts. Battery was good, so I figured it may of been a timing issue. It was time to bring it in and have things checked.
So I take it in and find out the bad news about the trans. I tell them to fix the solenoids. $600. But, when they pulled the cover they found large chunks of metal. They said it might need a trans. That is when I started thinking....Hmmmm. The trans was $2600 installed and warrantied for 3 years or 100,000 miles, so I thought some more....Hmmmm.
I told them to work me up a number to fix everything that was obvious. Well......
The Ait sensor was reading -40°F below!
Change injectors to Accells!
The starter was fried!
The front ball joints were bad!
The front struts were gone!!!!!!
The front brakes were bad!
The A/C clutch and pulley was shot!
The S/C tensioner pulley was shot!
The radio wasn't working!
And the rear view mirror fell off!
Total....$4800 parts and labor!
So, $4800 in a 15 year old Bonneville with 196,000 miles?!?! Let me think about it....Hmmmm.
I started looking for another car right away. I found several GTP's that were not modded and had between 60,000 and 110,000 miles on them. All were Series II cars. I was thinking of jumping into a GTP that I could build more power from.
But then I thought about what I just had changed in the last year.....
All sway bar links...
New tires....
New battery....
New 2.4" S/C pulley....
New 1.8 roller rockers...
New Magnaflow Cat and Muffler....
New Fuel Pressure regulaor....
New Fuel Pump(Walbro HP )....
New Speakers.....
New CAI Box with K&N filter(custom)....
New headlight and foglight bulbs...
New water pump....
New EGR valve....
New 180°F T-stat....
New altenator.....
All New Motor mounts......
Both complete front drive shafts NEW....
All 4 wheel bearings replaced NEW.....
So I thought, those are a lot of new parts on a car I am about to throw away! So, I decided if I fix my car that would mean....
New ReMan Trans Assembly...
New starter....
New injectors....
New warrantied motor mount....
New front suspension.....
New upper and lower ball joints on both sides(front).....
New pulleys(A/c and tensioner)....
New JVC Radio/Cd/USB/HD head....
This car would almost be rebuilt! If I bought another car I would still need to Mod it, and then there is no guarantee that the motor or trans would not fail and I would be out the money anyway. So I chose to rebuild the Pearl!!!! Long Live the 94' Bonneville SSEi!!!!!!!!
I got the car back and it now rides like a Buick instead of a tank! LOL All the torque steer is back cuz the trans is ripping the tires off! Starts and stops on a dime! And the radio rocks compared to the old stock one.
I may be out $5 grand, but I know I got a good solid car! All that is left to replace is the rear air shocks and springs(which I got a question to post on next!) and a radiator. I am sure it could use a fresh radiator after nearly 200,000 miles!(heats up sometimes and shouldn't)
Other than that it would be the motor. The motor is tight! I did a compression test and got 105 out of all 6 cylinders. So no worries on the motor. I may change the plugs and wires out again as they are getting over 50,000 miles on them. I may change the coil packs out to MSD or Accels too.
For now, she got 23 mpg with my foot in it and 29 hwy on cruise. I am very happy! Now I just got to NOT wreck it! LOL (*dang* deer are everywhere!)
Here is a pic of my telescope out back, it is a monster but gives great views!!!
And here is Kylea and me detailing the Pearl tonight!
Yeah I let her run the buffer! You can't really hurt a 15 year old black paint job now can you? LOL! We gave it a full detail, inside and out and under the hood too!
