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I pulled a pending po171 and hard 440....... time to get out the sandpaper and propane cause I am getting *shoot* gas economy to get out of subdivision - 5 stop signs less than 200 meters apart - 13mpg

Seasonal tire and wheel swap on the STS.

Fixed my "oh *shoot* handles" in the rear, the switches fell out before I got my hands on it and I broke the clips when I dropped the headliner.

Last weekend I set out to find out what my fuel pressure is while driving. One of the few things I'm having issues with this car is that it's running very lean once I go past 40% throttle. I bought a fuel pressure sensor for my areoforce gauges a while back. But that didn't work because one gauge now doesn't power on and the other the screen is washed out and barely readable.

So I rigged the GoPro and a flashlight underhood aimed at the pressure gauge on the fuel rail. It worked!


Fuel pressure is fluctuating and won't go over 40psi. Car runs fine at idle and normal driving and revs out in P and N perfectly fine, but any heavy throttle and its like I hit a limiter. Fuel pump ordered.

put air in pass rear tire and inspected my duck tape repair until my hose is ready

Today I pulled the front left wheel on the car to try and hunt down a slow leak. Tires are brand new, less than 1,500 miles on them. The drivers front tire had leaked down to 15psi while I was gone last week, but the other 3 were holding strong at 32 psi. I soaped thr wheel up really good all over, but couldn't find any sign of a leak anywhere. I coated the bead on both sides, as well as the valve stem, but no luck there. I'll keep a watch on it to see how quick it's leaking, but I have a feeling I'm experiencing the joys of the GM chrome wheels haha. Hopefully if it's the wheel, it will be something where the bead can be wire wheeled and painted inside to seal.

If it turns out to be the tire, I have road hazard on them, so that will be replaced. If it starts leaking down fast, I'll take the wheel to the tire shop and see what they can find.

I made significant progress on my truck today. It's nice being able to 3D print random clips and things to mount wires and things where I want them instead of making do with junkyard pulls that don't exactly do what I wanted.

Yesterday I did a tune up on the Vibe and tracked down a sunroof leak. Then I took the beater around the block just so it could be driven more than just from the driveway to the street on trash day. Its making this terrible rattle that I can't track down so I haven't been using it. Car washes are going to happen today though.

I got around to polishing the headlights on my 2000 Bonneville SSEi.

Here's photographic proof:

https://imgur.com/a/95DUr

cleaned the bonneville inside out.

shes never been this clean

now only to oil the doors so they dont squeek and shes perfect

Finally buckled down and figured out why my KR readings were so wacky on my Scangauge. Turns out that I had accidentally programmed it to display time since engine start instead of KR. Took it out to test out the scangauge settings, compared the KR reading with the ignition timing to make sure it made sense, and it looks like I have no KR! If it stays that way for a bit, I might make some more modifications sometime soon.

Yesterday I replaced my front struts and mounts, the rear lateral links, fixed the passenger seat, and replaced the fuel pressure regulator.

First Post New Bonneville Owner.

Background, I purchased a one owner 2001 Bonneville SLE from my local GM dealer in early February 2016. It has everything original including glossy burgundy paint with no rust to be found anywhere....Only 65k on the clock.

This week, I performed the following....
1. Wash, Wax, and detail including a cleaning and treatment of the leather seats.
2. Using the instructions found on this site, I renewed the headlight assemblies and applied the gloss Minmax Helmsman UV protectant. The headlight assemblies look brand new!
3. Installed the front transmission boat roller mount to remove some play in the driveline.

Next on the list is to drop the ATF pan and replace the fluid with Valvoline's MaxLife ATF.

Life is good and I really appreciate all the information found on this site.

Plugs and wires on the LS4 this Saturday. I LOVE V8's in FWD platforms...

Surprisingly, the original iridiums (as referenced by the part# on them vs. the new Part#), with 104k on it, looked perfect. Still @ 0.040 Gap, electrodes still all there, proper coloring, etc... A few did have some scoring on the ceramic insulator around the electrode, but overall, pretty clean for that mileage.

Gave the car a wash yesterday, after all the new parts I really enjoy driving this thing everywhere now!

Yesterday I put new sway bar links on the 04. Holy cow what a difference in handling and noise. I also drove the 96 around the block and into the garage since I was tired of looking at it in the street.

Well, not today, but Sunday I decided it was time to fix the leaking Y-pipe on the camaro. And it turned into a can of worms that is finally over as of this AM.

The Y-pipe was cracked and broken because at some point in time the rear trans mount broke, which makes the rear torque arm push it up as it pivots, so it damaged the center console and the exhaust pipe as a result. So the previous owner, in his infinite awesomeness, fitted a noisy muffler to it and broke a bolt for the mount off in the trans, tried to use a C clamp to hold the trans to the mount at that spot, cut out the cat and welded a straight pipe in, and then used globs of some sort of goo to seal the cracked Y pipe.

So in order to fix an exhaust leak I would have to replace the straight pipe with something that was going to make the exhaust not sound to ricey, then I would have to fix the trans mount, and somewhere in there I was going to try to find the leak in the A/C, change the rear shocks, and fix the drivers window rattle. Should be a good 6 hours project, with plenty of beer to keep me hydrated as it was in the high 80's.

So I cut out the straight pipe, knocked all the crap off the Y-pipe, cleaned it up and welded the bottom half of everything into place. Chugged one down. Then I dropped the exhaust down in the rear and separated it from the forward section, got out the impact, and gave the exhuast manifold bolts an honest chance to play nice. They didn't. All of them. They all snapped off right at the manifold... Time for another beer. I finished welding the Y-pipe and new exhaust component, painted everything with ceramic header paint to keep the rust away from the welds. Set it aside and had a closer look at the manifold bolts. And, yup, it was time for another beer. So I moved on to the rear struts, removed the old ones (monroe sensatracs, already bad, this car has 130k on it and you know those struts were replaced at no less than 110k). New KYB struts go in, did my usual rust inhibiting ritual with the rattle can, and I think it's time for another beer!

Now on to the fun part. The reason that everything likes to break. The rear trans mount I ordered still hadn't come in, so I had to improvise. The plan of attack was to divorce the torque arm from the trans tail shaft, and use those mount bolts to attach a hybrid poly/rubber mount using sway bar bushings. The cutting, welding, measuring (in that order apparently) went OK, I added a brace to the crossmember that the torque arm bushing mounts to. This way when I launch it hard all the force is transferred directly to the crossmember, not through the trans mount. I think another beer is a fitting reward for this. The trans mount I have is #2.5 that I've had to put on the car since I got it, aftermarket parts are just really crap design. I was planning to use the energy suspension mount, but sometimes you can't always get what you want. Besides, I'd still have to weld any new mount bracket to extend it to a side boss on the trans because of that bolt broken off in the tailhousing. So I added a second brace to the crossmember for a mount that would prevent the trans from pulling up away from the crossmember. And that's when I discovered that I had long since thrown out any rubber sway bar links that I've had. Oops. Time for more beer.

So now that the trans is securely mounted again, and the torque arm is not going to rip the trans mounts out, I can move on to fixing the manifolds. I decided I wasn't going to pull the manifolds for risk of snapping off one of those bolts into the head, or need for head gaskets, etc. I use the MIG to weld directly on the bolt ends in the manifold, built them up so they were not recessed into the manifold, then used some all thread cut to lenght and chamfered on one end, welded that to ends of the studs. So now I can at least mount the exhaust back up there. It was time for another beer, and it was almost time to stop for dinner, and I needed to have it done soon. I reinstalled the y-pipe, the manifold bolt repair seems to hold OK, reinstalled the rear of the exhaust, and went to clamp the front to the rear when I realized that I didn't have the right clamp... Beer.. managed to get help getting a clamp, buttoned everything underneath up, and started it up.

Yay, no more horrible exhaust noises!

At least, that's how I would have liked the story to go. Replace all the beers with water, I started at 9:00am and finished around 6:00pm, lol.

So Monday I had to re-torque the manifold bolts, I'm afraid of reefing on them as welds and bolts don't go together when you can't fit a TIG in the work area. Then yesterday I had to fix the window regulator in the drivers door, the window was gapping to the seal (it was going all the way up, cross car gap) and the window rattles in the door. Turns out all the adjustments were out of whack like somebody just slapped it in there and called it good, and of the four bolts that were supposed to replace the rivets, one was left attached and one was about 1 thread away from the same, and the holes were all wallored out from being loose. I used fender washers and new bolts and locknuts to resecure it. Seems to be working now, though there is still a small gap it looks right were the seal for the Ttop joint is, not sure how to fix that one yet, but maybe it's just enough that it won't leak.

But for the life of me, I can't find the leak in the A/C. It's slow enough that when I checked the level there was just enough pressure to kick on the compressor since I put the dye in and charged it last summer (r152a). So I decided to be the guinea pig and try this Red Devil a/c stop leak. Supposedly it will not solidify or crystallize or otherwise react with any moisture or oxygen in the system, acts as a lubricant for the compressor as well, and the manufacturer is very straightforward with telling you what they think it won't fix (compressor leaks). And I couldn't give a hoot if a shop can't service it, I have a complete donor system less condenser on a parts car, and I would probably never let a shop touch 90% of my car anyway. So I'm going to run it to see if it does stop the leak, and if not I'll at least be able to open the system up and see if it really does leave anything behind. Not much to lose.

The r152a conversion is working out very well thus far, aside from the leak that is hiding. It was 78 degrees out yesterday, moderately humid, and the high side pressures were down at 150psi with a 38.2F vent temperature. This seems to be about right for R152a, lower system pressure compared to r134a. And i found the 152 for $3 for a 10oz can (2-pack for $5.99).

After telling the wife an oil change with the oil I use is $49..99, she decided I could change the oil. I got an immediate 25 horse power gain from the oil change too. - LOL! - BC

Got a nice set of used Polk Audio speakers for the back deck, so I was able to get that piece remounted and the back seats reinstalled for passenger use ( read: I bolted down the rear seat/seat belts )

Next step is to decide on a deck and reinstall the front speakers and tweeters. I love driving it, but no stereo and a gaping hole is not exactly what I was looking for in a car just yet...lol.

Other than that, I've put 180 miles on it since I fixed it and gassed it up. I'm getting 30 mpg on the highway and I'm up to an average of 20.9mpg. I have zero complaints about this car so far...other than I have to track down a subtle noise on the passenger side that my wife heard while going over light bumps or cracks in the road that I couldn't hear from the drivers side. Might be a sway bar link as I didn't get any play when I jacked the car up and yanked on the tire.

Picked up a 3rd center reflector and 2 more tail lights that are way better than the ones that came with my car. I have some acrylic solvent coming and I'm going to see if I can get it to creep into the lens enough to reglue some of the edge delam on the old tail lights first as a test. I'm more concerned with ultimately sealing the tail lights and center reflector from moisture more than anything at this point. Likely I will black out the tail assembly...but I'm hunting options at the moment to see if I can do something "unique"...