Bought a 2000 SSEi last night! Already regret it.

[LaserSVT]

I would love to post some pictures of my new to me silver on grey SSEi but it died about 80 miles from home and is stuck in a parking lot for the night. Just got home at 2AM when I should been back 4 hours ago. Here is my little story.

As some of you know I have been hunting for a Bonneville SSEi for several months. All of them were trash and I had given up and decided to spend an extra grand or so on an Audi A6 2.7T Quattro. But yesterday a very nice and fully optioned silver on black SSEi showed up for sale and at a great price considering its miles. I call the dude and speak at length and find out the driver window don't work, the car has a loud exhaust on it and has a CEL from the exhaust so I figure it must have an off-road pipe. He also mentions there is clear coat issues on the hood. Still a great price and all the stuff it needs is minor so I tell him I want it but only have $1700 cash on me and let me go to the bank tomorrow for the remaining $600 then I will make the 120 mile drive to come get it.

Few hours latter he calls me back and says bring the $1700 and if I like the car I can have it. Well hawt *dang*! Happy days! So we go make the drive. I get there and see the car is not in too rough of shape. Hood paint is all and the body is near perfect. Interior looks great except the headliner but no big deal. I go to open the sunroof and it doesn't budge. He of course claims it worked earlier and is not sure what happened. PITA job but whatever. I then notice the AC does not work and he swore it did. I check and the system is empty.

So I am listening to this obnoxiously loud car and see that the resonator and both mufflers are straight piped. Still has both cats though. So I run the codes and it was P1639 code for refrence signal for the fuel sending unit or evap or AC circuit so I will have to test those out.. Ah, I see the gauge does not work.... nor does the oil pressure (it is pegged) so I guess I need a sending unit as well. Well I know none of this is really a big deal and at $1700 its still a good deal. Can see the car has a 3.3" modular pulley on it and an Intense computer and a CAI so I am sure its been driven a little hard but also loved. Kinda worried about that 3.3" pulley and no headers or intercooler but the engine runs smooth and starts right up so maybe it aint too bad.

Screw it. Its silver on black and fixable so I take it. 2 miles into the drive and the steering locks. Luckily it just somehow lost the driver side rack mount bolt. Had something close enough in the chase car so I fix it.

Have the cruise set at 70 (set at 70 but car wonders from 65-73) and after 30 miles I see the temp gauge is a little high. I turn on my scanner and its just hitting 246*, k now I am a bit worried. Pull over and shut her down and look at the plenum and can see water pooled around all the injectors and it is sizzling. Oh joy.

I let it cool and decide to move it that last quarter mile off the highway and into a parking lot. Right as I enter the lot I start to hear a tick so shut it down right away. Gotta be blown intake gaskets and I bet I just took out a rod bearing or two. Computer showed misfire on 4 & 6 as well. So now my new to me Bonneville that I have been so diligently hunting is now stuck 80 miles away from me since I couldn't get anyone to tow it and my tow company is asleep. Hope he don't mind getting it for me tomorrow.

Guess I am gonna throw some intake gaskets at it tomorrow, flush the oil and get a new filter and see if there is rod knock. If there is, I have no interest in changing yet another 3.8 so not sure what I will do with it.

If there is no knock then I will go ahead and put some mufflers on it, replace the headliner, fix the AC, window and roof and try to enjoy it a little but for now I want to set it on fire.

[Zeik75]

Bad luck man! At least like you said its all fixable though. This tick you heard was the car in the red zone on the temp gauge or lower? It will get crazy knock with any throttle when it gets up that high, could be what you heard last night.

Hopefully it will be a new day and you can sit back and take in everything with a clear mind now, and of course we are here to help!

[LaserSVT]

Car was not in the red zone. Was a couple ticks below that. Last time I looked down at the scannner it was 248*.

And my mind is far from clear, I am on my way out the door to meet my driver at my shop so he can go get the car and bring it back to me. At 80 miles each way..... gonna be very expensive.
Gonna be 3k into this thing IF the engine is ok. If I have to source a block then I have no idea.

[Zeik75]

Could have been knocking at that temp, hopefully thats all it is and not rod knock of somekind. Giod luck.

[LaserSVT]

Hope to know before I close shop today. Just have to wait on the driver. She was purring like a kitten and I have to admit I did romp it a couple times and that blower sounded sweet.

Another crappy not, ya know how hard it is to buy a hockey puck in Waco Texas? LMAO. I just have to go with a regular mount and save the puck mod for latter since I will have to mail order a pair.

I was careful to not hotrod the car since I didn't know much about it. With the open exhaust 3.3" modular pulley and cold air intake I went under the assumption it is not tuned but may be. I THINK I saw an Intense sticker on the ECU but will pull the CAI shroud today to verify. If it has no markings I may just send the computer out for good measure to make sure the computer knows how small the pulley is. I would imagine the car has tons of KR with the factory manifolds and that size pulley but I guess that gift will have to wait until I know if the motor is salvageable.

BTW the tick I heard was the tick valve lifters like to make when they are too hot, not the sound of rod bearings so I still have hope.

This thing is gonna get the hell driven out of it once its fixed.

[nos4blood70]

3.3 pulley and stock manifolds = recipe for boom. Stay out the beans. Sounds like you got your work cut out for you.

[MurderMitten]

Looking on the bright side atleast you have the skill to fix it. I was going to say usually a tick is lifters and its pretty distinct compared to rod knock. Hoping this situation goes good for you. I know how it feels to buy something that looks good that has problems. I bought a dirtbike that ended up needing a complete rebuild and when I bought my bonneville everything was perfect and I started having transmission problems the day after. Your situation is a little worse but I wish you the best luck.

[LaserSVT]

Well it should be loaded up on the flatbed about now. I am anxious to see what it all needs. I can see the pads and rotors are worn so perfect time to get the GXP stuff. Also the tail lights are not perfect.... may just get some fresher stock ones since the GXP lights are just ridiculously priced.
I did notice the traction control button light was on and I couldn't turn it off so I assume someone spilled something there and the button is stuck.

I just ordered the metal lower gaskets, new SC gasket, some 605 plugs, 180* thermostat (went with the superstat instead of stock style 180 so hope that was the right choice), I have Dexcool on hand, ordered the engine mount and when it gets here I will go through my bolt bin and hope to find the proper size bolt to get the rack solidly mounted again. Pretty sure its going to need tie rods. Also ordered some mufflers, same ones on my truck. They are quiet and flow well and are only $25 a piece.

Fun fun fun

[Zeik75]

Id get the aluminum elbows along with the lim gaskets. Auto parts store has them and any on the online race stores.

[LaserSVT]

Id get the aluminum elbows along with the lim gaskets. Auto parts store has them and any on the online race stores.

I have a half dozen sets. I work on a lot of these 3800s.

[Zeik75]

Thats good just figured while you were in there put the good ones on and be done with it

[2000Silverbullet]

Good luck...
Sounds very reminiscent to my experience six years ago with my first 94 SSEi.
Bought it for $1,700 and as soon as I got it home, it spun a rod bearing.........$6,000 later it's still a pain in the XXS

[00Beast]

Yikes. Hope it's nothing major. It's all fixable, just takes time, then something else pops up...

BTW, it should only have one cat. My 00 was a CA emissions car and it only had 1 cat...

And it takes 3 hockey pucks for the mount. FWIW.

[LaserSVT]

Well got it done... mostly. Still have to add coolant and do the tie rods and headliner and detail but its all working including the moonroof. Car runs great and smooth with no knocking. Only ran it for 30 seconds to make sure since I didn't have any coolant in it. Turns out the supercharger gasket water feeds for the throttle body is what ruptured. Manifold gaskets hadn't ruptured but were about to so I used the upgraded ones. Did verify it has an Intense ECU and 3.3" pulley. Not sure why there are two cats but its obnoxious without mufflers so that's getting done tomorrow too. All in all not a bad car and should clean up well.

Tearing down:


Back together:




Crappy headliner:



But the seats and body are nice. Not perfect by any means but fine for a daily driver.:

[macksdaddy77]

still seems like u could have a nice deal for the money. r u gonna back up to a stock pulley or maybe a 3.6? i would think a 3.6 is safe with those mods. nice color as well

[LaserSVT]

No, gonna throw some SD headers on it and remove the cats. May do some 1.9 rockers too. After I get it together I am gonna just hook up my scanner and see what kind of KR it has and take it from there. My initial plan was headers, rockers, computer, intake and a 3.4 pulley so this is close enough.

[LaserSVT]

still seems like u could have a nice deal for the money. r u gonna back up to a stock pulley or maybe a 3.6? i would think a 3.6 is safe with those mods. nice color as well

Thanks for the compliment. I have spent $2300 so far. $1700 for the car, $200 for the tow, $100 in gas, $300 for the plenum gasket/manifold gasket/605 plugs/front trans mount/two semi performance mufflers/oil pressure sensor/coolant/aluminum elbows/180* thermostat/gallon of oil that will stay until it reaches running temp with filter/better oil and Bosh filter to rechange oil again tomorrow. Still need a driver door window motor, headliner, detail and tie rods so there is another $500. Still have to find the AC leak but I am an AC tech so no biggie and aside from new tires in a couple months and have the hood resprayed and then its pretty much done.

Well unless I find a good deal on GXP tail lights and get some better wheels. I hate these wheels. Wish it had the 03 SSEi wheels.

[Zeik75]

WOO HOOOO!!!! another 2000 silver SSEi!!!

Glad it all worked out well enough for you. Also even with the stuff you still need its less than my car was lol paid 3500 for mine with 147000 miles. It was driven by an old man though so its in quite good shape. Hope this stays relatively trouble free for you though.

[Backhoe]

Pullied with 2 cats and stock manifolds. This feels more like a rescue than a purchase, because that thing had some bad juju going on there. Nice work though, and in a timely manner too.

[LaserSVT]

Pullied with 2 cats and stock manifolds. This feels more like a rescue than a purchase, because that thing had some bad juju going on there. Nice work though, and in a timely manner too.

I cant stand broken things on cars. I am aggregated that right now I am too tired to go fix the AC and window. Already the leather rip on the console lid has me wanting a new console. The hazy washed out tail lights also aggravate me.
Gotta get rid of these wheels though. Which begs another question. I see the car has had a couple "pad slaps" and the rotors look like crap. Figure since I would want to overhaul the calipers anyway that I may as well just get all the GXP stuff from my parts distributor since its like $300 for calipers, rotors, pads and brackets. Will the GXP fit behind my style wheels?

As for the mods, they appear to have been there a while. Dude I bought it from put 20k on it (has 130k now) and he bought it with the mods. I still am going to do headers though. I think I may nix the stock cat and keep the fancy looking high flow one that's been installed.

I also have to figure out the p1639 problem. Not sure if its the AC switch or FTP sensor so I will have to test those tomorrow as well.

Another slight annoyance was after reconnecting the battery and starting the car it now has tire pressure warnings. I checked and all are at 32psi so not sure what happened there.