The trouble is it has a host of problems and don't know where to begin. I just bought this yesterday, and was lucky to make it home. I thought it was overheating (according to my OBD II reader) but turns out I was an idiot and trusted the guy. It was half a gallon low on antifreeze. So one problem fixed. The dash is shot. Only one thing works, the blower pressure gauge. I also have a red light on just to the right of the speedometer. I don't have an owner's manual so would love to know what this is. Amazingly, there is a lot right with this car. The cruise actually works, and the A/C, radio and a few other things. No dash lights either. Do you just bite the bullet and buy a new dash or find out what is causiing this?

Now the engine. I am pretty sure the Cat is stopped up. I have error codes of P0036, P0102, P0101 and P0455. I just cleared them and will see which ones come back. This car runs, has 161K, and I ran it 300 miles home yesterday. Only used a 1/3 of a quart. Has a dead miss also. Hole in the resonator (sounds good actually...lol). So it's the good, the bad and the ugly. Where would you guys begin. I am all about getting mechicals done first before cosmetics.

 

What kind of reader do you have? Can it tell you what the codes are for? If not look into the Torque Pro app and get a bluetooth dongle.

You have NO lights on the dash at all or just the gauge cluster?

 

I have a Ponlong I bought from Amazon. Just a $12.99 one that plugs in,and I use the Torqlite app which is free. Yes, it tells the error codes and a brief summary of what they are. I also google them and get more detailed info. I have gone from 4 error codes after I cleared them to one different code - says I need a Mass Air Sensor. What a change that is. The car still runs like it has a dead cylinder though, so I suspect much more is wrong. The guy I bought it from said the dealer told him he had bad coil packs. I don't know. It's my first day smoking things over and trying to get a handle on things.

I have no lights on the dash at night for looking at gauges, but only one works anyway. I cleared the Low Tire light, and now only have Change Oil (which it does need). The check engine light is back on of course. I wish I were better with a multimeter, so I could tell if things are getting the right voltage.

I also have a glowing red light just to the right of the speedo. Any idea what this is?

 

I do wonder, what was the reason for buying this specific car? It sounds like it potentially has enough issues to cost more than the value of the car to repair. Just saying, I'd be tempted to just get rid of it and buy one that doesn't have all of these issues. The values for these cars are near rock bottom anyways, so there's got to be something out there that isnt such a complete disaster, especially if you're not real confident with troubleshooting.

I wouldnt be so sure. 2 things here:
-The system doesnt just go half a gallon low without an issue. Its either leaking externally or burning. The hard part with just buying it is you've got no idea if that took 50k miles or 5k miles to get like that, so you'll have to keep a very close eye as you work the other issues as you may need to address the real problem soon.
-Id still be concerned it actually overheated, especially with that much air in the system. Id probably do a coolant system pressure check and a compression test to make sure it didn't blow a head gasket.

IMO thats concerningly high consumption / leakage. Thats literally going to drain the whole system over the oil change interval.

One cylinder or more? Id check the easy ones first- verify spark first. Then id flip a couple injectors around if spark is good.

The plug will also tell you if something is odd in that cylinder.

 

Can it read live data from sensors also - or codes only? Live data would be helpful to troubleshoot some of these issues.

I wouldnt say its a huge change. 2 of your original codes were MAF also, so its in the same thread.

Also your original evap code probably won't come back until you do some driving (which i assume you're really not if the car is this jacked up).


You can confirm that with your scan tool with the individual cylinder misfire counter. Alternatively you could hit each exhaust primary with an IR temp gun to compare temperatures. A dead cylinder will be much cooler than the others. Identifying if that's true and if so, which one would be a great first place to start.

The nice thing with the coil packs is that they're all 3 identical. For troubleshooting purposes, you can swap them around to confirm if they're the problem.

 

I was a drag racer for many years off and on. I ran an alcohol injected 23T that ran 7.90s @ 180. Not my first rodeo. But I am 69 now and those days are over. So I wanted something I could sit around car shows with a lawn chair (you know, the guys I used to make fun of) and have something interesting to talk about. I also wanted a coupe, and there aren't many new ones around I care for. I think it's cool to have a supercharged car also, even though a stock impala makes more HP. I was actually amazed how well this car drove. It's comfortable and I like it. The original sticker was over $32K. You know the saying, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am not worried about getting my money out. I bought this to enjoy, not sell. If I worried about that kind of thing, I would have never built a race car. You lose about 70 cents on the dollar with those. I am going to cave in and take it to a garage that has the proper testing tools since cars these days are so electronic. I don't want to waste money chasing error codes and parts swapping. I just want tthe car in a state of tune to see exactly what I have. The fact it made it 300 miles with all these problems is encouraging. Going to pressure test the cooling system because you are correct, a sealed system should not lose anything, but this car is new to me. I have no idea what went on before I got it. There is no water in the oil, so hopefully it's not going by the head gasket. I will probably try and tackle the dash problem myself. It seems to be a plug and play deal. You can get a new one for $250 with a limited lifetime warranty. if I don't have to freshen the motor I figure I can get out for $5-6K. I can live with that.

 

There is an old Nascar trick to squirt water on each header port to see which cylinder is dead also. This is the only thing I hate about these engines being in sideways, the rear banks are a pain to get to. My torqlite does not do anything but read codes and translate them. I can't see what is going on electronically. I am going to fix as much as I possibly can and then take it to a garage I trust. The guy that had it was running 20 weight (some crappy brand) so I am not concerned yet about the consumption. He also said the pan was leaking. So this is a Chinese fire drill. All I can do is try to knock off what I know is broken one at a time. Not sure it needs a MAS, but they are only $18 so I am going to splurge and put one on. The car has 161K miles also, and has not been taking care of very well. I am only into this car for $1000. I have some room to play. The interesting part is the seats are perfect (leather), the interior is in great shape, most things work like the cruise control, radio, A/C, sunroof, wipers and squirters, power windows and locks, lights, etc. New tires on the front and decent tires on the back. Brakes feel good. So the crux of the problem is the motor, and I have had a few 3800s in Bonnevilles, and I know some of their glitches, especially the intake manifold gaskets. Add a blower to that and it's probably even worse. I also put a new gas cap on which may have been part of the evap problem. I don't smell gas nearly as bad as before. Thanks for your help.

 

I hadn't meant to imply that you were trying to flip this car for profit or expected to get your money back, I don't think I worded it very well.

My main reason behind bringing up the low values of these cars today is that there are usually options out there for these cars at a reasonable price ($4-5k, or less especially with these higher miles) that aren't a total basket case like this one. It sounds like this thing has had a really hard life and has really been neglected.

No doubt cars of this age/ mileage will always have a few minor things, but this sounds way above and beyond the norm and makes me worried the trans may not be too far behind if everything else in the power train is this bad.

If you've got an interest in continuing to work on modern stuff, I'd highly reccomend a scanner that can read the live sensor data as well. They're not too expensive, but its so much more helpful to be able to see the sensor data in real time - especially when troubleshooting.

At this point a basic scan tool to read live data is the price of a single nice ratchet, and the dependence on data is going to only get worse and worse over time so you'll have to bite the bullet sooner or later.

IMO I wouldnt put a cheap MAF on. Lots of people have had continued issues with the cheap ones and short term failures. Sure makes diagnosing a pain when you think you've got a brand new part, yet its failed on you.

This is one of those sensors that's helpful to be able to read the data as you can tell for sure if its bad or not by looking at the output as you drive.

Also keep in mind that the engine will run fine without it as long as the MAP is functioning, so that can be a good short term test also.

 

No way to really tell. I had rather do the work or have it done than chance what someone else has done. More fun this way too. Like bringing it back to life. In all honesty, it is rougher than what I was led to believe, but I had driven 300 miles and it ran, so what the heck? I had already counted on putting a fresh 3800 in it, so I am ahead of the game if I can find all these little problems. I am positive most of them are electrical. As I said, I saw the factory sticker and was amazed at the options this thing has. It might be somewhat rare, I don't know. It even has a 200 watt factory amp. Some bozo put darkened tailights on it, so had to bite the bullet and spend $200 for red ones. While in the trunk I raised the mat and was shocked. The spacesaver has never been on the ground. So this thing continues to amaze. I added more water to the overflow and the temp went from being crazy high the other day to very low yesterday to around 204 today. At 212 both fans came on, so again, some things on this car work just fine. Now to find out where the coolant went or is going. But hey, it beats sitting on my butt doing nothing. I also happen to love the blue color, and have never seen one around, except the pace cars. Most are black. Hopefully once I get the car checked by an expert it will surprise me. Every day is a challenge. it's like can I just get ONE thing working right so I can move on to the next? Well the coolant was missing, but now I know it's running the right temp. Ordered a dash today also, and some remotes. So I have spent about $500 so far. It's like a game to see how far I can get on a small amount of money. The tranny feels good and the fluid isn't burnt. I just ordered a filter kit and synthetic fluid to change the oil and tranny fluid, and will snug the oil pan bolts and see what happens. Stay tuned.

 

I second the "no cheap MAFs" thing. Ive gone thru a few myself and honestly I think theres more DOA than good. MAFs in these cars seem to like to go bad and they can cause some strange issues.

Check the coolant elbows for the leak. Might get "lucky" and find one there.