Hello everyone, I'm new to my car and to this. I just bought a 2001 SS Monte Carlo, from a guy who did not drive it anymore because he had a corvette. I got a sweet deal $1800. It does need some work and it has 160,000 on the dash. Just had it a few days and I noticed so far that the ignition switch does not always catch(so you have to wiggle it to start), the windshield has a crack and I think it has a bad wheel bearing, there was no transmission fluid in the car, there is a whine in the when I drive the car, and it did not have any power steering, and also the motor jumps around. Other than all that everything else is good, oh it does have a service engine light, check tire pressure, and low coolant. Any ideas what I should check out 1st? Let me know what you guys think.

 

Welcome to the Forum ! Good luck with Monte bro theirs alot of people on this site with plenty of knowledge so ur in good hands !

 

haha sounds like you have a lot to work on.

Start with the major parts first, then work on to things like the windshield.

Ask questions along the way if you need help with anything

 

If your power steering is out and there is a whine it's pretty much an indicator that you need to change both belts. I bought a 1977 Monte Carlo for a grand about a week ago and I had the same issues and both the whining noise and power steering problem were fixed. If your power steering does not come after a belt change then you will need a new power steering pump, but I can almost guarantee you it's the belts. I highly recommend getting tranny fluid in that monte, how else do you expect your monte to change through gears fluently? lol Both belts on my 305 1977 Monte ran for about 17$ and tranny fluid really isn't too pricey. After changing those two you will notice an immense difference. As for everything else those are things that come with buying a new vehicle check and see if the brakes need to be serviced which is more than likely since it's been sitting when he got a corvette and do an oil change. A little tlc goes a long way with cars. I hope what I recommend is of of use to you as I stated before change those belts to eliminate the whining and power steering issue, add tranny fluid and check to see if it needs a tranny flush(if the tranny fluid is black it's about that time. lol). Don't confuse your oil with your tranny fluid though, my friend made that mistake on his Subaru and it didn't end too well for him,he was lucky we cleaned up that mix up in time.

 

Welcome... You're in good hands...

 

Welcome! You may just need a new key made. The old one may be becoming too worn down to catch. Same thing happened to my Jeep.

 

Welcome!

 

It is also common for the ignition cylinder to start to get loose. Especially if the previous owner had a lot of weight on the keychain. You can have a locksmith do that for you for cheap, you would just have mis-matched ignition and door keys.

 

Welcome to the forum! ive learned a lot here you will too

 

Welcome to the MCF! Man sounds like ya got some work to do.