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Ball Ground, GA Car Consumer Discussions

Re: 2000 Blazer pulls left and right on a bumpy road!HELP! [sticky23]

by dp2226 on Wed Dec 23 12:20:04 PST 2009

This is just based on experience with my 99 I just picked up. I replaced all items noted except the sway bar. Looked new. Plus the wheel hubs, idler, pitman arm. My steering wheel is a little off center after a computerized alignment and notice sometimes at higher speeds tends to pull a little in the lane each way. Think most is just the fact it is an older truck. When I first bought the vehicle as soon as I turned on the truck, the wheel would sink to one side and the same side the wheel was wearing poorly. (Very unsafe ball joints) Turns out the ball joints, were very poor quality, one wheel hub was bad, pitman and idler arms were bad. To check wheel hubs, put the front end on some stands or even a side at a time may work. Grab the tires on the side and shake up and down. There should be no movement. Even a little is too much and heard these go frequently. Luckily they are $99 each at Autozone including the sensor which is another issue. plus $20 to replace the nut which is suggested. A garage replacing one side is around $450 To check Pitman and Idler arms I believe there would be play on tires if you grab it and move it side to side. These are about $35 each. Is a little tough to install because of the location. I had to take off the steering box. To check if its a ball joint take the tire off grab the rotor and pull out on it if it moves its bad get it replaced. They range from $24 for the value brand and $45 each for the higher brand. Remember 2 per side. A garage gets 2.5 hrs per side plus double the cost of the parts. For the tierod someone wiggle the steering back an forth 10 to 2 o'clock should be enough to see play in the pitman arm,drag link, tie rod ends. If its a sealed boot around the inner tie rod end you can still check it, But just a little more difficult, Still takes anyone that can move the steering wheel back an forth.while you observe the steering knuckles move, No movement at the joint should be scene. No clunking, (if these are fine you may want to avoid replacing, can be a pain to thread the nut on the stud) If you can do the work yourself depending when any of these were last replaced, it would make sense to do them all at once because you will need an alignment and I paid around $75 . Make sure you are careful, ball joints will pop right out of place and spring the control arm, that is once you are lucky enough to get them off. Plus the more you take off the easier all this will be. I paid a Garage $80 to diagnosis the problems unintentionally because I was very new at this. They wanted $1000 for ball joints and 1 wheel hub. I was able to do all this work myself for $800, (not counting shocks, that does not sound like your problem.) It was very tough work the first time but learned a lot and could do so much faster now. You need good tools. Min 1/2" drive rachet, some PB Blasters, joint pry bar tools, a 24 inch breaker bar, possibly a cheater pipe, I used a 6ft metal fence post. Wear gloves to protect your hands. Most of the sizes are metric, one of the caliper bolts is 18mm, drove me nuts and almost stripped a nut. It is easier to loosen the wheel hub while, truck is on the ground, not to take off fully, just loosen. Hope any part of this helps, this is a ton of research and self expereince I found in many different places.

pontiac g5 gt coupe 2007=issues

by tdigra on Mon Nov 30 14:23:35 PST 2009

i am interested in finding anyone that has or knows of a remedy to this issue i have: i built a g5gt coupe in 2007 black inside an out all the bells and whistles. At 23 miles the wipers flew off the car in a snowstorm it was 45.00 and change to replace them at the dealership. at 123 miles the gasket seals on the doors fell off replaced under warranty. the following are all under warranty: on jan 23rd 2009 the stereo sytem sensor blew replaced also cracked the molding over the glove box also replaced ,now there is a hum when air or heat is on. two weeks later the gas sensor blew also replaced (my best epa is 19). the dash and stereo fashed like a disco ball very hard to see or so bright it hurts your eyes and is distracting while driving. i have had all new brakes tires rotors twiceand they still are not that great. i was almost killed once when the emergency brake failed it has been fixed,replaced and fixed again resolve to issue by dealership is to park on flat ground always,so i have.the front panel fell out while driving a new one will cost me aprox 200.00. the wiring under the driver seat shorted ,it was repaired by electic tape i am suppose to keep an eye on it and let them know when the tape needs replacing. in july of this year the oil in engine compressed so badly the dip stick was broke during removal if i want a new one it will cost me (not covered) compression test resulted in as inconclusive they can't explain what happened. i am so heartbroken i built this car my first new ever. i stopped going to dealership they laugh at me now. at this point i am spending 300.00 a month for gas to drive approx 400 miles a month. unfortunatley on black friday my heat shield fell off had it riveted thought i was good to go. saturday i got in the car smell of gas gave me bad headache took it back to dealership for a little over 900.00 i can have the catalytic converter replaced no warranty,even though the law says 8 yrs 80,000 miles for design defect.which it is all one piece unit to get to flex hose converter needs to be removed. in short this has to be the biggest piece of junk out their. anyone else have issues like these??? i would be interested in knowing i am in conversations with pontiac and plan on contacting the attorney general and epa commission on this vehicle. i have spoke with dmv lemon law agents and still no where close to resolve.

Re: 2000 Montana Thumping noise [brennanpersona]

by aitkenhead on Mon Nov 30 10:36:17 PST 2009

I know it's been a month, but did you ever get resolution? I went through something like this. My symptoms were scoring on the brake disk even though brake pads were not excessively worn, and a once-per-revolution bump similar to a tire problem. Some loss in handling but not severe enough to suggest broken ball joint or steering linkage. It turned out to be the hub-bearing assembly.The bearing was not seizing (I've had that too in another failure), instead it was loose and falling apart. You can tell right away if you lift the wheel off the ground. If the steering knuckle feels tight but the road wheel has some play (and furthermore the knuckle doesn't move while you are making the road wheel jiggle) you have a broken bearing. The hub and bearing are a sealed, modular assembly. DIY cost to replace, about $160. Difficulty about 3.5 on a 1 to 5 scale. Requiries specialty tools loaned from your auto parts store.

Re: audio upgrade [qs84]

by donaldduck on Sat Sep 12 12:59:41 PDT 2009

It depends on what kind of tint is used. If the tint is from dying the plastic, there is no effect whatsoever on radio reception. If the tint is from a vacuum deposited metallic (very) thin film then there can be a substantial effect on FM, but unless the metal film is somehow grounded to the car body I would expect some, but not serious degredation. It is possible or even likely that the installer does not know what he sold.You may be able contact the manufacturer to find out. One certain clue is that if the film looks reflective from the outside it is metallic, but all metallic films may not be reflective. Dealers are, of course predisposed to blame something else for any problem if they can. If you can't budge them you may have to do your own research by plugging in a temporary radio to eliminate that possibility, then replacing the car antenna with a temporary whip. If that fixes the problem, then it is somewhere in the car antenna If you connect the temporary whip at the radio, you check the cable. A car audio shop should be able to do these tests for a lot less than buying a cheap radio. The other solution is to tell the dealer to replace the rear tint with whatever he sells, If that does not fix the problem, and your radio works less well than those of other cars the dealer owns, then the ball is firmly in his court, and there should be no charge for the tint replacement.

to Buyingcars

by rich30 on Tue Aug 18 05:26:32 PDT 2009

Unfortunately, the dealer is allowed to do almost anything they want and make extra profit by deceiving the buyer. It's not like investing with Madoff, but...it is nasty. If the MF from Audi finance is 0.0010 (only for example, I do not hv this # for u) and the dealer tells you the MF is 0.0016, guess what - the dealer keeps the difference as extra profit! Residuals can wok same way. This is the sophisticated level of the rip off (what the consumer does not understand is grounds for making extra $). You expect honest help once you want their brand, so you want to just finance it, what you get - "A ball of confusion". Your car salesman is changed into an "investment banker" making his profit by giving made up financial percentages when you expect to get a fair deal. When a client asks dealer for the money factor, he/she expects the current rate determined by the brand's finance co. This is not the norm - you will not usually get the current numbers from the car finance co. (Audi fionance here). This is exactly why we all need this and other forums where you can get the truth. Even calling the Audi (or any brand) finance co and ask them for the resid or MF - they will not give you an answer! - believe it or not! They tell you it is up to the dealer to give these crucial #s! Rich

Sensor Voltage Weirdity

by shaggyman1 on Mon Aug 17 23:20:50 PDT 2009

1996 1.0 5 spd Been on this one for months- starts fine but can't give any throttle before it warms up, or it floods out. Checked the voltage at the Coolant Temperature Sensor by backprobing. It has three wires: Light Green/Black, which is common and goes to the MAP, TPS, and IAT. Gray/White, which is the signal to the ECM. Yellow/White, which is not shown on wiring diagram, but I assume is the input from the ECM. LtGr/Bk is ground- no voltage. Gy/Wt reads 2.34V when cold, decreases with rising engine temp and finally goes to 0.5V when hot, at which point the cooling fan kicks on and takes it back up to around 0.65V. (With two different CTS units- same within .2V) At anything over 1.0V, the engine will flood and stall if the throttle is opened even slightly. These values seem reasonable if the temperature was around zero- but it's 80. What does not seem reasonable is the voltage on the Yellow/White wire which I believe should be the standard 5V input from the ECM, but reads a steady 9.2V, regardless of temperature and even when not running with the ignition on. If the input voltage is nearly twice what it should be, then the CTS could have exactly the correct impedence, but the output signal would be much higher than the ECM expects, and it would compensate with a mixture richer than Bill Gates. Is it possible that something is creating a field that the wire is having additional current induced in it somehow? My DMM read nearly a volt with the positive probe held in the air near (2 inches) the sensor wires. I hope this is the gremlin I have been looking for since April, but I don't have a clue how it could get 9.2V. Maybe something a little over 12v, yes- but not 9. Anyone see this before? Hints? My crystal ball keeps saying to try again later....