Blake Noble

It's so tempting to get the band out to play "Near My God to Thee" right now.

mote

It basically boils down to this: would rather pretend to be the President or pretend to be the Governator? I'd rather pretend to be the chief rather than the injun. If you want rid of the Caddy and want a truck, pull the trigger on buying a low-mileage dealer demo GMC Canyon Crew Cab V8. I wouldn't dare buy any GM compact truck without the 5.3L and I wouldn't dare spend money on a new one either. If you're looking outside of GM for a truck, I'd give a lot of thought to a 2001 or so Dakota with a 5.9L V8. They're seriously nice trucks and have what I think is a perfect amount of interior space GM didn't match with the GMT355s. My dad actually traded in his '99 Dakota SLT 5.2L 4WD extended cab recently for a low-miles 2002 Dakota SLT 5.9L 4WD crew cab model and it's a seriously great truck. This makes his third Dakota and he's had great luck out of the first two. I would, however, try to avoid a 4.9L-powered Dakota without having it checked out first. I've heard a few stories about the reliability of the 4.9L and it seems to be a hit 'n miss kind of engine.

It could even be the O2 sensor, forgot to consider that. I think sometimes a bad O2 sensor will allow raw gas into the converter as well. It's my last part to eliminate. I wonder, though, how long exactly does it take for a converter glowing red hot to start melting internally. I do know the heat has been so extreme at one point in time over the past two days that the glue that held the dealer protective plastic coating on the passenger side floormat has begun to bubble and loose adhesion. It actually sometimes smells like the air/fuel mixture might be too rich (then again, it smelled that way from the day I bought it). You only smell it outside of the car. The stench isn't so intrusive you smell it while you're inside of the car. Driving the car home from the shop today, there was a bizarre odor in the car as well. Not like the usual "rotten eggs" smell you get with a bad cat, but something else ...

So I took the car for another spin, trying to find any clues I've overlooked. Found one when I was looking underneath the car and trying to pinpoint the knocking sound I mentioned before: the catalytic converter is always going red hot. So this is looking like it's either a bad fuel injector (a cat burning raw fuel will glow hot) or the last problem I thought it could be, the converter itself. I'm praying that the converter is the culprit. I'm happy ... still just a little irritated, though.

I'll check the FI here soon. It's not the coil pack; the 1 and 4 coil pack was replaced with a brand new AC Delco one.

Thanks von. I hope so too, but I've been down a similar road before ...

I know that. Little imperfections to fix and catching up on a little routine maintenance, I don't think anything of. In fact, I like it when a previous owner leaves me a few inexpensive things to do with the car after I buy it. But to have a major, potentially serious and expensive issue develop in less than a month's time of ownership? I simply have no tolerance of anything like that. I know the old adage "You get what you pay for" but this car was simply too good when I first bought it. Countless people admired the car and were amazed at what I paid for it. It ran great. In fact, I took it on a small trip out of town only a few days after I first bought it and it ran like new the entire time. I expected a lot from this car and I am highly disappointed.

Here's the update: P0300 OBD II code (random cylinder misfire). Plugs: good. Wires: good, no heat damage. Compression test: 150psi. From there I told the guy to check the coil pack and we found there was corrosion on the contact point of the number one cylinder coil pack, so I thought it best to have it replaced and hoped it would fix it. Nope. It didn't. It still throws a P0300 code and the guy who was working on it said that the misfire wasn't just the number one cylinder, but at the number four cylinder as well. I have my reservations on that because if the misfire was localized to cylinders one and four, the codes would be P0301 and P0304, which they are not. I wish that were so because this would be a hell of a lot easier to figure out. In any case, whatever has to be done to this car isn't going to be cheap. A general list of what it could be, with what my bets are against stricken out: Catalytic converter. EGR valve. Faulty injector(s). Burned valve. Camshaft position sensor. Defective engine computer. Yippie. Yet again I manage to have shitty luck with a car I've bought and in a record time almost exactly like the Regal after I first traded for it. So help me god, I am so pissed off I can barely see straight.

"Three days in the hole." Well, that happened way sooner than I expected.

Uh-oh. I thunk it's gittin' hot in hurr.

Come on kids, gather 'round. Let's sing the Necromancer's theme song! Hump, hump, hump the corpse gently in the grave ...

There will be an update tomorrow. If it passes the plug wire test, I might consider having the shop run a compression test on the number one cylinder for good measure if the price is reasonable.

Mmmmmmmm ... Either way I can't go wrong.

The misfire was consistent with every cycle. However, I feel I should also add that you could stand outside of the car from a distance of about 20 feet and actually hear the misfire. It made me think of a knocking rod. I don't think that's the problem, though, because it wasn't quite as loud. Call that assumption hopeless optimism if you wish.

But I like the flavor of my coffee like I like my women: dangerous to my health.

I 'spose I have some 'splainin to do. Well, here's the four-one-one: I left my house today to make a trip into town. I head out and for the first 4 or 5 miles, the Camaro is doing great, running like a top. I turn off of the main highway to take a shortcut and without warning or provocation the SES light begins to flash then comes on steady. I'm not happy about seeing this, but I first think, oh it's probably just the EGR valve finally going bad (after all, there's a reason GM deleted the EGR system on the 3800 F-Body cars for 2001), I'll get it taken care of this week. No big deal. As I keep driving, I start noticing a quite dramatic reduction in power. The car is reluctant to make it up most inclines. A miss has started to develop at idle then eventually all engine speeds. The SES will flash then go steady, flash then go steady. I know this isn't good, so I decide to press on into town to make a quick stop at Advance Auto Parts to have the code read. The code returned was an engine misfire, cylinder one (I don't remember the exact code at the moment, i.e. the OBDII ID digits; I was a little too pissed off to remember to write them down for reference). Knowing good and well that driving it immediately back home and then making a future trip back to town could make the problem worse, I decide to reluctantly take it to a garage just down the street. I tell the guys I know the code returned is a engine misfire code, cylinder one and to check the spark plug and plug wire. Because I brought it in about an hour and a half until the shop closed, the mechanic could only get to the spark plug before my ride home picked me up. The plug, while a little dirty, wasn't fouled-out and had the correct gap. They're going to test the resistance on the plug wire tomorrow. If that is eliminated, then I know there's something nasty going on. It could be a multitude of things, bad fuel injection circuitry ... a solid list full of expensive repairs basically.

You could have said something about coffee bean farmers, Colombia, and Folgers being the reason why but you left my fun-o-meter pegged at zero. Gloria Jean? Swiss Chocolate Almond? Gee, what's next? A dress and some little red heels too?

Hey, it could be worse. It could have been an SES light because of a misfire on the number one cylinder ...

Well, I'm going to back the fun bus up. Things are not looking good for the Camaro ...

I'm going to go ahead and call it really, really, really early on RjION: inb4 b&

OK design, not my kind of car. If there is a sedan, hopefully it can manage to not look as awkward as the rest of the subcompact sedans, with the exception of the Fiesta. The Fiesta is about as good as a tiny sedan can get.

Following up about an earlier sentiment about morning coffee-fueled dumps, what exactly is it about drinking a cup of coffee that eggs on that reliably timed crap? It's the same way with cigarettes too; I think the so called "FSC chemical" is actually a laxative.

1. Regular and brewed very strong. 2. Coffee flavored coffee. 3. Everyday. I can't have a morning cigarette without it. 4. Yes. 5. Yes. 6. Not a fan of cream and especially that powdered cream crap. 7. About 3 to 4 spoonfuls for the morning cup o' joe.

Do it! Those rims would look especially awesome on your Nova. I don't like your mother either, never did like your mother. But you don't see me marching into one of your threads to announce it.