Restore To New Build
#12
06-06-2016, 07:24 PM
fog lights that will eventually be changed out for something different that is more fitting to the car. might even get the factory housing and change the bulb
#15
06-06-2016, 07:27 PM
close up of valve cover. sry for all the dirt. i used to take this car down lots of dirt roads, through creeks, and mud holes. this was before i got the job with UBER
Last edited by Shadonas_S001; 06-06-2016 at 07:32 PM.
#16
06-06-2016, 07:30 PM
the area on the trunk where the red and amber areas are i plan on getting a custom made piece of plexi and adding colored LED stripes back there to add additional running/brake, turning, and reverse lights to the car. probably gonna look weird but who knows. and sorry that i sent all these pics one at a time
#17
06-06-2016, 10:36 PM
Hey Chris, Kathy isn't still the manager at Autozone is she? I will NEVER figure out how the hell she got that job in the first place. Dumber than a bag of rocks and nowhere near as useful. I used to go in there and ask her all kinds of mechanical questions and she couldn't answer any of them. I was parts pro, PSM and Assistant Manager for the Zone until I got fed up and quit after 5 years and the crappy pay. Not in Waverly, but in Nashville, Kingsport and Shelbyville.
#18
06-07-2016, 01:33 AM
Nice. Very nice. Looks like it's been regularly waxed, but did something happen to the hood? Reflection isn't the same. Not criticizing, just asking. I HATE when parts of my car do stuff like that.
If you're doing the hubs, there is no better time to do the LCA's (have integral ball joints) and struts as you will already have he knuckle disconnected from the ball joint on the LCA. The struts are two bolts at the bottom and the LCA to frame is one bolt (though nasty).
******Actually, it is nearly impossible to reuse an LCA in an S car because it is extremely difficult for the non-professional mechanic to separate the ball joint from the hub without ripping the sealed for life grease packing. So you WILL need to do the LCAs at the same time as the hubs unless you want to drive around on torn grease packed ball joints. I have no idea how long that will last. ******************
If you tackle the front suspension as a complete group, it's only 1 alignment vs multiple alignments. If it is not driven great distances it may not hose the tires if you do it piecemeal so to speak, but might be difficult to drive if severely out of alignment.
As for refreshing/renewing the car, I fully understand your motivation to do so.
However, as you said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
This can be directly extended to the quality of SOME of the parts used when the car was built. The factory coils made in 2000 are likely much better quality than anything you can buy today, including replacement identical GM coils which are now made in China. Maybe the original ones were too, I don't know. If they were, they were higher quality than today's AC Delco coils.
--------------------------
If you want your car to be in tip top shape for UBERing, CHECK FOR PROBLEMS BEFORE just tossing money at parts in an effort to ensure reliability and "renew" the car. The still fully functional in spec parts you are replacing may be of higher quality than what you are replacing them with.
--------------------------
I have 253K+ on my 97 SC2 and I have never needed to change
1) a coil
2) a wheel bearing
3) a hub
4) a CV joint
5) any tie rods (did have to change one tie rod end)
Conversely, I have been through (counting the originals)
1) at least 3 upper torque axis mounts (they are consumables on these cars -- use OEM or you'll wish you had)
2)3 pairs of LCA's (most recently this year)--bearings were dry rotted and causing vibration.
3) 3 pairs of rear sway bar end links - they simply wear out.
4) 1 strut change all the way around @ 180K. They were dead at 50K. Asked a Saturn tech how often I should replace. He said that the coil spring does most of the shock absorption and the strut helps to re develop equilibrium. But the cars are so light that the struts don't really do all that much. Could I feel a difference? Absolutely. For about 30K mi. Then back to the way I knew it.
So some things inherently need more attention than others.
-------------
Apologies for the jokes about strobes. Just makes me think Disco.
-------------
I forgot that for the 3rd gen SL2s and SC2s they went from 4 wheel disc to front disc/rear drum. I am not sure the hubs are the same for the two variants so I do not know if the rear bearings on a rear drum s car require a hub replacement by default or not.
If your brakes wear evenly and the calipers move freely, leave them the hell alone. As for drums, just don't like to work on them. New springs n such hardware may be in order, along with turning of the drums. Pretty normal.
If you find front rotors that don't warp before 15K mi, I'd like to know where you found them. Honestly I have found Autozone's to be the worst.
I used Centric out in NJ but I really don't see them much near Pittsburgh.
_____________
New parts availability for our Sattys is slowly drying up.
I use
Rockauto.com
Partstrain.com
partsgeek.com
gmpartsdirect.co
gmpartsdirect.com (do not always have the same items as above and prices differ
ebay (there are some pack rats out there)
Many times I'll use gmpartsdirect.com to find the part on a schematic, which leads me to a GM part number , then just Google 20190970 and see who says they have what. and 75% of the time they are just too lazy to update inventory listings with the word "discontinued".
--------------
Ah, compatibility....
3rd gen S sedans were 2000-2002. Big time interior design updates so you are probably limited to 2000-2002 BUT the nice part is that they often made the same changes in all the DOHCs and similarly the SOHCs, but not the same changes to both.
Exterior-- not sure. I'm thinking they must have changed some styling stuff just enough to require newly shaped parts.
The only way to be 100% sure is to go to a site like gmpartsdirect.co and find your part on a schematic, open the page for it, and look at the fitment info at the bottom.
All that being said there are probably a few parts on an s car that were the same from 91 to 02......
--------------------------------------------------
So keep in mind that change for the sake of change or newness will not necessarily make your ride more reliable -- it may do exactly the opposite.
And doing the struts, LCAs , and hubs together keeps you out of trouble with the ball joint grease seals AND saves you double work with the struts and LCAs and avoids extra alignments
If you're doing the hubs, there is no better time to do the LCA's (have integral ball joints) and struts as you will already have he knuckle disconnected from the ball joint on the LCA. The struts are two bolts at the bottom and the LCA to frame is one bolt (though nasty).
******Actually, it is nearly impossible to reuse an LCA in an S car because it is extremely difficult for the non-professional mechanic to separate the ball joint from the hub without ripping the sealed for life grease packing. So you WILL need to do the LCAs at the same time as the hubs unless you want to drive around on torn grease packed ball joints. I have no idea how long that will last. ******************
If you tackle the front suspension as a complete group, it's only 1 alignment vs multiple alignments. If it is not driven great distances it may not hose the tires if you do it piecemeal so to speak, but might be difficult to drive if severely out of alignment.
As for refreshing/renewing the car, I fully understand your motivation to do so.
However, as you said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
This can be directly extended to the quality of SOME of the parts used when the car was built. The factory coils made in 2000 are likely much better quality than anything you can buy today, including replacement identical GM coils which are now made in China. Maybe the original ones were too, I don't know. If they were, they were higher quality than today's AC Delco coils.
--------------------------
If you want your car to be in tip top shape for UBERing, CHECK FOR PROBLEMS BEFORE just tossing money at parts in an effort to ensure reliability and "renew" the car. The still fully functional in spec parts you are replacing may be of higher quality than what you are replacing them with.
--------------------------
I have 253K+ on my 97 SC2 and I have never needed to change
1) a coil
2) a wheel bearing
3) a hub
4) a CV joint
5) any tie rods (did have to change one tie rod end)
Conversely, I have been through (counting the originals)
1) at least 3 upper torque axis mounts (they are consumables on these cars -- use OEM or you'll wish you had)
2)3 pairs of LCA's (most recently this year)--bearings were dry rotted and causing vibration.
3) 3 pairs of rear sway bar end links - they simply wear out.
4) 1 strut change all the way around @ 180K. They were dead at 50K. Asked a Saturn tech how often I should replace. He said that the coil spring does most of the shock absorption and the strut helps to re develop equilibrium. But the cars are so light that the struts don't really do all that much. Could I feel a difference? Absolutely. For about 30K mi. Then back to the way I knew it.
So some things inherently need more attention than others.
-------------
Apologies for the jokes about strobes. Just makes me think Disco.
-------------
I forgot that for the 3rd gen SL2s and SC2s they went from 4 wheel disc to front disc/rear drum. I am not sure the hubs are the same for the two variants so I do not know if the rear bearings on a rear drum s car require a hub replacement by default or not.
If your brakes wear evenly and the calipers move freely, leave them the hell alone. As for drums, just don't like to work on them. New springs n such hardware may be in order, along with turning of the drums. Pretty normal.
If you find front rotors that don't warp before 15K mi, I'd like to know where you found them. Honestly I have found Autozone's to be the worst.
I used Centric out in NJ but I really don't see them much near Pittsburgh.
_____________
New parts availability for our Sattys is slowly drying up.
I use
Rockauto.com
Partstrain.com
partsgeek.com
gmpartsdirect.co
gmpartsdirect.com (do not always have the same items as above and prices differ
ebay (there are some pack rats out there)
Many times I'll use gmpartsdirect.com to find the part on a schematic, which leads me to a GM part number , then just Google 20190970 and see who says they have what. and 75% of the time they are just too lazy to update inventory listings with the word "discontinued".
--------------
Ah, compatibility....
3rd gen S sedans were 2000-2002. Big time interior design updates so you are probably limited to 2000-2002 BUT the nice part is that they often made the same changes in all the DOHCs and similarly the SOHCs, but not the same changes to both.
Exterior-- not sure. I'm thinking they must have changed some styling stuff just enough to require newly shaped parts.
The only way to be 100% sure is to go to a site like gmpartsdirect.co and find your part on a schematic, open the page for it, and look at the fitment info at the bottom.
All that being said there are probably a few parts on an s car that were the same from 91 to 02......
--------------------------------------------------
So keep in mind that change for the sake of change or newness will not necessarily make your ride more reliable -- it may do exactly the opposite.
And doing the struts, LCAs , and hubs together keeps you out of trouble with the ball joint grease seals AND saves you double work with the struts and LCAs and avoids extra alignments
Last edited by derf; 06-07-2016 at 09:20 AM.
#20
06-07-2016, 08:13 AM
Just in case you do need a front end alignment, take it to Stanfield Tire, behind the Library. David always did a very good job on my cars. I never trusted Waverly Tire. The ONE time I used them, they screwed up my alignment. I had to take in adjustable cam bolts for the struts and the "tech" didn't know what they were until I explained it to him. He's no longer there, but I know David and he always told me if it's not right, bring it back and I'll make it right.