| Re: URGENT! Free Magnaflow Exhaust Must deal with tommorrow! Grand Rapids MI
Ugh! We have two days of this junk and then it's supposed to warm up (hopefully for about 6 or 7 months).
As for my V, the rear clip was shifted to the right about an inch, it was twisted clockwise (looking from the rear) a little, and it was hockey sticked a little. Oh yeah - the underside was a mess. The guy that did this hit a curb during a burn-out or a power slide really hard. He managed all this without scratching the paint!! So, with a clean title it looked like a good candidate for some rebuild action. Especially with just over 10k on the clock and a price of $23500. My frame shop guys (I have rebuilt about 8 cars of various makes by now), estimated about $800 worth of work, which sounded great. By the time they were done, it was two solid weeks on the rack and about $2300 in work!
None of us knew about the incredibly stiff frame on these things. They needed 40,000lbs of pneumatic rams in an "X" acrossed the rear pass through area to just barely get it to move. Thankfully, it did.
So, at the same time an entire rear suspension assembly came up on ebay from another 2006 V with 13k on the clock - perfect!
So, I dropped the entire rear suspension (it was also about an inch narrower that it started out) with basically just 4 bolts, and popped in the replacement. I parted out the original stuff on ebay and broke even on the rear susp. parts.
Another $995 to pop out the otherwise undisturbed sheet metal and I had it on the road..or so I thought....
So here's the rest of the story:
I bring the car to the tire shop to have the wheels checked and balanced at lunchtime- it's the first day I drive the car to work.
The tire shop says the front left is bent, and won't balance. This makes sense, left side of the car and all. Apparently the guy lightly tagged the front end too. So I have them put the wheel on the rear left until I can have it repaired or get a replacement. I run back to work and finish the day. My buddy in another department has a 2005 V, so we go in the parking lot at 5:05 to check out the car. He says "lay some rubber", so I comply. Only when I nail the throttle, I am suddenly trying to regain control of a wild snarling beast with a steering wheel and brakes that are doing their own thing! I really don't remember (I was busy at the time!) what the accelerator pedal was up to, but there was lots of rubber being vaporized.. until I clock the exact rear corner of the car on another curb - exactly the same damage I just repaired..and taking out the one bent wheel on the car completely.
My buddy comes running down the road and says, "dude - what are you doing? Ever heard of traction control? - you know, that grey screen that says traction control engaged?"
I had no idea what he was talking about, and had never seen that screen..and I had no traction control.
The damage I did was nothing compared to the original owner - but the pride took a big hit. A realignment, rear bearing, new wheel, and a rear control bar pretty much did the trick.
THEN I put a Tscan on the car and saw some yaw control failures. At the same time, I saw an option to "reset to factory defaults?" as an
option on the traction control menu. I selected yes, and all the warning lights came on, and went out again. hmmmm..
So I hop in the car and take it out - guess what? Now I have "traction control engaged". The rest of the story is that a dealership in WI had swapped out the steering position sensor at around 9k miles, which is a principle part of the traction control system.
I bet they never reset the system.
The original owner schmucked the car at about 10k miles, and I did it again almost immediately after putting it back on the road.
Amazingly, this car is now tight and quiet, has just had all GM warranty work completed, and aligns perfectly.
It would appear that all of the bugs are out of the thing. I will say that it feels right, looks right, and sounds right at this point.
It has about 14,500 on it now.
How's that for a story??
I do have pics, but they are at work.
Also, back to Nate's 2005, I have pics of it if anyone is interested, and I know it will be rebuildable.
I also know where it will be, and what they paid for it if someone is really interested is a good rebuilder..
It has not been listed on their website yet (partsbyweller.com)
you can email me at m/d/o/o/r/@/g/e/n/t/e/x/./c/o/m for the details. (remove the /) | 
