Well I was about 6 hours from home and get a phone call from Renee this morning shortly after 7. She is at a Tim Hortons and the car is dead, well sorta. Ends up she was a few KM from where she stopped the car. She heard a noise ( possibly a hose blowing) and she was not far from where she could stop and not have to walk and freeze. SO she got to the top of this little hill( if you can call it that) and notices the low coolant light came on ( shortly after hearing that weird noise).

SO from that point she is able to coast and get to the main ( first) intersection. at the bottom of this little hill the Temp light came on. so from that hill to where she parked it is maybe 2 mins.

It got towed this after noon and I am now home ( came home a day early to deal with this). With our luck and the fact that the car is white I am expecting the heads to be screwed from the heat. But the mechanic ( Friend at the garage) told me that it was not that long and not to worry till we test it. He said he has seen cars overheat for allot longer and they were fine.
At least it was -15C this morning so that may have saved it ( cool off faster).


So at this point it looks like the trip to T.O. for the spring meet will be in the Malibu once again.

As I find out what happened I will let you all know I hope I can get a few pics of the mess .

rassin frassin!!!!

Damn dude, i wanted to experience that car.

Jeez! That sucks! I swear, bonnies have been going to the shop a lot lately! :?

Cast iron block, cast iron heads. Fix the hose, and you're back on the road, Mike.

Are you serious?? I thought they were alum. SWEET. I knew I liked these engines, LOL.

I will find out tomorrow.

I even told the owner last week that I was gonna give him a set of keys to keep at the garage, he laughed and said it was not needed. Well on the phone today I told him I AM giving him keys. That way the towing company just gets the keys there and picks up the car and I pay the garage for towing and work done.


I am hoping that by leaving a set of keys at the garage they will not be needed. I talked to my friend today and he said they seen the car come in but the owner didn't tell them what was going on and they figured me or Renee would be in shortly after, but neither one of us showed up so they were wondering what the hell was going on, LOL.

pop a new hose on and your good as gold. These things happen, but more likely to a white car.
LOL
Sorry to hear it.

Well I have not seen the car yet. So I don't know if it simply a hose or what. I will be going to the garage in the morning to inspect the car.

Well got the car fixed ( for now) today. It was not a rubber hose at all but the steel hose that comes off the intake and goes to the heater. It was corroded right where a bracket is welded on for support. Problem was that no dealer in the area had the part. BUT I was lucky and they had a spare 3.8L sitting in the back so we "borrowed" it off that motor.

So once again labor only another "FREEBIE". After that was done we pressure tested the system. It would not hold pressure. It would take some time to come down. About 30 mins to go form 17lbs to about 13 lbs. It could have been some air still trapped in the system but we are keeping an eye on it.

NEW PROBLEM

We were hungry and it was after 8pm so we went out for food ( after getting Renee a cell phone for emergencies so she can call for help if it breaks down again).

She waited in the car while I went and got the food. I decided to let the car idle and I turned all the lights off. She happened to turn the climate control down or something ( unrelated but funny) and as soon as she touched it the SES light came on again.

It was only on for a bit but it came on none the less. So once we got home I checked to see what code was stored and this is what was waiting for us.

"code 39: Torque converter clutch(TCC)problem "


Now WTF. The car was sitting there idling and that code went off???

I have noticed that when you drive the car since we had it on the road that it doesn't seem to fully engage into OD. you get it up to a normal 90KM/h and it is just above 2,000 rpm but if you let off the gas a little then press down again slowly you can get the rpms to drop to below 2,000 like they should be.


What could the problem be with it?? Is the tranny going or is it something else that can be fixed without rebuilding the tranny? I may answer my own question as soon as I do a search but figured I would include all this in here cause of that d@mn curse.

OH and this DOES mean that the Bonneville WILL NOT be making the trip to the spring meet next week in T.O. but we still plan on going.

Hi Mike. MAN that PCM seems determined to throw codes! I know that Don or Bill will have a few good ideas...mine is simply to yank the PCM from its little hiding spot and check the connections. Seems strange to get so many different codes in such a short time. I know the car has been sitting and theres some storage bugs being worked out but MAN, it almost sounds like a bad ground or something

Well all other codes to date HAVE been for something. The cam sensor ( magnet was gone/broken), the TPS code, the sensor WAS gone. SO this car so far has been giving me correct info. Even when I got the O2 code the sensor was bad.

So I am currently searching for answers. Renee is concerned about driving it now. I am supposed to go out for a party this weekend and it is a good 30-40 mins to get there and we are taking the bonne. I will see if the SES light comes back or not.

What has me confused is the fact the SES light for TCC came on while it was stopped in park idling. But I had a strange feeling there was some kind of issue with the tranny cause of the problem of not going into full OD just partial OD, and even Renee discovered that by driving it. She was telling me tonight ( before the SES light) that she can get the rpms lower on the highway by letting off the pedal then slowly maintaining speed. She knows the car better than me cause she drives it everyday so I get to diagnose it all the time with what she tells me.