Hello everyone,
I picked up a 93 SSE with 127k for $800 about 10 months ago with the intention of having it just for a little while till I found something better or it died. Well I can not find any reason to get rid of this car so I have decided to keep it and take good care of it and upgrade it.
No big problems but being that it'* 14 yrs old it needs some work.
Engine oil gets pretty black after a while but no leaks and it doesnt burn to the point where I need to put oil in it before the 3k change.
Trans works great and fluid looks good.
No check engine lights.
Interior looks awesome, exterior looks great except for the bumpers.

I do have a few issues:
When I start the car, the starter seems to spin and "let go" and the car doesnt start. The second time I try it starts fine. This gets worse and as the weather gets colder it takes more tries. I would assume the starter is shot but I'm not sure.
When its really hot out (80+) half the dash goes to sleep. The Tach and Speedometer work, but nothing else does.
If I have a 1/4 tank of gas or less, it almost dies when I make a hard turn.
I'm getting shaking coming from the front left tire but it only happens over 60mph. I replaced the hub bearing when I bought the car so its still pretty new. Can it be the brakes? I know the rotors are a little warped.

Needs the following replaced:
Rotors and pads
Exhaust from the cat back
Sparkplugs and wires
Driver seatbelt

Are things like these worth buying?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GAS-*...mZ120161758332

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PERFO...mZ180157586669

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-05...mZ120160644596

If you guys could give me some advise it would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not sure where the best place to buy some of this stuff is.
I really want to keep this car as long as possible.
Thanks

I'll answer your link questions to the stuff on eBay.

NO, NO, and NO. The first 2 you posted are utter scams, and won't do a darn thing. Number 3 is too short, sucks in hot air, and has a bad filter on it which will hold water.

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=29283

Read that post about the first 2 things you posted.

Thank you.
On the intake, what do you recommend?

OK...I have a 93 sse as well..has around 220k miles on the orignal motor, .I had a shudder in the front end even after doing my hubs too....I rotated the tires and the shudder moved to the back....turned out I had a flat spotted tyre. Only showed at higher speeds though....so could be worth checking out. Is not to time intensive to jack the car and swap the tyres front to rear....if nothing else will eliminate that option without having to spend any money.

As for a Intake...I myself am still running stock....but I believe people like Willwren etc are running fender well intakes, but not sure what brand or if they did them themselves. Am sure they can post more about these, and the benifits of the various types.

The dash problem...I have an intermittent problem where my dash loses the driver info display....I think although am not sure, it is covered in the tech info as being a crack in the solder joining the dash electronics. I know I read somewhere on here what it is and how to fix it.....another job for me, when I get a garage to work in.

The fuel issue, I believe would be the baffles in the tank are stuffed, allowing the gas to slosh to the outside as you turn and away from the pump.....I have read on here that the 93 tanks baffles do fail....Would suggest swapping out the tank for a new one....should take no more than an afternoon, and a couple of cold ones and a buddy or two to help....There are some threads on here covering the procedure with pics....very helpfull.

As for plugs and wires....follow the advice in other sections in here about them.....I didn;t and put in Platnums......yeah took em out a couple of months later and put in standard NGK'* and runs like a charm again.

Think thats about all I can help with at the moment...

Have any questions, feel free to PM me, I have the Factory service manuals, the Chiltons manual and also the parts manual for these cars so can help you locate parts numbers, and such if needed.....most of all, trust the fella'* on here.....they know what they are talking about....and sure have saved me a bundle on my car.

AJ Gullery

Thanks for all your advise. I will change the tire Monday and post back. Will also get the sparkplugs and wires.
The fuel tank makes sense cause if I park the car on an incline, I have a hell of a time starting it if its low on gas.
Thanks again

Eight hundred bucks? Jeez, how things have changed since I bought mine in 1996 for never-mind-how-much...

Don't wait for 3K. The oil is going black because it'* finding dirt to free up and circulate, so work with it by doing a couple of short-term oil and filter changes around the 1000- or 1500-mile marks. It sounds like you've successfully started the internal cleaning of a neglected engine before something irreversible went bad, so after a couple of short-term changes, you should find that the oil is now lasting a lot longer before going black. You shou.ld also _hear_ a difference in running, especially at idle.

Sounds good. You _do_ see them briefly during engine startup, I trust.

I'm think it'* the solenoid, actually. If the starter cranks the engine, that'* all it'* expected to do, but the solenoid should not be letting go until the engine goes overspeed from the starter. If it'* letting go prematurely, that sounds like it'* either tired or a little short on juice. I would suggest first that you clean your battery cable terminals at _both_ ends. The hard-to-reach ends may be loose and/or dirty.

Mine has similar issues in cold weather, at least until everything is warmed up. I think it'* a thermal expansion issue, as everything starts out working initially, then the displays go dark for a little while, then they abruptly come back on later, I think once all the components are up to the same termperature (like how they started). There'* a TechInfo article you'll find that I wrote several years ago on removing and rebuilding the gauge cluster, and you might want to try that on yours. I need to do mine again... This time I'll take photos!

I kind of doubt it'* the brakes unless you feel it only when _applying_ the brakes. I'd suspect a bad tire.

Rotate your tires front-to-back and see if anything improves. This may help two areas:

1) It gives you a chance to inspect each tire up close, off the car.
2) It gives you a chance to re-torque the lug nuts properly by hand with a good torque wrench. This can alleviate (if not eliminate) minor warping; I've seen it improve major warping, too, at least minimizing things until I got around to replacing worn-out rotors...

Ignore the miracle junk from eBay. Remember that your car was Pontiac'* flagship rocket in 1993, right out of the factory, so fixing its old-age or high-mileage stuff will get its character back again, not trying some goofy third-party fixes that you really won't need. Good luck...

Thank you for the detailed advise. I will be sure to follow it and post back.

I just looked at the tire that shakes and it does not have any balancing weights. I guess there is a chance that it doesnt need one, but I have never seen a tire that was perfectly balanced so that might be the problem.

As far as the engine oil, I was thinking of running Seafoam for 300 miles at least once or twice and then switching to Mobil1 or Castrol Synthetic. Does that sound like a good plan?
The engine runs well and pulls nice and strong so I just want to take good care of it.

The lights on the dash do come on when I start the car so I know they work.

I will clean all the cable connections on the battery and starter and report back.

Do you have any advise on the brand and model of muffler and cat?
How about a cold air intake from K&N?

And NO Junk from Ebay.......got it!!!

Thanks again

Your fuel problem is probably a combination of two things - cracked baffle and a clogged strainer on the fuel pickup. That'* what I found on my 93 SSE. You can't replace the baffle without changing the tank, but you can clean the cracked pieces out and drill some holes in the sides of the baffle to allow fuel to come back in. Replacing the strainer will make the most difference, however. Did on mine anyway.

Get your tire balanced and your shuddering will likely go away.

I'm going to assume your in NY? Too bad. I have a OEM exhaust from the cat back that is in perfect condition. :(

Without hearing what your starter is doing, it'* hard to diagnose. But it'* quite possible the starter drive (aka "Bendix") is cashing in it'* chips. I haven't checked, but it'* possible that you can just get a new starter drive and not have to buy and entire starter. I would think if it was the solenoid it would either do nothing or just click.

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok I cleaned out all the connections on the battery and starter and the car is now starting right away. Hoping that was it.

While I was down there I saw a leak from hoses that seem to come from the trans.
Also there is oil drips on my pan. Now the car is very greasy / oily on the bottom so I guess I might have a oil pan leak.

What kind of hoses do I need and whats a good place to get them? The closest autoparts store to me is Autozone.

Here are a few pics of the car, leaky hoses, oil drips, exhaust and cracked bumper.

Um, why? Sounds like things are getting better, actually...

Sure sounds like it. You be the judge...

Well, oil'* going to run _down_ the engine when it'* parked, and get blown all over the place while it'* running, so I'd look for leaks up and forward rather than down and below, such as the gaskets around the rocker covers, for example.

As for the clamps on the cooler lines, those were the result of a factory recall where the original swaged or clamped-on ends were blowing out during hard acceleration in cold weather. The repair was to use screw clamps instead. I would make sure that yours are tight. If the hoses are squishy from age, might as well replace them, though...

Couldn't say for sure, but I'm not impressed by their cheaper house brands of parts. Others here might have recommendations.

Oooh, shame about that back bumper. Maybe you can find another one from a junkyard for a bolt-on swap; your color isn't too rare and you have several years' worth of Bonnes to choose from that all used the same one. (Just make sure that any junkyard offering to call around for you is specifying the SSE/SSEi bumper to search for, not the LE. Easiest way to explain the difference to somebody is that the LE has single reflectors on either side of the license plate; the SSE/SSEi has sets of three.) If the replacement is not torn or deeply scratched, the original factory finish will clean up really well. Good luck...