Stranded! Or, I don't really love my Probe GT today...

i ordered a Bosal cat-back and front brakes for the '96 PGT and they arrived friday. sweet weekend plan:

• install parts

• ?

• profit!

so saturday at about noon, i put the car on stands and remove the rusted mid-pipe, cleaned up the cat flange, and attempted to install the Bosal gasket. No uh-huh. stud spacing on gasket is wrong. check pipe, and it's correct. call local advanpepzone, they don't stock my gasket but i can rummage around and find something that'll work. cut flange off old pipe to take with me, just to be sure. borrow car from neighbor, go to parts store, get close enough gasket, go home. put gasket on studs. OK. bolt mid-pipe to cat. OK. raise pipe up into underbody space, No uh-huh. pipe is 2.5" too short.

after some research, i discover that my early-96 (9/11/95 build date) was built with leftover '95 exhaust system, so I need the '95 mid-pipe. but rockauto's ordering system didn't prompt me for a VIN or build date, so apparently they don't know about the leftover parts usage. FWIW, this is a very common practice at vehicle assembly plants. rather than lose the money on the old parts' obsolescence, they'll get a deviation from engineering to build using the last of the old parts. no big deal as long as it is documented for service.

so now, to make the car reasonably not deafening, i have to put the old pipe back on. yes, the one that i cut the flange off of. fortunately i had an adapter that was the right size, and i had clamps on the shelf, so i was able to hack it back together and put it back on the car. i've now wasted 10 hours and have no desire to do the brakes. sunday i painted the bedroom i was supposed to paint on saturday.

This morning, i have to take my little girl to her field trip, so I take the car down off the stands and turn the key. The engine lights up for about 0.5 seconds, then dies. Subsequent cranking is at about 2000 rpm because the frickin' timing belt has decided to enforce the 60k service interval, at 63,950 miles.

So, i pulled it in to do a 2-hour cat-back and now i have to decide whether to do the timing belt myself or have it towed to the local garage. i did the belt on this car when i bought it 5 years ago, and i'm sure the job is still as much of a motherberkeleyer now as it was then. i really don't want to do it myself, but i don't have the cake to pay someone else. i also don't have the cake to buy a miata, E30, or P71.

so, woe is me.

Is the V6 an interference motor? I feel for ya.....

It is now, interfering with his trips to the Booby Trap anyway

AngryCorvair wrote: i ordered a Bosal cat-back and front brakes for the '96 PGT and they arrived friday. sweet weekend plan:

I feel your pain.

The input shaft bearing on my civic trans is rattling, not a lot, but a little. I have the time to replace it but don't really have the $ for parts that would go along with the replacement(clutch, syncros, etc)... So I'll drive her until something really breaks then leave it for dead.

As for the deviation bit, that was one of my old job. Very funny. I'm seriously ashamed at the stuff I was able to "deviate." It's actually scary the pressure I was under to make "bad" parts into "saleable" parts.... Mostly benign stuff like cosemetic casting defects on dificult to get obsolete castings, but every once in a while It would be very very scary.

That explains those funny square pretzels the wife was bringing home for a while

Your issue is common at auto parts stores. There are about three or four computer systems for the part cataloging (AAIA, NAPA and a couple others). If these systems don't account for a mid-model change, then there's no way the lookup can find the right parts. I bet some paper catalogs show a difference. But good luck getting a discount auto parts store (or online retailer) to look something up in a paper catalog.

Wally wrote: That explains those funny square pretzels the wife was bringing home for a while

Yeah, that's some of those 'deviant parts' ignorant was messin' with when he worked in the pretzel plant.

You don't want to know about the other 'non parts' deviance, believe me.

I'm sure they're as good as any other pretzel but who decided on a grid pattern

If it's like the V6 MX-6, then I have no idea how you'll get to the timing belt without taking the engine out (at least partly). Sorry to hear about the suckyness.

OK, that was weird. When the tow-truck guy got here, I had to put the key in to unlock the steering, so I decided to crank it and listen to it one more time. And it tried to start. So I cranked it for a few more seconds, and it seemed like it was firing on one cyl, not enough to run, kinda like it was flooded. So I figured WTF, I'll hold the pedal to the floor for "flood clear" mode, and the friggin' thing started!

I'll take it to AutoBlow to get a free scan. The way it acted this morning, I was 100% convinced that the timing belt took a dump, but didn't have time to do any troubleshooting.

Bet you have a "module" failing. Time for either a new distributor or the GM conversion.

John Brown wrote: Bet you have a "module" failing. Time for either a new distributor or the GM conversion.

Distributor design was fixed with OBD2, so the GM HEI conversion isn't applicable.

When it started, it stumbled and smoked for a few seconds, and took about 1 minute before the idle really cleaned up 100%. It acted like it was flooded. IDK.

Maybe it heard you mention a profit?

confuZion3 wrote: If it's like the V6 MX-6, then I have no idea how you'll get to the timing belt without taking the engine out (at least partly). Sorry to hear about the suckyness.

Its really not that bad. I did the belt and tensioner on mine in a few hours with the car on a jackstand in the grass of my front yard. Then after that I got a house with a garage.

bamalama wrote:

confuZion3 wrote: If it's like the V6 MX-6, then I have no idea how you'll get to the timing belt without taking the engine out (at least partly). Sorry to hear about the suckyness.

Its really not that bad. I did the belt and tensioner on mine in a few hours with the car on a jackstand in the grass of my front yard. Then after that I got a house with a garage.

well, you're more bad-ass than me. i did the current belt about 64k ago, in my pole barn with a nice concrete floor, and i swear it took me about 20 hours. probably spent 3 hours just getting the timing covers off. miserable motherberkeleyer of a job, and i won't do it again. i also just got quoted $500 for parts and labor, including water pump and coolant flush/refill. dude says book is 4 hours. i say when i decide to have it done, i'll take it to him.

Jensenman wrote:

Wally wrote: That explains those funny square pretzels the wife was bringing home for a while

Yeah, that's some of those 'deviant parts' ignorant was messin' with when he worked in the pretzel plant. You don't want to know about the other 'non parts' deviance, believe me.

Ha.... Don't get me started on quality control in the food industry. I once got back a letter from a guy stating that he found the cage from a ball bearing in a pretzel... He sent the cage back too.. Fafnir If I remember correctly.

As for turbos.. ummm.. I best not talk.

I had the exact same problem(s) with my 96' PGT. The exhaust was a hacked up piece the previous owner made for me, it fell off the car twice, from two different points. Although a great sounding engine, its horrible for driving long distances without ear plugs. I bought new parts from the cat on back and low and behold the mid pipe was too short. Rather than fight with parts stores, I did the only sane thing a man can do, break out the sledge. I hit the floor a few times and let my friends take a few swings until it all fit just fine. Its not like there is any room for comfort in the back so whats another lost inch of foot room?

And that timing belt job is a bitch.