Penny the 2003 SLE

[nos4blood70]

New lines are in, and Penny is once again back in action. Lol Could use another bleed after some ABS activations but on the road again!

[harofreak00]

Wow that rust has gotten bad, LOL!

[nos4blood70]

Yeah, it's terrible. Lol Makes me want to move out of the midwest. It's bad enough my face hurts half the year and there's nothing cool within 10 hours of driving but then the environment also eats my cars.

[95naSTA]

That sounds completely terrible.. And also reminds me that I want to move.. lol

[nos4blood70]

So I've got my weird subframe noises again. I'll need take a closer look, but now it's coming from both sides. 2 years ago, I noticed a popping noise you could feel in the floor. It would happen over just about any road surface, and even braking and throttle input. I narrowed it down the rearmost passenger front subframe bushing. The weird thing is, when torqued to spec, that bushing is super noisy. When you loosen it, like to a finger loose level, it is quiet except when taking hard left turns. I had it this way for over 2 years with no issues. Now this is starting to come from the other side's same position. I know the castle nuts inside of the body do have some movement, and as I understand this is on purpose. I wonder what could be causing these noises and pops, especially when torqued to spec. The bushings were replaced in 2018 with Dormans. The subframe was surface rusty but otherwise in good shape. I used the same kit for all 6 positions, but looking at GM Parts Direct website, it looks like some rear forward positions have thicker isolators. Could these be affecting the rearmost positions? The quest for 250k continues!

[95naSTA]

That sucks. Hopefully it's not the unibody it's self.. My 95 started to crack on the unibody passenger side by the bushing and I only noticed with it all pulled apart. I did my rushed best to weld it but only as a bandaid for a better fix later.

[harofreak00]

How about instead of torque to spec you just crank it to as tight as you can get it?

[nos4blood70]

How about instead of torque to spec you just crank it to as tight as you can get it?

I have also attempted to do this with my milwaukee half inch impact until it could no longer spin, same result. But I could also try with a bigger breaker bar. Worried about snapping that bolt.

[nos4blood70]

I was thinking last night and I feel like I know what re-awoke the subframe pop beast. When my brakes were out, I had shifted to 1 a few times and by god were those violent downshifts. I also had to go into park once at like 5-6 mph. So I'm sure the subframe got a nice few wacks from the powertrain.

I removed/loosened all 6 bolts today and slathered them up in anti seize. All of them come out with no issues at all. It's hard to tell what's causing these pops. The two offenders are the two most rearward positions on the subframe, particularly the passenger side. As I understand, the caged nut inside of the unibody is meant to move around a bit so that is normal. Makes me wonder if the issue is the two bushings I have that are the wrong size according the GM parts direct, or if something else is shifting around. The pops get worse the tighter the bolts are. Especially the passenger side. When tightened to spec or higher it is basically popping full time over any sort of road imperfection or bump. Even throttle movements can make it pop. Letting off of the brake at a stop light makes it pop. It's dumb. Lol

In other news, I put my sub back in the trunk so I don't hear these pops so much.

[95naSTA]

Lol @ the sub comment.

[nos4blood70]

Hey it work! The sub that is... JK

The removal and antiseize slathering has seemingly helped slightly. I think the issue I have is I used the same Dorman replacement part for all 6 positions. It's so hard to find the proper components. The forward, mid, and rear positions all have variously sized rubber bushings per the diagram on GMParts direct.

Additionally, stuff like the Park Ave or Lucerne use vastly different looking stuff too.

[nos4blood70]

Not many updates here. Still dealing with the subframe situation and the leaky power steering pump, but not finding the time lately to do anything about it. The AC also appears to be slowly leaking out as well. Filled her up with UV dye and letting it rip lol

Put a boat on my boat yesterday! Weird how this car has no tow hooks or anything of the sort. But was able to hook to the front subframe and the rear unibody frame rails above the mufflers. People in the Taco Bell drive through loved it. Lol

Going to be heading out on a camping trip potentially in June, but lately this thing has been staying more local, so we may take the GF's Honda Fit instead. Although since February she's been my fiancee so there's that bit of news as well. But yeah! I like to think of Penny as retired these days.

[Sirius]

Congratulations on the engagement!

[nos4blood70]

Congratulations on the engagement!

Thank you sir!

[95naSTA]

I thought boat on boat the second I saw that pic. lol

Congrats on the engagement x2.

[nos4blood70]

Thank you!

But literally yes, as soon as we finished strapping it up, I was like: Boat on a boat!

[nos4blood70]

2016 to 2023. 120k miles later.
Never would have thought back then I would still have her.

[nos4blood70]

Well, that would explain the lack luster AC performance. Looks a new condenser might have to be in the works... Or some JB weld. lol

[nos4blood70]

Condenser and seal kit are on their way. Job looks easy enough. I need to remove the front bumper and fix a few things anyways. One of my headlight bolts just spins and spins, and I need to mount the horn back in its normal spot too.

[Sirius]

Sounds like a fun Saturday in your future.