Back in 2003 we bought a 2001 Grand Prix GT for my wife. Here she is with it:


And here it is right after I had the windows tinted:


Back in 2010 we bought a 2003 Honda Odyssey minivan from my brother in law, and I sold the Grand Prix to a neighbor. Now, 6 years later, the neighbor is going to get a new or newer car, and offered the Grand Prix back to me. As soon as she has her new car, I'm going to take the Grand Prix back as a project car.

This car used to be *really* gorgeous, but it has faded over time and now needs some maintenance.
I checked it out yesterday, and here's what it looks like now:








It has a little over 200,000 miles on it, but I know my neighbor didn't trash it, and had the oil changed regularly.
It has a new windshield and the DIC has recently been replaced, apparently because it went out.
It has new front headlamp glass. (I previously replaced the taillight assemblies because the originals delaminated.)
The ABS brake module needs to be rebuilt or replaced, so the Magnasteer isn't working.
It has a code for a stuck closed EGR.
It has a code for a bad AIR pump. (Do these cars even have those?)
It's a little moist under the coolant elbow. I'll replace with the new aluminum ones. (Is there just one, or are there two on these cars?)
The struts are worn.
The driver seat cushion foam is shot, but the leathers are all good.
The front carpeting has a worn out spot and is badly stained.
One of the fuses in the under-hood fuse block melted down and damaged part of the fuse block. There is no fuse in it now, and I don't know what that circuit is (yet).
The passenger side mirror got whacked on the side of the garage, and needs to be replaced.
The rear bumper clearcoat is shot.
There's road-rash on the bottom of the passenger rear quarter where the neighbor scraped a curb.

Overall, I think I can work with that, and it will be useful to have a spare car when I want to work on my S500 or the wife's current Town & Country.

When I get it, I'll get some photos of the interior, which is in pretty good shape, and all original.
I really liked this car when we had it. It won "Best Non-Bon" at the 2009 West Coast Bonneville Fest.
I'll keep you all posted!

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Two elbows, they come as a kit...one has a larger end on it so you can't put them in the wrong spot..just did mine, really easy to do...you'll want to make sure that you shine a light into all the holes to make sure you got all the debris and o rings out.

EGR is probably carbon plugged. Check the EGR valve and the tubing. It can be removed without taking off anything other than the rubber air horn between the throttle body and the air cleaner housing.

The rest is pretty easy. Always like buying a car that the history is known on it.

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A temporary fix does not exist. It becomes a solution until it needs to be fixed again.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOYkkevV0gKTHc_8Cstuy8yS1Qyx6SiIKeTzuHy

WOW! the GP was a beautiful car new, and still good looking. Hopefully you will be able to get everything you want completed. - BC

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In Memory of Brad - 1/21/1977 .. 10/23/2013 ...... Aaron - 1977 .. 2017 .....
2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport ..... 1992 Bonneville SSE 1SB 170 HP L27 4T60E retired/sold to MattStrike ..... 2005 Bonneville SE 1SC 205 HP L36 4T65E - retired/salvage yard ..... PBCF user 2321

Just determined that these cars do have an AIR pump (smog pump) but it's electric, rather than belt-driven. I also determined that the fuse for that is what melted down in the under-hood fuse block. So that matches with the codes that ID'd the AIR pump as being bad.

Good to know on the pair of coolant elbows. I'll buy the aluminum ones.

I'm thinking I'll also use this car to practice doing my own paint. When I was a teenager and could only afford rust-buckets, I always did my own body work, but now I have my own home and garage and a nice gravity-fed paint gun and air compressor, so I ought to be able to handle respraying that rear bumper on my own, and I can fix the road-rash under the passenger rear quarter. This car will be my budget project car! I'm kind of looking forward to bringing it home and making it great again. I've done upholstery work on a number of cars before, and my understanding is that the seat cushion foam is the same for the passenger side as the driver side. If I can pick up a not-trashed passenger side seat cushion, I'll rebuild that driver's seat.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Looks like a good project there!

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2001 Bonneville SSEI (His) - Gen V/3.5 pulley/CAI/SD Headers/ZZP 1.9 Rockers/90# Springs/Magnaflow Converter/HP Tuners/180* T-Stat/Trans-Go Shift Kit/TruCool Transmission Cooler/ F-Body Front Brakes/STS Rear Brakes/Tint/GXP Interior September 2015 COTM

2007 Trailblazer SS (Hers) - PCM4Less tune, E-Fans, SLP PowerFlo Exhaust, Hotchkis Sways, PML Tranny Pan, Powerstop Brakes,
"Big 3", Tint

2004 CTS-V (His) - B&B Exhaust, LS7 clutch, HIDs, LED fogs, Powerstop Brakes, Tint

Looks a little rough but not too bad! Excited to see where you go with it.

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-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

Donald Trump here!

Looks like a nice project. You know pretty much its entire history, so it's not really going to be a surprise to you.

Yes, 00+ will have 2 elbows. One goes from the LIM into the alt bracket, the other goes down into the block. Your 96(?) had a cast-in elbow on the lower part.

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

Brought her home today. Before I picked it up, I hit the local Pick-N-Pull, where I pulled a passenger sideview mirror, an ECBM ABS brake module, an under-the-hood fuse block, an EGR valve, and a passenger front seat with good seat foam. I took a couple photos once I got it home, to document "before" I did anything to it, then I gave it a nice exterior bath before the sun went completely down. I'll catch some pictures of it tomorrow. I also found out I need a new driver's sun-visor. I could have pulled one at the Pick-N-Pull had I known. My first task is to get it to pass the California smog test. The ECBM will hopefully fix the ABS light, traction light, and fix the Magnasteer steering assist. The EGR should fix the EGR code. Then I need to replace the fuse block and the Secondary Air Injection Reaction Pump *IF I CAN FIND IT*. The best I can find is that it's supposed to be in the driver's side fenderwell, accessible by removing the wheel splash shield. I've pulled the splash shields from cars in the Pick-N-Pull and I swear I can't find the thing at all. I'll be happy to buy a new one, but I need to know WHERE THE THING IS. The fuse block melted around a 30 amp fuse to the Secondary Air Injection Reaction Pump motor, so I need to get that sorted.

Here's how she looked after I brought her home:

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Here she is after an exterior hand-wash:


I did a bit of research, and I think the secondary air injection reaction pump might have been a 2000 and up item, and the cars I was looking at in the Pick-N-Pull yard may have been earlier than that. When I get a chance, I'll pull the front wheel and remove the splash shield and take a look.

Today I got it insured and registered to me as far as it can go without the passed California emissions test. I ordered a set of metal coolant elbows for it, because the plastic ones are leaking a little on it. I also discovered the black plastic trim strip over the driver's interior door trim panel is cracked and will need to work out what to do about that. Still, first things first: Get it to pass the smog test.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Pulled the driver's front wheel off today and pulled off the splash shielding and voila, there's a secondary air injection reaction pump in there! The thing was clearly filled with water, and the relay that drives it made an uncomfortable rattling sound. I ordered a new pump at NAPA and got a new relay. There's also apparently a check-valve that is part of this system, and I don't know where that lives. I will likely need to find it to refurb the secondary air injection system and allow the car to pass the California smog test. Pump should come in tomorrow morning. We'll see where that gets me. I also need to pick up a new 30 amp fuse for that circuit.

[EDIT] Found the check valve. It's on the top side of the engine above the back valve cover near the firewall just about on the centerline of the car. It looks relatively easy to access. The hose from the secondary air injection reaction pump snakes its way up the front of the engine, along the driver's side, to the check valve in the back of the engine, with a number of metal and rubber sections.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

IT LIVES.
Things I did so far:
Replaced the Secondary Air Injection Reaction Pump. It had been previous replaced, and installed upside-down. This might have been on purpose to try to get water to not pool around the motor. I bored a quarter-inch hole in the very bottom of the rubber cover that hangs upside-down around the motor. If it should ever ingest any more water, it will drain out. The screen filter was missing from the air intake to the pump as well, and I managed to find one at the salvage yard, clean it up, and install it. I mounted the intake hose so it routes upward into the engine compartment to get air, so it hopefully will never suck water again. (There's a TSB covering water-intake that causes the pump to fail.) Here it is installed:

This same system had electrical problems. The relay driving the pump was shot and rattled. I replaced it. Finally, the fuse block under the hood melted all around the 30-amp fuse that protects the pump circuit. There was also a relay in the fuse block that showed signs of fire or melting. I replaced the fuse block with one I pulled from a Pick-N-Pull yard, and swapped over all the major fuses and loaded it with the best condition relays gathered from the two fuse blocks.

I replaced the EGR valve, which was the other DTC the car was throwing. While I was under the hood, I replaced the air filter, which was filthy and clogged with leaves. I also fixed a cornering lamp which the previous owner recently had replaced, but one of the mounting tabs had broken off. I epoxied it back together and remounted it properly.

At that point I buttoned it up, put the wheel back on, and test drove it. All the codes were clear, no engine light came on, and no codes were thrown. The car still had the ABS light on, the traction control off light on, and the Magnasteer was still out. I swapped in an Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) that I pulled from the Pick-N-Pull, and all of those problems went away. The car drove great, had all the proper Magnasteer functioning, ABS light out, and the Traction Control light out.

Just because I'm a stickler for looks, I replaced the missing OnStar antenna with on OEM antenna from eBay. It doesn't do anything, but it looked stupid with just the stub and no antenna, so now it has an antenna.


Next: Just for good measure, since the Secondary Air Injection Reaction system has had previous problems, I ordered a new check valve from RockAuto. Whenever it arrives, I'll swap it in before having the car smogged. Meanwhile, the driver's seat needs to be rebuilt. I have a passenger seat with good foam from the Pick-N-Pull, so I will need to strip down the seats and swap the foam cushion and make any necessary frame repairs.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

The car passed the California smog test today with flying colors.
Over the weekend I rebuilt the driver's seat. The wire mesh was completely shattered, and the seat cushion foam was torn. I used a mesh and foam from a donor passenger seat in good condition that I snagged from a salvage yard. I cleaned the leather upholstery with Mr. Clean magic erasers, and reconditioned the leather with Armor All Gel Leather Restorer. The driver's seat is now like new!

Old seat and donor seat:


Wire mesh swapped over from donor seat:


I like to put a cheap floor mat between the wire mesh and the seat foam to prevent the wires from digging into the seat foam. It's a cheap way to have long lasting support:


Seat foam from donor seat:


Finished rebuilt driver's seat installed:

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Can oil leak from the upper intake manifold on an L36? There's a nice trickle of oil running down the lower intake, coming from part of the plastic upper just above the coolant elbows. I think an upper replacement is probably in order.
The water pump has signs of leaking, and at 207,000 miles is most likely original, so that's getting replaced.
The coolant elbows are getting replaced.
The fuel lines and fuel filter are getting replaced.
I'm going to get those leaks under control!

I ordered an illuminated driver's sun-visor and a cup-holder on eBay. The fabric is torn on the driver's visor; probably from a hands-free device clip or something. One side of the spring-loaded cupholder is missing, so I'm replacing the cupholder thing.

I talked to the company I had tint the rear windows back in 2005, because the back window has gotten progressively less transparent over the years and now everything looks murky through it. It was SolarGard film, which had a good reputation at the time. The shop told me SolarGard went out of business, and that before they did they sent a bunch of substandard film in premium film boxes to them. They said I can make an appointment and they'll re-do the back window for me! So I'll have that done at some point soon.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Got the car back from my mechanic today. I had them:
Replace both the fuel pressure line and fuel return line.
Replace the fuel filter.
Replace the upper intake manifold & gasket.
Replace the water pump.
Replace the coolant bypass elbows with new metal ones.
Replace the secondary air injection exhaust check-valve.

Now that it's back and the under-the-hood leaks are taken care of, I'm moving on to more interior and exterior items.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Looks like you're well on your way to getting this thing back in order.

_________________
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

Went to the Pick-N-Pull again today, grabbed an entire carpet. Washed it with hot water & hose with sprayer, Purple Power cleaner, and scrub brushes. (Put my kids to work on it.) Gave it a hot water spray rinse, and hung it to drip dry.

Pulled the front seats back out, pulled the back seat out, pulled the center console.

Replaced the driver's sun visor. Cleaned up a cup holder that I grabbed at the salvage yard. Getting ready to swap the carpet. Grabbed a driver's door weatherstripping at the salvage yard as well. Getting the interior cleaned up will really help; it was pretty filthy!

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

It's been a little while, and since the last post I swapped in the new carpet, fixed up the center console and swapped the shifter and boot, swapped the top of the center console with the cup holder, re-did all four door trim panels with new clips and a new edge trim on the top with a good cleaning, had the rear window re-tinted, cleaned and treated all the interior leather, swapped the driver's sun visor, swapped the passenger sideview mirror, swapped the driver's A-pillar trim panel, put in Vogtlander springs with KYB AGX struts, got an alignment and got a set of new TripleTred tires.

And then the *dang* thing started making a screaming noise on a long drive home. It was intermittant.
Dropped it at my shop. Left it with them over the weekend. They weren't sure what they were looking for. "Is it a quiet humming noise?" -No, it's like I'm standing next to you screaming in your ear. Just DRIVE it. It will occur.

They drove it. It occurred.
They called me. "It's doing it. With the belt OFF." (Oh *shoot*.)
Today they're dropping the oil pan so we can see if it's the lower end of the motor. They said it's coming from right between the engine and the torque converter, but they removed the shield to check the torque converter bolts, and none of those were loose. *grumble*. I'm betting it's the bottom end of the motor; probably a spun bearing.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Pan off. . .lower end looks. . . good!

We believe it's the harmonic balancer. Harmonic Balancer is getting replaced.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500

Little bit of an update:

My shop guy and I are in agreement that the noise they heard and worked on was not the noise I was complaining about.
They ultimately replaced the torque converter. My car had been making an unusual chirping noise, and they determined that the torque converter in the car was not even the correct torque converter for it. (My neighbor had the trans rebuilt at a local shop some time shortly after I sold her the car.) Car drives great now, no chirping noises after both a new harmonic balancer and torque converter. I also replaced the bottom engine mount and transmission mount, and both lower control arms, and installed strut tower bars in the front and back. (The car handles like it's on rails now.) But the noise I heard is clearly a pulley bearing, most likely the tensioner pulley if I had to guess, and it only starts making noise after driving the car around a half hour. I want to actually see it when it's doing it, so I'll keep driving it until I can reproduce that noise.

A chronic P1404 code for failure of the EGR valve closed position that replacing the EGR valve didn't fix was *finally* fixed by having my dealer re-flash the computer with updated EGR position voltage value tables. I found service bulletins related to the problem with a variety of GM cars and they were able to flash it.

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PontiacDad at WCBF `08: "By any chance, was his name. . .Radomir?"

R.I.P. 10/31/15: 1997 SE: "Silver Shadow"
`05 Mercedes S500