I am looking at buying a GTA. I already have a camaro but I need more power and the GTA has a 350. I emailed the guy and he sent me this reply:

Hi Brian,

Here is the long winded note.

Sorry about the late note. I had a problem with my Netzero mail, and I am now using MSN's mail service.

I will send another e-mail that has 1.46 MB of pictures (39). It will take a little while to download...if you want to.



I decided to type a note relating to the latest current events in regards to selling my car. This note is pretty general/specific since I will be sending it to a few people. I have honestly have had several offers to buy the car outright. None of these offers contained a specific $ amount.

I stated in the auction "no shipping", to weed out national bidders who would not be serious enough to e-mail me and ask for more information. The way I see it, it is also really unrealistic for someone to buy the car, and ship it cross country, without even asking for more information or pictures so they can make an informed decision. I have listed as much information as possible so a prospective buyer can get a good feel for the car.

I would rather not sell this car at all, than to sell it to someone that knows nothing about cars, is picking apart very petty things, insinuating that the car is a not original, or is asking useless questions. I want to sell the car to someone who knows what a GTA is to begin with.

The local car "Auto Trader" listing I did was kind of messed up to begin with. I originally ran the ad at $2250 Firm, but the car always had a glitch with throwing the check engine light occasionally, and would hesitate while cruising at a low stable rpm. I thought the whole time that it was a chip programming issue, and it probably had something to do with the fuel map on the chip. I was tinkering with it on and off for months and I could never get it right. I ended up getting tired of messing with it, and put it up for sale at the lowest price I was willing to take for it (gets rid of the haggling...I hate dealing with that) .

Anyway, I found someone that was really interested in it, and they drove out 50 miles to look at it. When they got to my house the friggin' car wouldn't start(really embarrassing) It picked exactly that moment for a no-start, when I haven't had that happen for months. They checked the car out anyway, and liked what they saw...except for the not running part.

The next day I went through doing all the electrical checks on the sensors, checked fuel pressure, fuses, and ran a laptop diagnostic on it. I ended up figuring out that it was a bad MAF. The car would not run at all with it connected, but when it was disconnected, it fired right up. I had no idea that the MAF could even be an issue considering that I just replaced it last summer, and I have only put about 1K on the car since then. I went down to the local parts store and bought a new (reman) Bosch style Air Meter, and the car started running better/smoother that it ever did before. I took it out on the freeway heading to the coast, and put the car through the tests. It accelerated, cruised, had a stable idle, no hesitations, no hiccups, whatever.

It turns out the new MAF I bought off eBay was the problem the whole time.

The only problem now was that I forgot to hook up the vacuum line back onto the adj fuel regulator. I put about 60-70 miles on it and the car died 3 miles from my house. My buddy towed my back (in neutral), and I figured out what happened. I then ended up having to replace the fuel pump relay because the fuel pump was running like crazy to keep the pressure high enough to run the car.

So...

I got everything back together, and my wife and I were cruising around in it the following day day when the guy that looked at it a couple days before called me on my mobile phone. He found out the car was running perfect and said he would be right out to my house with the cash, and he was bringing his brother to help drive a rig back home. We were about 30 miles from the house when he called, and I turned it around, headed home. I then decided to pass some one, and punched the accel when we were in overdrive, and got up to speed. Right when we were getting up to speed, it felt like the car was bogging down at the higher rpms, and I could then feel the tranny slipping, and then smell it too. We made it about a couple of more miles and then the car died, having blown the ECM 20 WT fuse (by the radiator). I had some more fuses and ended up getting the car started back up again, and drove it home (10-12 miles approx). The whole time it wouldn't shift out of 2nd, and the fluid was definitely burnt by the time we got it backed into the garage.

Needless to say, The buyer didn't want it anymore.

At this time My wife and I were getting a little frustrated with the whole ordeal, and she cancelled the insurance on it, and I listed it on eBay the following day.

If you still would like some more info...if you are not asleep by now....please let me know.

I will try to respond a little quicker.

Thanks again for your interest,

Jeff


I already know that it needs a new tranny...duh. But why do you think it would blow the ecm fuse. Is there a short in the system somewhere? I dont know what to think and I don't want to buy a car that has major electrical gremlins. What do you guys think??

 

I think he forgot to replace his MAF relays as well. This is one of those things where you really have to see/drive it to tell if it's worth your time and aggr. IMNSHO

 

Well, I can't do that because the car is in oregon and I am in CA. I was planning on towing it back if I bought it but I don't want a car with major electrical gremlins.