well on the 8th of this month I picked up my Trans Am. It is a 1987 Trans Am, WS6 suspension, T-Tops, disc brakes, 5.0 litre TPI, fully loaded with everything except 5 speed, even has a cat back for only $2,500, with 113K miles.

Well I drove it home that night, from Thousand Oaks, The car's gas mileage Is AMAZING! So I drove it home, the next day I went to turn the lights on, and the pop up lights would not open all the way, now they will not open period, then I noticed that my turn signals stopped working, and so did the fog lamps.

Well I went to have it smogged... it failed. the CO and HC levels where very High. So I took it to the shop next door that they told me to go to. They did the following...

Replaced the 02 sensor, $45, and chaged $130 for removal and installation of the 02 sensor, a new radiator cap for $15, adjusted the timing for $35, and then they installed a High flow cat. converter for $220. So total they charged $450.00... The car's hesitiation that it had before was still there, just a little worse, and the cat rattles and shakes alot.

They said that it would cost $400 for parts, and $65 an hour to fix the turn signals / electrical problems wrong with the car. Question is, is this a normal rate for this? Never had to deal with that sort of thing before.

It also needs a radiator, they palce wanted to charge me $500+ for a High Performance radiator, saying that the higher flowing cat needed the higher flowing radiator to keep it cool so it doesnt burn out. . . ... And $300 for non-performance radiator. Well I called around, and can get a brand new radiator, installed, for $210, and in under an hour, so that is what I plan on doing.

Also, another very weird thing is the transmission. It shifts fine, but a while back the check engine light was on, and the transmission was acting up, like it started off in 4th gear or something IDK, there was NO power, you could nail it and the car would shake and stutter, and try to move. Shut the car off, and turned it back on and all was fine... what in the hell is that problem????

Another problem... The car has Positraction, which I love because it has like 3.08 gears. However, it has NO power. The 0-60 seems like about 7 seconds, and I cannot burn out! I know its pointless, but if your at a dead stop and you nail it you expect something... ... not this!

So what is going on with my Electrical System? Does the fact that the transmission was acting up that day, and the lights not working have something in commen?

 

new high flow radiator for a new cat sounds like to me. the shop sounds pretty shady, i would take it to another trusted shop and make sure they actually did the work (some shops like to charge you and do jack ****, scumbags.)


sounds like u have a fuel problem, maybe new injectors, new fuel pump, clogged fuel filter, leak somewhere prehaps, or u just need a tune up, maybe timing issue, who knows.

0-60 in 7 seconds isnt that slow. unless your taking about a 60 foot time lol my old 0-60 in my tbi 305 was about 9.5-10 seconds or so

 

Don't ever go back to that shop and report them to the BBB.

 

Seriously. A new radiator cap because you can't pass smog?

Maybe they changed it because they felt like it, but the radiator cap doesn't NEED to be changed until it wont hold any pressure at all anymore, in which I highly doubt it was in that bad of condition if you drove it so far without the car overheating.

 

yeah, I hate to say it, but those guys ripped you off. What a$$holes, I would also suggest reporting them to the Better Business Bureu (I am suddenly unable to spell that last word, lol), because some of those parts were totally uneccesary and the rates are absurd. You can get a perfectly good radiator for your car from the typical auto store for about $120 or so, so $300 is insane. I would not do business with them again obviously, and find a new shop.

I would suggest a full tune-up, electrical and fuel system, and that should clear any hesitation problem. If your car is out of tune enough that it won't do a burnout, you'll notice a huge performance gain by getting the car in proper tune. A well tuned LB9 is very torquey. The fact that the shop changed your timing makes me suspicious. If they retarded your timing like 5-10 degrees or so, that would explain your car's torquelessness. In any case, good luck with it. Thirdgens are good reliable cars usually, hopefully you'll have better luck with yours.

 

At the begining of summer I had some hesitation like you described... The car was shaking when I hit the throttle hard...

changed air/fuel filter, rotor/cap, spark plugs wires, new spark plugs last year and put in a bottle of fuel system cleaner by Gunk.


The problem was really the cap and rotor. But I did a tune up at the same time. Now the car doesn't shake anymore and I can burn the tires easy with my auto LB9...

The only thing I have to change in the future is the O2 sensor because my gas mileage is not very good right now so it should help.

 

That shop certainly gives the rest of them a bad name.
How long they get away with things like this is what amazes me most.

 

By the way, the car is not a money pit, it's the shop you were going to the problem...

 

$130 to change an 02 sensor?! It screws in! No way in hell it took 2 hours for them to change it. Report to the BBB is always good.

 

sounds like they also managed to knock loose your cat's heat shield, or give you a bad cat.