I'm sure everybody hates when this happens but after searching, searching and more searching I just couldn't find something closely related to my problem. Hoping someone can help. I bought my 1990 Firebird about 6 months ago for $1,000. It was working fine till about a month ago. Here's how it happened. On my way to work one day I noticed that when I would come to a stop the car was vibrating, shaking(it had not done that before). On my way back home I pulled into a gas station and saw some smoke comming from the back of the engine kinda of under the distributor cap. I reved the car and when I put it on Drive it turned off. I was able to start it again and drove home. About a mile away I noticed I had no power when I would try to go faster than about 35mph. And when I did try to step on it I could hear some grinding. The next day I found out I had no Trans Oil. I added about for bottles of trans oil and drove the car just fine(no more shaking no more grinding). I drove it for about 2 or3 days before it strted acting up again. one day I pulled over to fill it up but after pumping gas it wouldn't start. after a minute of trying to start the car it finally did. I drove fine for another half a day and again after pumping gas it wouldn't start. This thime i was there for about 5 good minutes. After the people behind me started getting pis*** I had my friend help me push it to the side. After changing from Neutral to Park I gave it a try and it started and headed home. I thinking this might be a problem with the fuel pump no? My dad says fuel injection cars don't have a fuel pump. He of course is wrong right? Well But that's not my problem. On my way back again the started shaking and shortly after when i would try to accelerate I could hear grinding. After about about a minute I noticed that even with the pedal to the floor I wasn't able to go faster than about 20mph. I drove about 2 miles like this grinding noises and all. This time when I checked the oil it was fine. but since then I've changed the trans filter and oil. Found no metal shavings. that's a good sign no? but still my problem is that when I put the car into reverse or forward I have absolutely no drive? Even with the pedal floored. Please help next i was going to check the differential and u-joints but before i want to make sure my problem was even closely related to that.(trans/axle/driveshaft/u-joints) Please help. Somebody anybody. you will have a life long friend in south gate cali. Thanks

 

sounds like like your tranny is going,where r u hearing the grinding noises, has for the shaking n vibrating when driving it could be any thing like the mass air flow sensor,or the idle air control valve, check them

 

It's what i'm hearing, thanks. I wanted to change the trans anyway, just not this soon. I'll probably end up getting a T-5. Haven't really researched this topic but if anybody knows. Will a T-5 on Automatic 1990 Firebird 3.1L work. The motor has about 200,000 miles and eventually i will change it to a crate engine 350. Also don't know if the latter is a *** combo. but does anybody think i can still squeeze some life out of my engine with a new T-5?

 

Dang. Sounds like it was pretty abused before you got it. Definitly sounds like a transmission problem. COnsidering the mileage on it, I wouldn't be surprised to see the tranny is dead. I'm not an expert, but you could take ti to a shop and see if they could rebuild it or at the very least, diagnose the problem.

It could be that your Torque Convertor is also dead. That's what connects the engine to the transmission. Dead TC = no transfer of power to the tranny, and thus to the rear. Was the rear making noise at all?

You do have a fuel pump. It's in the tank. If the engine runs, you have no problems with that. Shouldn't anyway... Does the engine run fine when the tranny is in neutral or park?

Concerning a T-5, you could find a used V6 manual in a junkyard and swp that in, after making sure you're getting something that works. Used V6 manual transmissions are cheap - everyone wants the V8 ones, that's why, and for some silly reason, they're not interchangeable. However, if you just want to dump a crate engine into it, go get a new T-5 with it and call it good.

There is another option - the car is just dead, and it would cost a lot of money to get it running again, so cutting your losses might not be such a bad thing, after all. A thousand dollars isn't terribly much, but you might see a lot more then that go into the car for repairs.

 

I was afraid somebody would tell me this but thanks. The engine does run and sounds fine. do you think there's even a slight chance it can still be something like worn u-joints or something serviceable. I wasn't into these kind of cars but I have to admit I fell in love with my little pontiac. Even stock I got so much attention from neighbors and the neighbors' daughters. I almost got killed in that car when a drunk driver ran a red and missed me by a hair to go end up on the light pole. So i'm willing to put some money into it if not now, later. "El Poderoso" will live again. Thanks for the help.

 

How's the body look? Interior good? Paint okay, no major rust? If yes, you could always swap the engine and tranny out and have a nice-looking ride. If the body is all rusted up and worn out, it might not be worth the effort, money and time. If the tranny is really toast, get some nice pictures of it so we can see the carnage - I'm thinking its pretty dead.

However, go check your diff and inspect your u-joints, just to make certain the problem isn't with them. Heck, you coudl've fragged your rear out, for all I know. Internet Diagnostics is sort of wierd like that...

And get some picrures of it, too - we like looking at third-gens. Especially Pontiacs, I see way too many Camaro's where I'm at.