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Goodybye to a good friend


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I had a front end clunk and a surge problem. Got a call from the dealership today...inner tie rod ends and sway bar link bushings plus an alignment $800 plus. And the deal sealer...torque converter $2,300. I just dont have that kind of money especially for a 1993 STS with 137,000 on it. I guess I have no choice but to sell it and buy my sisters cavalier....or put a bullet in the car and then my head. Im going to miss it.

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Get a second opinion. A local trustworthy garage could install new tie rod ends and sway bar bushings for WAY less than 800 bucks! I'm thinking 3-400, including the alignment. I'd also get a second opinion on the torque converter. Do you have any codes? Can you further describe the surge problem?

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Well they told me that the car was setting a code. What one im not sure Ill have to ask when I call them back in a few hours. As far as the surge goes...the car just doesnt accelerate smoothly anymore. Sometimes it seems worse than others but it seems to jump up by about 100rpm at a time. Sometimes you can just barely feel it in the car. Also im not sure if this was the trans or the problems with the suspension but if it felt like the trans shuddered for a second the other day when i was coming around a corner trying to catch a green turn aarow.

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Get the car back, check the codes yourself. Suspension will cosy you some $200-300 parts and $100 labor. Replacing torque converter maybe expensive but not that much.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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Oh thank god! They just called back. The trans guy is back from lunch. Its not the trans its...umm..what was it...some PCM problem. PCM reset? does that make any sense? IDK anyway its $150 instead of $2,200 roughly. So all in all with my inner tie rod ends and sway bar link bushings plus alignment and the pcm thing whatever that was (ill ask when i get it back tomorrow) it will come to around $1,000. not cheap but bt least its not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Ill be curious to see what they say about the $150 tab. Well see if they are full of that one stuff.

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So lets see if I have this straight. They call you and tell you its $800 for front end work plus $2,200 for a torque converter. You balk - tell them no way.

THEN they call back and say oops, the trans guy is here now and its $150, not 2,200. Makes me wonder how cheap the front end work could get if you balk at that too.

Sounds like time to look for another shop, or have a little talk with the Service Manager at the dealership.

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So lets see if I have this straight. They call you and tell you its $800 for front end work plus $2,200 for a torque converter. You balk - tell them no way.

THEN they call back and say oops, the trans guy is here now and its $150, not 2,200. Makes me wonder how cheap the front end work could get if you balk at that too.

Sounds like time to look for another shop, or have a little talk with the Service Manager at the dealership.

I agree! Scrap that dealership. Read the codes yourself. You are not a dummy to be cheated on by a atealership, but a member of this board.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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Get a second opinion.

Get a second opinion. I said it once before, and I have to agree with myself on this one... ;)

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Oh thank god! They just called back. The trans guy is back from lunch. Its not the trans its...umm..what was it...some PCM problem. PCM reset? does that make any sense? IDK anyway its $150 instead of $2,200 roughly. So all in all with my inner tie rod ends and sway bar link bushings plus alignment and the pcm thing whatever that was (ill ask when i get it back tomorrow) it will come to around $1,000. not cheap but bt least its not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Ill be curious to see what they say about the $150 tab. Well see if they are full of that one stuff.

You get the PCM reset code everytime you unhook the battery. A new PCM is not that hard to install. Pull the codes yourself and report your findings. Also get a second opinion. Suspension work can be done for half the dealers price.

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Getting work done by a dealer's service department will always be the most expensive choice. I prefer independent two or three man shops with no front office or service writer. They generally charge lower rates because they have lower overhead. Also, I like to talk face to face with the guy that's doing the work. That way I can better understand the problem and make more intelligent decisions on how to resolve it.

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Happiness is owning a Cadillac with no codes.

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My home town....LA....Lansing, Michigan. Could be a bad PCM. $150 for a Delco reman one with 1 year warranty.

Inner tierods are actually pretty easy to replace. You just need a good pipe wrench...and then locktite and stake the new ones.

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Before I take my car in for service (which is rare occurrence for me....thanks guys :)) I do as much research as I can on the board...Sometimes this involves making a post...other times just browsing the archives. When I go to take my car in I let the service manager/tech know that I've done a bit of "research" on the internet, and that a "couple of people" told me that it could be this that or the other....etc....I also tell them that I've already pulled the codes and what the codes mean......Now I can't say for sure....but my guess is that they (svc. station) think twice before trying to give me some BS diagnosis.

A.J.

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Before I take my car in for service (which is rare occurrence for me....thanks guys :)) I do as much research as I can on the board...Sometimes . . . .

Yeah, me too.

That's just plainly IT!

Regards,

Warren

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There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. - Ludwig von Mises

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What is this pcm reset deal? Are they replacing it bc the battery has been unhooked recently? God I hope not. As far as the inner tie rod ends go and the alignment im going to give them hell because I had the car in 2 months ago for an alignment and I told them to check on the front end clunk before they did the alignment because I didnt want to have to get two alignments. It would seem that they didnt look and now here I am 2 months later and they want to charge me for a second alignment now that they have actually taken a look at the clunk.

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BTW the main reason I took it in there to begin with was a surging problem that they said they couldnt reproduce. I dont know...its going to cost me $1,000 all in all or somewhere around there. If im not happy with the way its driving ill go back to them.

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