I was given an 88 GTA from a family friend about a year ago, and to make the long story short, he coudlnt find the title and had to apply for a new one. I *FINALLY* got the damn title today, so now i can get plates and drive it!!!

I plan on using this car as my DD and move the Firehawk over to Weekend and GTG Cruise duty only. it does have a few issues that need to be resolved before i can use it as a DD though:

1) the driver's window got smashed out the week i moved to TX, so it needs replacing. i also want to replace the weatherstrips on the windows because too much wind comes through. anyone have any good/bad experiences with getting side windows replaced?

2) car jukes to one side when braking at highway speed. i'm thinking either the caliper bushings needs to be lubed, or the calipers need to be rebuilt. i'm hoping its not the later.

3) car idles very rough when cold and will stall out if you dont keep your foot on the gas a little. problem goes away when it gets up to temp. before the battery died, i was able to pull two codes off the OBD-I: 34 - MAF sensor, and 44 - oxygen sensor (exhaust lean). the original owner believes this might be a broken vacuum line, cuz he had a brief problem with mice in his garage and thinks they might have bit through a vacuum line.

4) occasionally when the motor is warmed up and you're stopped in traffic, the oil pressure dips waaaay low. not quite to the red zone, but not far enough from it to make me not concerned. i'm thinking the oil pump is going out. has anyone replaced an oil pump in an L98 and would be able to give me an idea as to what i'd be getting into to replace it?

5) i would LOVE to run 87 octane in this car, but i'm doubting i will be able to. it does have a hypertech chip (the stage 2 one, i forget the cutesy name they had for it, thermomaster maybe?). I coudln't even run 87 octane in my old 88 305/TBI Trans Am (the black one in my sig), so i seriously doubt an L98 will run on it.

here is a pic!

 

Nice, looks pretty good from the outside!

 

I had an 88 GTA, best handling car hands down I owned. I just couldn't figure out why the dam car constantly ran at 220 degrees all the time, so I decided to trade it for a brand new 98 Trans Am back in August '98...

 

I had a '90... and the stock temp gauge never showed less then 210-220 ever. I drove it for 2 years that way

 

I had 3:73's in mine and I put in a TH-350 trans. I would redline the piece of **** on the highway all the time, and an alarm would go off telling me I was running too hot..I think when it hit like 240 degrees or something.

 

Mine had 3.73's too... not very fast, but I thought it was at the time... I have to give it credit though it took a beating and never died... I beat it like I hated it and it held together for 2-1/2 years of pounding. I broke 4 tranny mounts and went through lots of brakes & tires but the drivetrain held together

 

Nice looking car. Someday I want one that looks like that only has a little V6 and a hairdryer in it!
I think those had a 9th injector in the intake manifold (depending on the year, and I think all the MAF cars did have the 9th injector for cold starts). Maybe that injector is bad, or the wiring got chewed, and its causing the cold start issues and possible the lean issues. Sounds like its time for a full tuneup and maybe a little diagnostic work on the fuel system and MAF sensor.
The door glass will probably cost you under $100.00. Its not hard to do, so if you have the time I'd buy it from a junkyard and save myself the money.
How many miles are on it?

 

great car. love the third gens, i have an 87 convert, and even though i have had a ton of problems with it this year i would never give it up i just like the way the look

 

yes, i plan on doing a full tuneup, and i'm hoping its a simple MAF issue. its got like 14x,xxx-ish miles on it.

Haynes says for 'car starts but stops immediatley':
1. faulty connection at distributor (possible... tune up will take care of this)
2. insufficient fuel (i doubt it),
3. vacuum leak at gasket surfaces of the intake manifold and or fuel injection unit. check all mounting bolts and vacuum hoses (my original thoughts)

for code 34 it says: MAF sensor - low airflow indicated... check voltage on maf sensor, or replace maf sensor

 

i had my old 88 TBI for like 6-7 years and i replaced the tranny mount 3 times... must be an inherent problem with the 3rd gens. im sure the only reason it didnt break more was because it only had like 170hp

 

I looked at buying an 89 and it ran hot, some one I know swapped in a big after market radiator and the car ran cool after that.

 

Well now I don't feel so bad.. I thought it was from doing roll backs and neutral drops

 

nice steal dude ive got an 87 gta and an 88 formula. if ya ever need any help with it lemme know. just so ya know 220 is a standard temp for a 3rd gen TPI car if ya put a 180 stat in it and put the fans on a switch, the car will stay nice and cool. i run my dual fans all the time on a switch with my stock 3rd gen raditator with my 355 and it sits under 200 all day long. and put a polyurathane trans mount in the car so you will stop breaking them lol. i ripped my stock rubber one right in half.

its cool how most people who have ls-1 or lt-1 cars started off with a 3rd gen. i wonder how many people on here got started on f-bodies by the good ole trusty 3rd gen cars...

 

i started with thirdgens went to 4th gens then back to thirdgens again bobby.

 

Dose it have the digital dash? I still have 3 3rd gens and a ton of extra parts. I also have 2 complete digital dash's . I might swap out my 89 GTA's dash if I ever get motivated to work on it.

 

no i dont, but i have seen two in person and absolutley love the way they look! was it even offered in 88? i thought it was only offered like one year. as far as i know, the only options this car does NOT have are leather seats, power seats, the factory subwoofer (never seen a car with it in my life), notchback option, and t-tops (which i'm not even sure was available that year).

i'd love to have some help... but i just moved to TX last year! you can do your best to answer the technical questions i posted though!

 

Mine had every option except the notchback, that digital **** sucked, mine junked out and said I had 999,999 miles

 

digi dash was offereed in 88, both of my cars had the factory subwoofer, but both have had them taken out over the years before i got to them. t-tops were also always available.

and i thought you were like floating between boston and texas. my bad. for tech question thirdgen.org is your friend.


and Jeff im glad to see you came back to the dark side of the force. lol

 

That's why they never sold any 4th gens. They were never gaining any new customers, just the same customer base upgrading. I remember one of the magazines did some sort of poll on it 4 or 5 years ago....the percentage of fourthgen owners who upgraded from a thirdgen was ridiculous...

 

yes, i posted this exact same post over there, and only got ONE single response in one thread and ZERO in another. its possible that its just not worded right (or too many words for that matter), but its kinda sad that a 4th gen board got better responses about 3rd gen questions