D3VIL

Im writing this 12:20a.m. in kansas and its been a year since i've had my car and i must say its had its ups and downs for sure. Imma doing a write up about my car for the past year b/c of how much i feel like i went though with it and how much i truely love it even with all the **** it put me through. Thats the least i owe my car

I found my on AutoTrader at Chicago. 1998 Camaro Z28 72k miles on it. Me and my brother fly to chicago and the dealership picks us up and takes us back to the dealer ship to test drive the car and we like and we wanna buy it. On the phone we had settled for 7500.... i had 2200 cash and 5300 cashiers check loan which i had gotten for my beautiful 1st buy. And we were about to sign the papers and everything and for it to be over with and he is saying the total is 7600. Were like wtf are you talking about 7600? where the **** did the 100 come from? We went back and forth and it was absolutely 110% there fault bc they had their head up there *** but my brother got tired of me argueing with them b/c 1. i didnt have 100 b/c i emptied EVERYTHING i had for this car and 2. he was tired b/c i truely was gonna start a fight with the guy b/c of the BS he was feeding me. So my brother was like ok since its a miscommunication in between both of us imma meet you half way and pay you 50 and takes out his credit card. Im still ******* pissed and he just says stfu to me and wants to get it over.

We buy it and its over. My brothers driving it and i **** you not 2 corners around the dealership my brothers like Ok lets see what this LS1 that you brag about has to offer. He stomps on at the green light and the check engine light comes on.....Are you ******* kidding me? less than 2min away from dealer and this **** happens? did i seriously just buy a Dud? We were n our way to giordano's pizza since were in Chicago an i can not tell you how much i DID NOT enjoy the pizza b/c the whole time my brother was saying calm down its nothing, O2 censors are the main things with american cars. After the pizza we takes it to an AutoZone to get it scanned and surely enough the code reads two O2 censors and im alittle bet more calm.

We drive it back from Chicago to Kansas which was a pretty cool 9hr trip b/c of many trafic delays and i should add that the camaro bucket seats are not made to be long trip comfortable b/c our backs were hurting bad.

FAST FORWARD TO EARLY DECEMBER

Im at the dorms at KU(University of Kansas) and I drive my car around and i feel like i have to put much much more gas into the car for it to go forward....ok wtf is wrong with this thing....long story short the clutch is out after less than 2 months of buying the car. I had emptied my pocket to the last penny when i bought this car i mean for the next 3 months i lived off my credit card so when the clutch went out i took it to Minekie and they quoted me 1200 and i was shocked and quite devistated b/c i had $12 in my bank account and lived paycheck by paycheck like many other broke college students do lol So my dad found somewhere good recommended by our insurance comapany that had good reputation that did the job for $900. My mom came to the rescue and payed for it.

FAST FORWARD TO JAN/FEB when the snow was TERRIBLE LAST YEAR.

My car came with 2 10" subs and an amp and kenwood head unit and lets not forget the 315 tires on the back..... Ummm yea that pretty much made the car useless for when it snowed saverly b/c my 315 would get stuck with the slightest snow in the KU campus which consists of very steep hills and its impossible for rwd cars with 315s on back of them lol

FAST FORWARD TO END OF FEB AROUND MY B-DAY

It was an extremely snowy and freezing weather and it was both my b-day and my girlfriend hadn't seen my in a month so i was gonna have an ALL DAY "Hangout" day with her.

I drive on K10, which is the highway that takes you from lawrence to kc. Its a 70speed limit and everyones doing 55/60ish. At the beginning 2miles a mercades about 100ft infront of me does a 180 on the right lane(the lane im in) and the left lane car hits him and im like OH **** and i stomp on my breaks and i do a complete 360 w/o me knowing WTF just happend? ok i shake it off and get back on the highway now driving even slower, about 45-50ish and less than 1/2 from the 360 i just did couple of other cars hit their brakes and i hit my brake and i do a 180 and get slide to the right side which is the grase and get stuck in mud b/c of my big tires and cant get out. I call my girlfriend "Honey i dont think we'll be hanging out today since im kind of in a pickle right now". Ok there is more details to this story but i'll fast forward

Oh i forgot. I got my 1st ticket in this car January racing a Dodge Ram(which i whopped its ***).

My 2nd ticket was April 49 in a 35zone when every street is 45 except for that street

My 3rd ticket was June 56 in a 45 which was just pure lame

My 4th ticket which just happend 2 weeks ago which is as lame as my 3rd ticket 37 in a 25 wow i was just shaking my head

Anyways Imma fast forward to my BIG BIG ISSUE that i had with my car for along time. From after i got my clutch fixed in december to mid july. My car got gradually and gradually weaker all the time when i'd try to stomp on it and drive faster. I didnt know why i was getting beat to an Acura?!?!?! I didnt know why it would give me power 1 sec and cut off another sec 7out of 10 runs i'd say my car could easily get beat by a civic. Why didnt i get it fixed? B/c still dont have money until summer when i can just work and save up money.

My passenger side window goes out and i find someone in MO that'll fix it for $50 plus will change my oil for free too as long as i bring my own oil. Sounds good i go there and get my window fixed and I tell to him lets go out for a drive i wanna show you a problem my car has, its engine is not giving nearly as much power is it should and as i know it can. I mean for god sakes a ******* civic can beat me....I cant live with my self.

We go out for a drive and as soon as we drive it he says its the Catolyst convertors. Which is the same thing my brother suggested was the problem. We take it to AutoZone and he puts on the scanner and it gives 4 O2 censor codes all around the cat convertor. And across the street is a shop we take it there and they give me a quote for 320 for the left side and 430 on the left and 200 for labor so pretty much 1000 to get it fixed....

2 months passes by and its beginning of august and i have some money saved up and im gonna fixed this ******* cat convertor issue thats been making me cry for so long. I call up the guy that fixed my window and ask for him to exactly describe the issue of my car in detail so i can try to explain it to car shops so i can get some quotes and get it fixed asap. He says before i go out and caugh of 1k on something, he said he told the my cars issue to his brother which as has the same car except 2000 ss and he put it on some forums and they suggested to look at the mass air flow sensor.....um like ok wtf is that? where is that? How costly is it? Im not a very highly informed mechanic i'll just put it that way lol He tries to explain it to me and says if the smallest amount of greese or dirtyness is on that sensor your car will have major issues, as big of an issue as your car experiencing now. And i grab my brother and go downstairs to the car and opent the k&n air intake up and we clean it out with the spray(which my brother already had) and toothpicks and A **** TON OF GREESE is on the towl and tooth picks and as soon as i turn on the car my brother points out Hey look your engine light is off and im like ok...i have my fingers crossed and and praying as im driving to get out of the neighborhood to see if anything has changed....my gf is in the car with me. And as im at the neighborhood entry and i rev it up to 4k and as soon as i pop the clutch it peels off and i sworve out with me screeming on top of my long and popping it into 2nd soon and realizing my baby baby IS BACK!!!!! I did 100 out the neighborhood and I was soooooooooo close to crying i was sooo close to crying b/c its like your child beating cancer. I can not put it into words what it felt like having that feeling back since i hadn't had it since december when i changed the clutch. My gf was SCARED!!!! B/c she had never seen me so excited and the fact that i was yelling on top of my lungs she was just sitting there quiet speechless like watchig a crazy man lol Im seriously getting emotional writing about this right now b/c i can only describe it as your child or loved one beating cancer b/c i felt like my car was fighting cancer. That is one day that i will NEVER forget.

I definitely had my ups and downs with this car and i sure as hell didnt buy it b/c of its POS interior or its ride comfort i only bought it b/c of the LS1 and when the only reason that you bought the car isnt working properly you end up being one of those Mitsubishi OZ Rally Lancer drivers that dress up their cars like an EVO. I seriously had nothing to enjoy about that car until August30th!!!!

Sorry about the huge un-organized write up. I feel like this is the least i owe my car since its been through such a rough time with me and i just got back driving it with one of my friends that has a gto.

I would totally love to hear any of you guy's storys as well if you have one.

Thanks You

Mr CHI

iTrader: (3)

Holy **** That's A Long Post.

Well, Your 1st Mistake Was Coming To Chicago To Buy Something.

2nd Mistake is dumping all your money into a car. You should have bought a $500-$1000 Car and stayed with that.

D3VIL

You kinda have a point there in a way. I had a honda passport which i loved and drove me around everywhere just fine but im young and ambitious and felt like putting my money into something that i love. I mean i had a cheap car but i had money im my account and then i had a good car and no money in my account lol Looking at it i would take the 1st choice b/c financially your more stable but now that everything is said and done im definitely glad that i own the Camaro b/c nothing give me this much thrill.

MurderedOut

iTrader: (21)

wow....

grow a set.

araber89

iTrader: (3)

Wow.... I think your car was slowly killing itself to save you money on speeding tickets. Why did you slow down after one, two, three, or maybe now four? But maybe the car has all the bugs out of it now. I think you should become your own mechanic. It could save you some money if things keep going like this. Good luck man. And buy a winter beater

OMGWTFBODY

iTrader: (5)

If you ever did 100 out of my neighborhood, rest assured, you would have bigger problems then a dirty MAF.

Damn.

69camaross

iTrader: (4)

Man, two suggestions for you....

1. Please pay more attention in your english and comp classes. Seriously you'll thank me later come job hunting time after college.

2. STOP LISTENING TO "SOME GUY" ABOUT YOUR CAR! Part of owning a performance car is A. doing the work yourself and B. researching and diagnosing what is wrong in order to perform step A. Unless someone has a built and I mean built LS car that they did themselves, I wouldn't trust ANYTHING they had to say. Especially if they recommend Autozone as a good place for automotive information.

***Side note, Autozone must have a massive overstock of O2 sensors because amazingly their scanners always say it's an O2 issue.

3. Start saving your money and stop running your car into the ground like a country hotrod. Get on this site and read up about how your car "should" perform, engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, hell even how the interior should be. Then compare that to your car which honestly sounds pretty beat up. Especially since it came from a dealership (there's a reason cars like this get traded in as they are usually easily as hell to sell privately). I'll also list for you a few Kansas and KC based f-body sites to help you out locally with advice, parts, etc. (see below).

All of us were newbies at one time, I remember doing some stupid **** to my first car, a Trans Am when I was 16. I learned that if you wanna go fast you gotta learn how to keep it running in top shape otherwise they'll fall apart on you FAST. That was before the internet and awesome information websites like this one. So consider yourself lucky that you have resources like this today. Now it's time to USE THEM!!!


Missouri F-body (KC & STL based site) www.mofbody.com/forums
Kansas F-body Association www.ksfba.org


Oh forgot to mention.......... STOP DRIVING LIKE A

All you're doing is raising the insurance rates on these cars for the rest of us. 4 tickets in less than a year means you obviously don't respect a fast car and need to "mature" a little bit.

OMGWTFBODY

iTrader: (5)

^^Bigger tolerance for idiots.

I solute you for it, but some people will never learn.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

You almost cried over a clean MAF? Are you a school girl?

D3VIL

I appretiate your suggestions and your websites. And yes i do know i have bad grammer and spelling your not the 1st person to have said that lol

Luckily on all of my speeding tickets i got them all at different locations which i payed for at different departments and i payed for diversion on all of them so nothing was sent to my insurance company. So my insurance has not gone up 1cent since i've gottent the car.

And though i wouldnt say i have maturing up to do i would admit to the fact that i drive faster than others and i could slow down a bit but i've had 3cars and all have been manual and i drove my passport equally as fast as my camaro b/c of the fact that it is manual. When i drive any of my buddies automatics i feel the need to just cruise and relax. As childish as this might sound but its the truth.

And my car is 110% beautiful and clean and nothing close to be "beatup". All this that i describe i would agree that it is b/c it was a trade in to a dealership and i got the end of the clutches life but now everything is set and done and my car shine infront of my house.

And i alomst cried over a clean MAF b/c of the fact that i didnt know what the issue was so i could fix it. My car had not been it self for many months and it was great having it back.

But once again i do appretiate the websites that you shared and im going to be doing Seafoam to my car soon as one of the newer things that i just picked up on this website.

MattxFatal

iTrader: (4)

Holy ****, did you really just post all of that ****?
What's worse, is if it's true.
Thread ******* backfire.

D3VIL

Yea the thread did backfire but its ok its not a big deal. I figured i'd share it if people liked it, then thats cool, if not then it backfires on me like it did now but like i said not a big deal

BobDoLe

iTrader: (11)

op sounds EXACTLY like a guy i knew who eventually got rid of this 3rd gen and became a devout cheerleader of the honda civic.

ok my turn for ramble about this guy i knew (mods should probably delete this thread anyway). this is before i ever owned an american car. i was driving a lightly riced import.

i recall at the coffee machine, it started with this same sort of rant about how he loved it for all the obvious reasons, but that it lacked a certain something. i suppose you could liken that "something" to a numbing ice pack for a castration that never could heal. we heard him out, but never knew that he would part with it.
nobody knew how long he owned that car for, but our best guess was that he could have easily been born in it - it fit him like a womb. but whenever someone stopped him to say something nice about it, his response would always be of dismissive gratitude before reassuring them that it was a pain in the ***. that it guzzled gas, got too many street racing challenges, was too low (stock), required maintenance intervals of less than 100k miles, etc.
a few months after his rant at the coffee machine, he suddenly seemed chipper. i didn't see his car in the parking lot, but he was there with his coffee - talking excitedly to one of the honda fanboys about some kind of role playing card game. when the other guy stepped away, i asked him what he thought about the shitty traffic that morning. his eyes LiT up and he was trying to convince me that he enjoyed it. he said that he used to worry about wasting gas while sitting in traffic, but now he gets something like 40mpg. a little spooked, i didn't take the bait and ask him wtf he was talking about.
a few days later, i saw him heading out into the parking lot and pausing in some trance in front of a shiny new car that he was purposely taking forever to get into.
the next day, i asked him about his camaro. i got an earful. it pains me to recollect, but i can just say he revived his old rant about the camaro, but this time it was hateful. he trashed american automotive industry, he trashed the american need for powerful inefficient engines, he trashed the ridiculously long/heavy fbody doors. then he gloated about his gas mileage, maintenance intervals, and more comfortable seating position. he went off for a bit about japanese ingenuity and how he loved his new civic.

good for him.

D3VIL

Was your post supposed have sounded like a poem? b/c it kinda did lol And i loved my passport to death as a matter of fact we still own it and my family drives it around here and there. I loved the car alot b/c even when it was beatup it always would keep going it had like a little warrior inside the engine that just kept it going.

Thats exactly why i was attracted to the F-Bodys b/c of the clean look of the camaro and the LS1. The interior looks and feels sooooooo cheap and plasticy that it makes it an unpleasent place to be until you step on the gas alittle bit.

And i used to get 12mpg in the city and 18 in highway with my 5speed passport and with my camaro i get 15mpg in the city and 23mpg in the highway so i improved over my suv lol

Optimus_Prime

iTrader: (4)

Driving fast doesn't make you cool, it makes you an idiot. Act like a college boy, not some high school dumbfuck.

Starz T/A 17

iTrader: (6)

Especially doin 100+ out of a neighborhood with your g/f in the car. Although I would encourage you to not speed and drive like an idiot on the street. If your going to do it 1. DONT do it with your g/f or anybody else in the car and 2. Go on non populated roads... so if you screw up you dont hurt anyone. But in all seriousness be smart like most of the people on here and take it to the track. You should have learned after your first ticket but its clear you didnt (insurance points should be the least of your worries) Dont end up being one of them guys that seriously learns the hard way by either killing themselves or someone else by driving like that on the street. And dont say "it cant happen to me" b/c EVERYEONE says that until it does and then it will be too late

Ironxcross

iTrader: (8)

Drive the speed limit. A manual doesn't give you an excuse to drive it faster. Nor does it make you "cool". Knowing the car is powerful should be enough, you don't have to flog it constantly.

hurleyboy12

Is it just me or does it seem like the last three post are from my mom!...

D3VIL

Lol yes the last 3 posts indeed do sound like there from my mom haha And this thread quickly turned into a lecture about me getting speeding tickets yey

And i dont understand when people say "dont drive fast that doesnt make you look 'cool'" How did you come to the conclusion that the person driving fast is doing it to look cool? I usually drive by myself with my car since i do get the urge to drive alittle more aggressive and i really dont think you guys understood my thrill and reasoning behind this story.

I was upset b/c i didnt know why my car was not performing the way it was and the fact that i didnt have the money to fix it even if i did know the issue.

I was very thrilled and happy when the car was fixed 1. b/c i hadnt had the car at its 100% for 7months and 2. It was fixed without a dime out of my pocket.

The 100 out of the neighboorhood honostly i didnt know how my car was going to perform as i had my fingers crossed and was praying that the MAF cleaning would do the trick but like i said i didnt know what to expect.

My passed 3 speeding tickets have been 11, 12 and 10 over the limit so im not trying to recreate Fast& the Furious.

Thanks for the feedbacks and what not, even though the threat wasnt supposed to be a speeding ticket lecture so its whatever.

qwk93ta

iTrader: (13)

Maybe you should slow down before you hurt someone....go to the track if you want to drive fast.