Called that dealership. Kudos to them for being so willing to talk to me and provide info.

First visit was to replace the flywheel, clutch and slave cylinder. 2nd was to replace the master.

Approx 11k miles later... I can't imagine the fluid being bad.

 

No trans dipstick for the manual. There is a fill plug on the side of the trans case, fluid level should be to the bottom of that plug (similar to the differential fluid fill/check.) Clutch fluid reservoir is located near the brake fluid reservoir, in case you needed that info as well.

All that work, at just 41k miles? Did the current owner commission those repairs back in '08? Looks like he (or a previous owner) has been chasing some trans/shifting issues for quite a while.

 

Those repairs were all done by the previous owner, who had it for 12 years.

The history starts out a little weird. First owner had it for 6 months, up to 2,238 miles. 2nd owner had it for 8 months, up to 9,079 miles. I didn't think much of that at first, but now I do wonder if it had issues from the start. I don't know if dealer repairs show up if they're not invoiced to a customer. Then again, the 3rd owner had it for a long time.

The 3rd owner had it for 12 years and 1 month, starting at 9,087 miles.

After that service was done in '08 (41,172 miles), the last ODO reading reported is 42,353 miles on 12/08/2011 (emissions). Current owner titled and registered it in MI on 4/15/2013, but for whatever reason, there wasn't an ODO reading recorded with it.

The current owner is from a family of gear heads, and has had it for almost 3 years, so I'd assume he wouldn't live with a problem like that. I saw enough cars in their warehouse to believe his family knows more than the average shadetree mechanic.

 

You're probably right that the clutch and trans was recently enough serviced that the hydraulics and fluids shouldn't be an issue. But, a car driven aggressively can certain foul up the clutch fluid in 11K miles. A year's worth of hard passes at the track could do that. 4 owners is on the high side for 52K miles....you'd be the 5th. You could always try to contact your local GM service mgr if they could review their service history on the vehicle.

From my own experiences with M6's, I'd be concerned about buying anything that didn't perform "trouble-free" for me during a test drive, regardless of conditions. The car isn't likely to sell in the middle of February. You might get the chance for a 2nd test drive down the road in better weather. If that car idled for 10 min before the test drive it should have been somewhat warm. Another thing to check would be the current fluid used in the transmission. If the current owner has no idea, that's a problem. It's a 2000 T56 which means cellulose-lined blocker rings. OEM was ATF. The wrong synthetic could potentially mess up the synchro's, even after the work that was done at 41K miles, assuming that work was done properly. T56's are quirky. I'd want the owner(s) that came before me to be knowledgeable and fastidious about all the pitfalls associated with them.

I went back to the CL ad, and it's no longer there.

 

I'm definitely driving it, and it's supposed to warm up later this week, so that shouldn't be a problem. It was 14 degrees out when I looked at it. It probably idled about 5 minutes, then was shutdown and sat for maybe another 5 minutes before he decided to take it out. He said it was about 50 degrees inside the warehouse, but I don't know how long it sat before I got there. I'm definitely concerned about it though.

At the same time, I did not hear any grinding whatsoever. Nothing. He said it felt like he hit a wall, and it looked like it, even with repeat attempts and rpm falling. But then he engaged 4th without a problem. The only thing I can think of is, maybe he missed the shift, then couldn't engage 3rd due to our speed and the engine RPM drop. I don't recall whether he was rev matching, since I was more focused on the shifter. But I would expect to hear grinding if he wasn't.

Do the stock shifters have a 5/6 gear lockout? If not, I'm not sure how possible it is to get caught between 3rd and 5th. I've never had that happen, even with the sloppy shifter and slush box in the Saturn I had 13 years ago.

Just putting things together, I found another concern. In an early email, he mentioned that he had tires put on the back 2000 miles ago, and on the front last summer. In person, it came up that the car had 10 year old tires on it when he bought it, which he had replaced right away. So those tires lasted less than 10,000 miles.

Damn. I'd hate to back out this far into the deal, but going through 4 tires in 10k seems very excessive. It looks like he has bfg gforce all seasons on it now, which is a 50k mile tire.

 

Hopefully this doesn't turn into a double post. I'm not seeing my reply from earlier tonight.

He said the warehouse was kept at 50 degrees, but I don't know how long it was outside before I got there. It was 14 degrees outside, and it only idled for about 5 minutes, then sat for about 5 minutes or so before he decided to take it out. We just went up to the next road, turned around, and all pretty slow and easy back past the warehouse, then he was speed shifting from a neat stop when it happened.

I don't know what happened, but he said it felt like it hit a wall, and it looked like it. There were no grinding noises or anything, even with repeated attempts, but 4th engaged with no problem. I could possibly imagine his missed the shift, and 3rd being difficult at that speed of he wasn't rev matching, but then I'd expect some noise.

I discovered another concern tonight. I'm an earlier email, he said he had new tires put on the rear 2000 miles ago, and on the front last summer. Based on the wear (rounded edges) I'd assume he means the summer of 2014. In person, when telling me about buying it, he mentioned that he drove it from VA with 10 year old tires on it, and had them replaced immediately. That means that set lasted just 8k miles.

I don't know what he had on there before, but it looked like he has bfg gforce all seasons on there now, and that's a 50k mile tire. I'm sure I'd eat up tires a bit too, but that seems excessive. I haven't decided whether to email him about it, call, or wait until I can ask in person and see his reaction.

 

There certainly could be issues with the 3rd gear. On my first T56 back in 1995 I never rev matched. There was never a problem going up and down in 2-3-4. 3rd gear should engage even with a fairly large rpm difference, and the clutch disk will take a bit of a beating as you feather it out. Another possibility here is that the clutch is dragging and preventing the shift (see methods for testing for clutch drag and/or slippage...neither of which you want). Though I would think clutch drag would be noticeable in multiple gears. 3rd gear synchro could have an issue. There's no 5/6 lockout, just the lockout during the OEM 1-4 skip shift and a lower speed limit when engaging REV. 3rd gear red line is at 98 mph. There should have been no reason it wouldn't have safely engaged for you.

3rd gear does tend to be the toughest one to hit when shifting spiritedly. But, the owner (being a car guy) should be well versed in that by now. The factory shifter is a bit sloppy only making it harder. Ever since I went to an open palm technique to push forward, I miss a lot fewer 2-3 and 4-3 shifts. If the current owner has a closed or pistol grip on the shifter, it does make it harder imo. I've had some times where I've lost it in those 2-3 or 4-3 shifts and floundered around for a bit to figure out where I was. Usually flopping back into 4th is the easiest way out.

While wearing out tires in 10K miles is excessive, it's fairly normal for LS-1 F bodies to only get 15K-25K miles on factory tires. For those that are frequently putting down rubber 10K miles might be all you get. I doubt the BFG G-Force will last 50K miles but who knows? I have new BFG Comp 2's on mine and would be tickled pink if they last 25K-30K miles. The original GY Eagle F1's had 16K miles on them when I took them off 2 years ago due to age - not condition. They could have lasted to 22-25K miles on wear alone. When I had my '98 LS-1 A4, I got 90K+ miles on 2 sets of harder compound All Season tires. Those were T rated (118 mph) and I didn't chirp or slide on them. The original owner only got 22K miles on the original set of rear tires (ie lead foot). I doubled that. The car made it easily to 115K miles so whatever harder miles they did in those first 22K miles, it didn't hurt the car any.

Keep on plugging to get you all the answers you want. Don't be afraid to "back out" if you feel uncomfortable. The T56 can be unforgiving. What you don't want to do is get caught with a $3K transmission rebuild from issues caused by owners 1-4. Anything wrong with the clutch or transmission requires dropping the trans...and the $$ mount from there.

 

FWIW, the car checked out fine. I didn't have any troubles shifting, and found no other issues while driving it. The clutch grabs very well and very smooth. The clutch hydraulic fluid looks OK, but I'll probably flush that and the brakes when the weather warms up. The only other thing is that it does have a good amount of piston slap on cold starts, but I heard that last Sunday, and I'm pretty accustomed and comfortable with that. I brought it home Friday night, and gave her another good run that night, and was even more pleased that I bought it.

I have run into some minor bad luck with it though. We put over 250 miles on it Saturday, and the driver's side headlight lift motor failed that night. He said it was 2 years old, so I guess it's just due; not a big deal. Sunday morning, the driver's side window got stuck in the down position, and I was a bit more upset about that. It all checked out just fine and it was working great up until then, yet it doesn't even try to go up. The door panel had never been off, so that's the original window motor and regulator in there. The switch checked out continuity wise, and there's 11.88v at the harness with the engine off. I need to do more testing, but right now, I'm assuming a motor and regulator is probably a good idea. I'm bummed of course, but that's life with an old vehicle.

Otherwise, while I think I may have paid up to $1000 too much for it, I'm extremely happy with it. When and where would I find another this nice, and not have to go across country to get it. On the upside, I got a lot of seat time in it already, which included a considerable amount of bopping around Ann Arbor and Lansing, MI. That included my best friend (practically a brother) driving it, and agreeing that the clutch and trans feel great.

It's such a rush to drive. It is very well mannered. Easy to drive, and can be very docile, yet can be a beast. I'm actually surprised just how easy it is to drive on the highway. It's not at all twitchy, yet just rounds the curves like they're not there. The kids LOVE it. It is a little on the loud side, but was tolerable in 6th on the freeways. It was only tiresome on the hour long drive home from our friends, after 10pm. Everybody else was sleeping, and the light drone was just another sensory stimulant adding to my exhaustion.

 

My 2002 had horrible piston slap in cold weather, and some amount of audible slap at idle any time ambient temps were below 70°F until the engine was fully warm. In cold weather, the slap never really went away at idle, even with a fully warm engine. That's how it always was from the time I purchased it at just a few years old until I sold it in 2014 with 110k miles. It never caused a problem nor got any better or worse. Some of these engines just seem to have it worse than others.

The headlight motor shouldn't be due for replacement in just two years. Perhaps the internal gear has become stripped, there used to be brass replacements available for the strip-prone factory nylon gears. I haven't owned a Firebird/TA for a while so I'm not sure if anyone still makes these replacement gears.

You probably don't need a window regulator if the window was going up and down smooth and straight before, and sat in the proper position when raised. It's probably just a failed motor, which is common and can be replaced without the regulator (can be removed separately via removal of three small mounting rivets.) You have to drill a couple access holes behind the door panel to reach the rivets, but it's really a pretty simple job. The regulator should be fine on such a low mile car, though some fresh lubrication might not be a bad idea (something like Sil-Glyde, for example.) If you do decide to replace the entire regulator, you have to be sure to get the proper type of rivet for this, it's a special rivet (these used to be available from GM) that won't enlarge the mounting hole in the door over time (use of the wrong rivet will enlarge the hole, and then the regulator will flop around - this issue is very hard to fix once it begins.) If you just replace the motor, you don't need to worry about special rivets as it mounts to metal (not the door structure) and therefore no danger of hole enlargement over time (most replacement motors come with screws to replace those rivets.)

Here is a how-to link regarding window motor replacement, should you need it:

http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

 

My 2001 Silverado 5.3L has cold weather piston slap, just not nearly as bad. The truck warms up a lot faster too. I've never worried about it, and I think I'm at 138k on that now. I suppose it could scare off future buyers, but I'm not overly concerned about that either. I didn't buy it to worry about the value to that degree, and I figure it's just that much worse with an aluminum block and a manual with no load at idle.

I'm going to play around with the wiring for the headlight motor some first, and make sure nothing came loose. With the manual thumb wheel in there, it at least won't stop me from driving it.

I have a lot going on with projects on our house, activities for the kids, and projects at work, so I just took it to my usual shop. I told them what I tested, and that I figured the motor just hit a dead spot. That's what they confirmed. $170-$190 depending on how long it takes, but that includes a lifetime warranty, including labor. They're not the cheapest, but they're good and they're honest. Thankfully, today was slow, because I wouldn't trust anybody else to touch that car.

 

Good luck with the car. Glad everything checked out well for you. Window and head light door motors just come with the territory. I have to do a window motor on my passenger door and change out the speaker. Next step will be getting the fluids up to snuff where there might be some doubt as to their age/serviceability.

 

I found extreme corrosion in the 5-way weather pack connector. Two pins on the male side (side that comes with the motor) broke off. I'm trying to find the right terminals to re-pin it, or even the connector itself if i can find it. I think i might have the female pins, but those don't look nearly as bad.