I own a wheeled toilet! Vent about automotive nightmares

My toilet is a 2000 GMC Jimmy. It never ceases to amaze me how many shitty parts GM threw at this colossal turd. Every other day it's something. Then when you attempt repair, the design just plain defies logic!

I guess I should start from the beginning......

This nightmare started 2 years ago when I decided to retire my wife's '91 Chevy S-10 Blazer. Had 180K+ miles on it & the body was about to sail off the frame (thanks to MA winters), but ran like a champ & had many new parts. Sold it at a loss. Mistake #1....

So I scour Ebay for a southern, rust-free, affordable, more modern replacement for the S-10. I find the turd (Jimmy) at a great price (so I thought) & toss in an offer. I almost immediately get a phone call from the dealer accepting my offer. I ask a few questions about the suspension, front end, etc...... guy says it's all good. I go back on Ebay to check the free Carfax report that was down earlier in the day, & it's still down. Not wanting the wife to break out the 20 foot '86 Ford & ruin it in the salt, I agree to buy the truck. After deal was done, whaddya know??? Carfax is up & says it was a rental.......FOR IT'S ENTIRE LIFE!!! Regret sets in.....

Had it shipped to MA from GA for $600. They deliver the truck & it looks mint!! Detailed to the hilt, even the engine compartment & all hoses are gleaming. Fire it up & take it for a spin. Check engine light comes on almost immediately (that's a big deal in this state, due to our stupid ,waste of time/money inspections), & I hear what sounds like a washing machine draining at higher RPM's. I suspect low coolant (yup), so I remove the radiator cap & this is what I see..........


Sooooo....... flush rad, block, heater core, etc, replace thermostat. Now the temp finally comes up to normal (was only 140* before. Clear codes, light stays off........ then comes back on the next day. The code is "catalyst value below threshold ". In any other part of America, again, this wouldn't be an issue ....... but in the peoples republic of MA, our state gov't wants to make sure they get every dollar they can in the form of inspections, fines, taxes, & environmental bullshit ........ so now I'm at the dealer shelling out $550 for a new cat & Y pipe assembly. I could have went aftermarket for cheap, but I refuse to do this twice -- which in the end would have cost more. Install new pipe, clear code & go for a cruise. I immediately notice that it handles like *censored*. Check tire pressures, grease up front end & check for play. Seems better due to low tire pressure, but not 100%. Let wife take it to work 80 miles/day for a week. She says it's bouncing all over the place. Order up a nice set of Edelbrock Performer IAS shocks & install. Rides MUCH better, but still handles like *censored*. Take it in for an alignment -- guy is baffled ..... says everything looks brand new underneath, but everything has play that can be measured in feet! i determine that the guy has never seen a front end from anywhere but MA, & that I'll be spending another weekend under this toilet.

So, back to the alignment shop after upper/lower ball joints, inner/outer tie-rod ends, pitman arm & idler arm. Finally handles good, just in time for a blizzard. Great time to test 4-wheel drive ....... which doesn't work. So I start troubleshooting & realize it needs about 5 miles of vacuum lines replaced, & a transfer case vacuum switch. Now I'm pissed. I call the Ebay guy & start laying into him. He agrees to pay for the switch & part of the cat. Still irritated, I leave neutral feedback. Then he leaves me a negative! By this time I'm ready to hop on a plane & feed this guy my fist. I managed to get a few more dollars from him after some ranting, plus he apologized for the neg feedback, & we agreed the deal is done.

Replaced switch & lines, now 4 x 4 works. What next...... another check engine light. Got out of that one...... wife didn't tighten gas cap! ( stupid OBDII bullshit ). Couple days later, wife says the light came back on & now tranny is acting weird on highway. I check tranny fluid, & there is none ..... but no leaks. Fantastic. So I add about 2.75 quarts of fluid & all is well ...... for about another week. Wife says tranny doesn't shift. So I take it for a cruise. Tranny starts off in third gear & shifts only to overdrive. Mint. Get another code & check engine light for that one, pointing to the 1-2 shift solenoid. Drop pan & pull the 1-2 & 3-4 solenoids & test them on a battery. One catches fire. Now I know which is which. Replace with new switch from dealer & all is well.......LOL yeah.....

Washer fluid wasn't making it to the back window. Wonder where the hell it was going? Pump worked fine. No leaks outside. So I tear up carpet in the back & start tracing lines. Then I find the disconnected hose....... & the blue lake. 3" deep. Awesome. Give the turd back to wife for another fun run. Hey! 3 weeks & no problems! Might be through this!!

Awww *censored*! Now what???????? Now the wipers only work on HI -- no low, no intermittent & no park -- wipers stop wherever they happen to be when you turn them off. Let wife deal with it. I figure she'll be ok with that, since she handles the guillotine window switch (express UP instead of down!) & the worn out door bushings ok. But it's getting close to sticker time (MA BULLSHIT AGAIN!!! ). So I tear into the steering column to make sure the multifunction switch is ok before I replace the motor. Fought with connectors that felt like they were WELDED together at the factory. Took a break to eat lunch, & plot the severe beating of several GM engineers. Back at it again & I'm losing my temper. I tore the plastic cover off the top of the column, breaking the plastic mounts off. Good. Piece of *censored*.

I barely get the multifunction switch's connector off to test. Damn pins bent every which way because the connector has no room to move out of the way. Now I have to sit there with a tiny screwdriver & try to get all 20+ pins back in order. Fought with it for waaaay too long. After removing most of the skin from my knuckles, I get the connector back on the friggin *censored* switch. Everything is good .... until I put everything back together! Now the truck cranks over fine, but won't start .... & I've lost HI beams. Dammit. *censored*. By this time, the weather is warming & street sweepers are out in every other town except for mine, so I let the wife cruise the Big Ford .... the only Ford that didn't end up like this Jimmy ..... & let it sit inoperable for about a week. Not knowing WTF was wrong was eating me up. It's all i could think about. I was so frustrated that I actually thought of bringing it to a dealer!

So I got up early one morning determined to find out WTF was causing the security system to lock out the fuel pump operation. I contemplated hardwiring the pump & bypassing the system altogether. Also had strong urges to make a molotov cocktail to toss into the cab. After taking column apart for the second time & checking all the wiring around the ignition switch, I realized I had to start thinking outside the box. Maybe it's a fuse? Yeah right. Check fuses in cab. All good as I suspected. Check fuses in engine compartment, & wouldn't ya know -- the damn fuse was blown! Repalced 10A fuse & the turd farts to life once again.

So here we are months later. My wiper motor just came in. Simple install, right? HA!! I never wanted to beat a GM engineer more than after today. That damn plastic cowl at the base of the windshield -- you'd think they'd use something NORMAL to fasten the thing to the body! Plastic screws which expand plastic plugs, but DO NOT unscrew. WTF were they thinking???? Had to yank each & every one out with pliers & a flat screwdriver. SHITBOX! Then after you get that out, install the new motor, & put those damn plastic shitbag things back together, you get to take it all apart again because the wiper motor is 180* out of phase! the blades had to be all the way up in order to remove everything, but then you have to somehow park the wipers with the plastic cowling sideways & in the way! Pain in the ass!! All done & the motor works again .... on all settings! Had time to replace a burned out light afterward.

Now the latest issue is just the high beams, as far as getting a sticker goes. Multifunction switches run the gamut between $150 & $300 depending on country of origin. *censored* that. I just bought a dimmer switch for a 1960 Ford. I will be screwing it to the floor & wiring it up for the next project. That's where the damn thing belongs anyway! No turn signal lever should have to activate HI beams also!

........to be continued...........................

Looks like someone put Bars Leak in the radiator : http://www.barsproducts.com/C16_R6.htm

.... or two different types of antifreeze that are incompatible. My Grand Cherokee had the worst case of antifreeze glopitis the guy at the fix it shop had ever seen, the stuff turned to concrete once dry.

I have a 95 Jimmy sitting in the back yard. I got it with a blown motor, the longblock I spent days putting in has only 15k on it. Then the trans blew and I had a sleazy trans shop rebuild it to the tune of $1500.00. I R & R'd it myself. Truck never ran right after that. Three auto shops couldn't be bothered to troubleshoot it. I hate to lose all the time and money I put into it, so there it sits.

I bought a 2001 Nissan Maxima from my wealthy customers who were going to turn it in to a dealer. I heard these cars run forever. I paid six grand for that car which was a great deal at the time. The "service engine soon" light had just been reset at a small garage they used. I used the car for a year and then it started stalling, having erratic idle problems. I got the thick factory manual on CD and learned that without the proprietary "Consult II" diagnostic dealer-only equipment, it's not possible to diagnose Nissan vehicles. I learned a lot, and foolishly tried the hunt and peck method of repair.

I then took it to FOUR mechanic shops, who either refused to look into it, could not fix it, or held the car hostage for weeks.
Then I took it to two NISSAN DEALERS who did not have factory trained mechanics; and who wanted to sell me unnecessary parts, absurdly overpriced. ( idle motor- available for $175 retail, dealer wanted $500.00 )

The second sleazy dealer told me it was the ECU. This is a microprocessor in a metal box that must cost $15 to make. Dealer wanted $1000.00 and refused to gaurantee that was the problem! So I sent the ECU to a Florida "repair" shop and dropped $400. That shop turned out to be a scammer. When I had the car towed to the sleazy dealer they told me it was pulling a bad injector code.( Unplug your Nissan ECU and the car will not start until the dealer resets it!) The "repaired" ECU literally burned up #4 injector. Florida scammer refused to honor their guarantee.
A wise lady friend of mine told me to just get rid of the car since she saw it was driving me crazy. I sold it for $2500.00. A guy bought it that knew a Nissan technician that knew how to fix it. I wrote NISSAN Consumer Affairs, got back a form letter weeks later. I will never own a Nissan again.

If i won the 100 mil (after going underground forever), I would buy smitty's jimmy and personally shred it! Ever wonder why there are so many Toyota's on the road? This is worse than a "High Maintainence Wife".....or about the same I suppose. Buyer beware. Careful when you say: ' I do'......not know what I'm about to do.........
Nothing is perfect, but what has happened to our desire "do it once, to do it right".

Your story sounds a lot like what I was beginning to experience with my Chevy Astro. Except we brought the thing new and it just kept nickel and dimeing us to death and of course nothing was an easy repair either. A replacement fuel pump turned into an $800 repair because "it's in the gas tank." Oh yeah, not to mention the rear hatch leaked and the company knows about it but refuses to fix the design. This resulted in wet, moldy interior in a brand new vehicle. Uggghhh. We traded it in with under 50,000 miles on it for a Toyota. We haven’t had a problem with any of the Toyotas we have had and each one goes for 150,000 or 200,000 miles. I tried to buy American but no more unless the reliability is there. I did look at various car reviews and found it interesting the top 3 cars for reliability at the time were Toyota, Honda and Subaru. That’s the second Ford Truck I’ve had with little or no trouble. Lisa

lowfog01 wrote: I did look at various car reviews and found it interesting the top 3 cars for reliability at the time were Toyota, Honda and Subaru.

We became Subaru-believers 7 years ago. They are easy to work on, get great gas mileage, AWD, and that little H-4 engine will last 300,000 miles easy. We always buy the Outback. Just sold our 1997 Subaru for MORE than we listed it for, in the first week we put a 4-sale sign on it. We are Subaru-believers now.

Yeah, it's sad -- the reason GM gets such a bad rap is due to vehicles like mine. Granted, it was a rental & probably received little or no maintenance, & got beat on a regular basis, but MAN what a piece of *censored*!! There's got to be millions of these things out there with the same problems. Must've told their vendors not to spend any time designing good parts! DO it cheap! Not good for any company trying to make a buck. Never had this many problems out of ANY vehicle I've ever owned .... never mind a GM.

I currently drive a '07 Silverado which was my first new vehicle purchase ever. Got 35K on her now & so far, so good, with the exception of rattling seat belts (they don't get used) & a couple trips to the dealer for pulsating brakes & a heated washer fluid wiring harness recall. The pulsation always comes back, so I just deal with it. Must be shitty rotors & drums. Not very nice after paying $30K!! But I love the truck. Threw on a Corsa cat-back, K & N cold-air intake, Hypertech programming & a nice set of large wheels. Gets up & goes for a 5500lb truck! Stock was 315hp/330ft./lbs. -- had to have added to that a bit, judging by seat-of-the-pants dyno. Handles like a car (the old ones I'm used to driving) & I actually like the way it looks. That's part of the reason I bought it. Nothing new ever impressed me. Older vehicles looked & performed better, imo .... until I saw this one on the lot.

The wifes Ford is 23 years old, & has almost 160K on the clock. I've replaced the rotors, drums, brake hoses, calipers, all front end components, U-joints, exhaust, alternator & water pump within a 8 year span. Fires right up everyday & handles as good as any modern car (although it shows it's limitations when driven aggressively .. as expected from a "grandpa" car). Everything works -- power seats, windows, locks, trunk & fuel door. Awesome for taking long trips, as it just "floats" down the highway like a yacht! A little better track record than the 2 years owning the Jimmy!

EDIT: I forgot to mention the part about constantly adding tranny fluid to the Jimmy, yet there are no leaks........... but the engine oil level is waaaay overfilled!! I suspected a head gasket due to the obscene amount of stop-leak in the cooling system, but the oil is not milky & the coolant level stays pretty constant. Mystery machine!

Wow Smitty, I feel for ya. My brother gave me advice years ago, to never buy a vehicle off of eBay, unless I go look at it in person. Now I know why. But you are doing a good thing by posting your problems. your wheeled toilet will warn the rest of us what to look for when buying off of eBay.
Sounds like you know your way around machines, so consider it a project to fix every issue you find with it.
Either that, or put it back on Ebay and get rid of it

Wow, what a story! We own a 2005 Liberty CRD (the diesel version) and while it's not quite as bad as your Jimmy, it's still a classic example of under-engineering. With just over 70K on it now, it's been through two sets of lower ball joints (one under recall), a torque converter (under recall - not a failure....yet), a smoking rear brake caliper, u-joint, rear track bar joint, loose motor mount, it's on it's 4th EGR valve, and I just installed it's 3rd FCV (flow control valve in the intake). The EGR valve is $160 and the FCV was $320!!! Both parts are made by Pierburg in Germany, but I'm sure they were both under-engineered and cheaped-out by Chrysler's demand. I've worked for a Chrysler supplier - I know how it works. They deserved to go bankrupt for building junk. The entire vehicle reeks of cheap.

Conversely, I have a 2002 VW Jetta TDI wagon with almost 146K. I've put money into it, but it's been all "normal" maintenance - brake pads (the OEM fronts went 142K!!!), two sets of shocks/struts, a timing belt, battery, both front wheel bearings and lower ball joints (after the left side bearing went bad at 135K), and several sets of tires. I have had a few "design" issues - mostly chasing a bad glowplug harness throwing the CEL until I replaced it solving the issue, and also pulling the intake manifold to clean the "creosote" out that builds up from the oil vapors from the crankcase vent mixing with the soot from the EGR. Knock on wood, I've not had most of the "standard" VW items that the A4 chassis suffered from. It's still tight and rattle free. Oh, my A/C compressor clutch disk fell off but the belly pan kept it (and the little nut) with the car, so all I had to do was put it back on (with Loctite) and I had to take apart one of the radiator fans and clean out the stuck brushes so it would work again for good A/C performance.

It's not been a perfect car, but, it was a $20K car when you could buy a Focus wagon for $14K. Ever driven in a Focus? Ranks right up there with a Neon. The Jeep just makes me feel like it's going to fall apart at any minute. The VeeDub I can trust.

But, the cake goes to the '93 Saturn SL I owned from new. Put 156K on it with nothing more than a battery, alternator, set of struts, front pads, tires, and I think a new thermostat and a serp. belt. It had no power anything (even steering was manual), but it just kept going and going and going.

Chris

I think I ginxxed myself by posting this topic.......



Being Mr. Nice Guy, I put a water pump in my sister-in-law's 1992 Ford Escort. I figured I'd help her out, because they're in a similar situation financially that I was in in my younger days. The only difference is, I don' t see them coming out of it ... ever. Normally if someone asks for help on a 4-cylinder front-wheel-drive car, I say take a hike .... or give me 2 grand! I sort of knew what I was in for, but in my generosity, I took it on anyways. So I sacrificed my sanity for 16 hours.......

Started job @ 3pm yesterday afternoon....... finished job @ 6:15AM THIS MORNING!!!! Hands down the **WORST** job I EVER took on. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong TWICE!!! First off, there is no room to work -- that engine was jammed in there ( one of the reasons I will NEVER own anything less than V8 ). Then I start tearing into it, & figure I'll save some time by not setting the engine on top-dead-center #1 -- this came back to bite me square in the nuts later on. Everything on this pile is rusted, so when I went to remove the crank pulley after marking & removing the timing belt & driven gears, the crank rotated about 40 degress or so. Because I failed to mark the crank, I now have no idea where the crank needs to be in relation to the cams! So in addition to everything else, I now have to remove the cam cover ( which now I have to seal up with Yamabond because it's hard as a brick ) & distributer to see where the cams need to be. So I set both cams #1 lobes pointing away from each other, then rotated the crankshaft to TDC on #1. I knew I had it right because both cam gear locating pins were at 12 o'clock. Getting that belt back on was soooo much fun! The slack adjuster has a little spring that puts about 30 lbs of tension on the belt...... which translated into 60 lbs, of force to remove it, & then to re-install it!! Lost some skin on that one -- both times!

The power steering belt adjuster was so rusted solid that I had to crawl under there (laying in antifreeze & rust) & remove the whole adjuster! What a turd! At least I remembered the safety glasses before going under that rust pile. Hands, knuckles & forearms look like I went a few rounds with a bobcat. Every muscle in my body aches & I have a lump on the back of my head from resting it on rust fragments. I was able to work around removing the A/C compressor, but that later bit me in the ass too. After I got the pump all sealed up & torqued down, I forgot to install the lower radiator hose before re-assembling everything. At that point it was after 3am & I'm lucky to even be functioning by this point. So after the pwr steering pump was back in, I had to fight with the hose for about an hour to get it back on!! DAMMIT!!

Every single nut & bolt of the 200 or so that I removed was in too small a space to use an air ratchet, or get more than a 2" swing with a socket. VERY time consuming, as you can see!

My sis-in-law got to see a side of me that nobody like to see! She says "I've never seen you like that before". I say "bring this toilet back & you'll get see alot more of that!" Yeah, some wrenches & sockets flew, & objects were punted, & every obscenity uttered at the top of my lungs......

But the car started right up & runs better than before I worked on it ( cam timing off a tooth before??? ), & has one less oil leak. Mission accomplished.

Here's some pix of my office for the last 16 hours.....

Don't be putting Ford's down, i have 3 Ford keys on my ring right now. You would not catch me driving a GM. Not counting tires, only thing i replaced was battery at 70,000 front brakes on my Ford truck at 75,000, a aluminum egr type sensor with a updated plastic one ($25) 80,000, and just did front sway bar poly bushings ($29) at 90,000. Not even a light bulb. Other 2 Fords only have 50,000 and 30,000 so nothing yet. I do change every fluid including brake fluid, trans , rear, antifreeze etc.etc way before it is recommended in the owners manual. K & N air filters on all and get cleaned once a year. No oil leaks and none burn any oil at all. Always run a extra ground from the battery to the engine and fender on all my vehicles, change the battery after 6 years, before it acts up.

mozz wrote:Don't be putting Ford's down

No, no -- just 4 cylinder front wheel drive's of every make & model!

I'll work on any V8 any day anytime.

I've had good & bad luck with both Ford & GM. The Jimmy is the worst ever. My last pickup was a Chevy K1500 that I sold with 266K on the clock. Changed the original ball joints & u-joints at 222K!! Never had a major issue, & I abused the hell out of that thing.

I once had a '79 Mercury Capri 4-cylinder turbo back in the day that went like hell ..... when it wasn't breaking. I used to lose parts on that thing every time I took it out!

SMITTY, that looks like a real fun job! NOT!!!

Doing the timing belt on my VW TDI is about the same deal, except I did it with a fellow "TDIer" and another guy that's done a few as technical "advisor". We had a 70 page "How-To" printed out from TDIClub.com and had all the special tools ready (camshaft lock, injector pump lock, tensioner wrenches, etc.). The job requires removal of the entire motor mount on the timing belt side so you have to jack up the engine (or lift it from above) to hold it in place. The water pump is driven by the timing belt, so if you're smart, you replace it while everything is already apart for the belt job, along with all the idler pullies/rollers and the tensioner. It's a 100K mile interval so it's a one-time job for most owners, but I'm coming up on my second time in about 20-25K. The first time was a solid 8 hour job, but I think the second time through 6 hours is do-able provided nothing goes wrong.

I'm not sure if it's my diligent wintertime carwash visits or VW plating and painting specifications, but I have almost no rust under the hood and very little anywhere else. The engine does have a full bellypan under it, so that does keep most of the junk off, but even this spring when I did the wheel bearings, my buddy helping me commented on how good all the fasteners looked and how little rust was anywhere after 7 Wisconsin/Illinois winters. Our Liberty looks like a '72 Dodge Dart underneath by comparison. It rusted up the first week we had it home.

Chris

I was hoping that I wouldn't be jacking the engine up -- more rusted parts would have busted off & I would have been up for over 24 hrs straight fabricating!

I''m also pretty sure a VW is better engineered!

I think part of the rust issue has to do with the fact that MA uses excessive amounts of salt on all their state highways every winter ..... then factor in the auto manufacturers (domestic, at least) that are banking on a 5 year replacement plan when designing a vehicle.