It's been a while since I've posted, too busy with school and work. For those that don't know, I have a 98 GT N/A 155k miles. Nothing too special but it's given me 3 good years.
Started the car this morning to a loud high-pitched whine. Put it in reverse and it went nowhere, put it in drive and nothing. In drive and reverse I have a loud rattle in addition to the whine. No SES light or pending codes. I haven't looked too deep into it but I'm still weighing my options.
Thing went well until last year. To prepare for the inevitable coolant leak, I replaced the LIM gaskets, coolant elbow, all coolant hoses, new intake plenum, valve cover gaskets, and filters. After that the common problems began to slowly pile up. Lifter ticking. Large rust bubbles on the C pillar. Trunk leak. Passenger door caught the fender and it's pretty crumpled. The rocker panels have completely rusted away. Loud whine from what I believe to be the power steering pump in addition to foamy orange/brown P/S fluid. Occasionally a terrible steering vibration while turning (I'm thinking the rack rather than P/S pump).
Now the good:
After replacing the plenum I've had a consistent 2 mpg improvement.
I can take my hands off of the wheel at 80mph and it goes straight.
Mobil1 oil has a nice brown tint after 10k miles.
Tires are in pretty good shape.
GMPP sway bars and new UMI Trailing arms.
Regal Strut tower braces and brackets.
AC is cold as hell in the summer. Heat is hot as hell in the winter.
Since I only have $1200 total, a ride to work all summer, and patience. All of the bad is making me believe that I should cut my losses and move on to a new car. I have quite a bit of stuff collected from junkyards that I'll probably be selling off such as several HUD modules, window switches, the above modifications, etc. I haven't made my final decision yet but it's looking like I'll be parting out the car and sending it to the junkyard.
This forum has been great to me for providing a wealth of information. In 3 years I learned quite a bit about automotive repair that I am proud to know so thank you all.
