Thread: Hello from beautiful downtown South Jersey!

Hey folks. Just bought an 01 GTP. Car has 118K miles on her. Body/Interior are immaculate. Tranny was "rebuilt" a few thousand miles ago. Car was owned by a 25 yr. old woman who obviously took care of it. It does have some minor issues...Power window motor struggling, misses/stutters/bogs at hard acceleration, and "service engine soon" light just lit up, but starts/runs great except for hard accel. Her boyfriend, who was in charge of selling the car, was forthcoming with most issues but of course not 100%. (I had pulled the CarFax and knew more than I let on.) I needed a car, but walk across my yard to work, so decided to "treat" myself instead of buying something more fuel efficient etc. Recently the dude replaced every sensor he could. I'm guessing because he was trying to resolve the hard acceleration issue and keep the engine light off. I dumped some injector cleaner, etc. in a half full tank of gas. I opened her up a couple days ago and she actually did well. Did see some black smoke. Hoping it's just carbon build up and/or from the fuel treatment. When I took it for the second test drive it ran perfect under hard accel. (First one I just drove around the block.) Engine light was OFF when I bought the car. Dude told me he replaced plugs the day before the second test drive. I thought it was odd to replace every sensor he could, but not the plugs. I'm going to pull them today to check the gap and for signs of carbon/oil/predet, etc. I doubt they were running anything but 87, so hoping some Lucas and good premium will help "clean her out."

Love the forum! Glad to be a part of it!

Hey, quick question...Is it true that if the battery is disconnected from car I need to enter a "code" before the car will start again? Don't have a key fob and only one key! Thanks for any info!

Johnny

Hey Nighthwk, Thanks for the welcome. I'm in Glassboro. Gloucester County. About 45 minutes from Atlantic City. Thanks for the offer to look at my car. Maybe I'll take you up on it when I have more time than not.

Scottydoggs, I get what you're saying about only having one key. When I realized that was all I was getting, a chill ran down my spine! I'm definitely going to get another key and a fob. Thanks for the info about the battery.

As far as buying the car from a Woman...I know some that don't know what engine oil is, and I know some, (like my Daughter who just happens to be 25) that can explain in great detail how a 4 stroke combustion engine works, and will throw in that what it does more than anything else is produce heat, just for good measure! Happens that the young Woman I bought the car from seems to fit into the first category. Luckily, her boyfriend did all the maintenance/repairs on the car, and he seems to know what he's doing. Guess I'll find out soon enough!

Thanks again guys. Glad to be part of the forum!