Hello from beautiful downtown South Jersey!

[GTPJOHNNY]

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

 

[Nighthwk12]

Welcome aboard. Where in Jersey are you exactly. I'm in Middletown. If you want to come on by we will give your car a good once over see if we can find out why this light is on.

 

[Scottydoggs]

i would buy a new key and a fob asap, one key is asking for trouble. seen a few guys all in a weeks time loose their keys, then it cost them over 200 to get a key made.

the keys cost about 10 bucks on e bay, fobs are 25 and up for new, and less for used of course.

unplugging the battery for 30 minutes or so will clear any codes and turn off the cel light, but it will come back on if the problem it has was not fixed. if you take the car to autozone they will scan the car for free and give you the codes.

you just re connect the battery and it thats it, no codes needed to make it run again.


last thing id want is to buy a car from a female driver, unless someone else checks their oil and changed it, and puts air in their tires, most 25 year old women are car killing fools, hey honey, the oil lights been coming on when i make left turns whats that for? then a week later dead engine. lots of airheads, all they know is it needs gas. lets hope it was taken care of by someone.

and it sounds like you already know you should be using 91 or 93 octane fuel.

and welcome to the site. North jersey here. the NJ #"s are growing slowly.

 

[GTPJOHNNY]

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!