getting a gen3 for the first time.

[ty91sho]

ok so i know about the trannys and the cams but iam wondering if you guys have ever had any problems with the climate control display. it just starts randomly flashing and you cant read it at all. then this car has a sunroof problem, it doesnt go back all the way and then you hear a clunk when it stops half way back. it seems to me like the tranny is fine but iam not quite sure yet iam going to take it out again for another test drive to make sure. and is there any tall tail signs of the tranny on the last legs other then slipping? one time when it shifted into second it was alittle harsher then the normal shift? that mean anything?
iam lookin at it for a friend. its a 96 with 117k on the clock and black exterior and mocha/black interior heres a pic from my phone of the outside

just seeing what you guys think.. oh and the price is $3000.00 i think i can talk him down some. and he said he doesnt know if the cams have been welded. he just rebuilt the front calipers and new rotors and pads. it has tint, the paint has black with metal flake in it. there is a spot of rust on the passenger rear quarter panel tho. the tires are nice. its straight piped form the cat back. i like the car just need some input. thanks in advance

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Sweet car.

Could be a bad football for the messed up display on the HVAC.

And the sunroof, I'd imagine something has stripped inside of the motor. The panel for the motor is accessible under that little cover in the headliner above the rear seats.

Too bad about the rust on the 1/4 panel, looks to be a clean 11 year old car.

 

[jrcrum]

And the sunroof, I'd imagine something has stripped inside of the motor. The panel for the motor is accessible under that little cover in the headliner above the rear seats.

it seems like everybody who rode in the back of my car pulled that off.

looks like possibly a former forum or v8sho owner due to the extra emblems on the sides, i believe there was a write up on how to do that on v8sho.

 

[NebraskaSHO]

That, and it having a muffler-less exhaust too.

 

[ty91sho]

it could be.. maybe he will see it on here and could tell me about the car. the dealer knows nothing about it other then its black and its a sho. dumb.. is there any other little things that i should look for? my friend really wants this car. he is actually going to get it tomarrow if everything goes right. so is there any last things that we should look at before taking it off the lot for good?

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Test drive it, if it shifts hard into second, it needs a new transmission eventually.

Also drive it for quite a long time (30 minutes) to see if it throws any codes, or else take a code reader along.

 

[medgraphsho]

My football does the close encounters of the third kind deal sometimes too..
A good solid whack will straighten it out

If the tranny is starting to shift hard, I say start a fund.... If you do end up buying it, drain the fluid and install a tranny cooler... I have a spare tranny with 84k when you need it

 

[Silvapain]

In my experience the moonroof stopping is because there is debris in there. The blasck plastic trim ring around the moonroof has a tendency to break, and pieces of plastic slide back into the track area. Had that happen on my SF SHO.

 

[stephen newberg]

but iam wondering if you guys have ever had any problems with the climate control display. it just starts randomly flashing and you cant read it at all.

This happened with mine too, when it was about 2 years old. Seems there is a common shorting problem in them. You can see on ones that are having it a 'hot spot' of irridecence that reflects to the display down on one side, I forget which. The football was replaced under warranty and the one it was replaced with also had this spot, indicating it was a remanufactured one that had already had the problem. No difficulties since then, so obviously it was fixable.

The just prior post on the moon roof was very on target. Its almost always debris in the track that causes that hesitation.

pax, smn

 

[Motoman991]

it seems like everybody who rode in the back of my car pulled that off.

looks like possibly a former forum or v8sho owner due to the extra emblems on the sides, i believe there was a write up on how to do that on v8sho.

People have pulled mine off before, some people are just ignorant. They take it off and when I bitch at them they say "I thought it was a tv"

 

[rmacdaddynamara]

YA alot of people pull mine off too. I dont get it

 

[wuzzzer]

My SHO did the climate control thing when the battery was dying, might want that checked.

As others have said, have the guy let you drive it for a good half hour or so. Don't beat on the car, but definitely drive it like you owned it. I would pull the SARC fuse and then see how the car drives without it in. If the ride is still floaty, new struts are around the corner and the SARC struts are major $$.

It might help to disconnect the battery for a couple minutes and then take the car out and drive it. I believe that the factory default for the engine computer and transmission is in the most aggressive mode that its set up for. Then you'll be able to see the car at its maximum potential.

It should also easily downshift into first at anything around 32mph and lower.

{edit} Is the guy selling it in town here?

 

[ty91sho]

{edit} Is the guy selling it in town here?

no i found it on my way to the citys from my home town of cokato on hwy 12 its in montrose. tomarrow morning he is going to buy it and drive it up to st.cloud so i can look it over and we are going to drop the tranny pan and put in a new filter and fluids and change the oil and just take a really good look at everything. i told him to buy a tranny cooler also.

 

[ty91sho]

well guys we bought it and everything has checked out ok so far. knock on wood... i put in a tranny cooler and changed the oil/filter and the tranny fluid and filter. is there anyother things i should do. next week iam going to take the valvecovers off to see if the cams are welded or not... and if they aint it doesnt look like it would be too hard to weld them.. do you think i could do it? i have a tig welder that i can get my hands on so i was thinkin about it.. let me know what you think of that idea....

 

[stephen newberg]

If you are a competent welder, you should be able to do it with a tig without a lot of problems. Its not that it is a difficult job, just one you have to be careful about. And practice helps, of course. Getting a dead cam tube for a practice run or two never hurts.

pax, smn

 

[NebraskaSHO]

ty91sho, I bought a bum cam from Midnightauto to practice on. See if he's got one available.

I used a MIG welder on the bad cam, and on my cams.

 

[ty91sho]

do you guys weld all the way around it or just kinda tack it here and there?

 

[stephen newberg]

I think most common is doing 3 tacks at 120 degrees each around the cam.

pax, smn

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Either 3 spaced 120 degrees or 4 at 90 degrees. Should be about 1/2"

I think this one turned out pretty good:


Take it or leave it, the big thing is getting good *********** (Duh).

 

[spragers]

My climate control only lights up when I turn on the headlights or parking lights, doesn't bother me as I usually have my headlights on on the highway, and that's about the only time I bother to bring along a changer full of CDs.

Watch out for the TPS wiring harness problem, if you ever put the SHO in park and the engine starts to rev, I guarantee that's your problem.