just did a tune up and u should have 4 o2 sensors at about 70 bucks each at autozone wires are about 80 and plugs can go from 5.50 to up to 16 bucks a piece. changing the plugs is a pain i found due to the 3800 being recessed towards the firewall. get some mechanics gloves save your knuckles. as for exhaust flowmaster has a good system. if you look around you can get it for as cheap as 700. i hear magnaflow has a god exhaust system as well. the flowmaster website lists the system for much more than you can buy it for. im picking it up on the 1st fot just under 600 but a friend is hooking me up. the engine calls for iridium plugs btw. hope this helps also put some pics up for us to see and GL. Talk to ya soon

 

OSDuck,
Thanks, I never would have thought to look there, but now it seems that the bolt I have to secure the jack is too short, oh how list of little things seems to keep growing with this car.

Reaper,
I guess the next thing I'm going to do is try to get the old plugs out and have a look-see at them to determine if they need replacing and perhaps buy some new ones if my finances allow. One more thing:since you are telling me that o2 sensors are run me just shy of 300, I have to ask, how important is it that I replace them?

 

If you have a local salvage yard, go get that bolt there. If at first you don't see it where it is suppose to be, dig around in the bottom of the trunk and most of the times, you will find it laying there. As far as plugs go, if you are going to remove the old ones, you might as well have a new set to replace them with. They only about $35 or so, depending on what you get. I find it easiest to set the car on jack stands and crawl under ti to change them, but thats just me. It can be somewhat a pain to get to some of them.

 

I know I haven't been around here in awhile (life got a little hectic there for a bit), but seeing as I live in the midwest and this is the first winter I'll be driving a rear wheel driven car, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for tires. I drive mostly in suburban streets and on the interstate, so are snow tires going to be worth it or should I just get more of the same ones I already have (some sort of Futura all-season things)?

 

Good News:
Put some new tires on the girl (General Altimax). They seem like they hold the road better than the ones I took off, but the true test is going to be when the furies hit the ground I suppose.

Bad News:
Still haven't been able to figure out why my amp is not working. Not that having it working is not a necessity, but I got used to the full sound it gave, and now music sounds hollow. :-( Also, I told the tire guy to do a wheel alignment while he was in there (I don't know when the last time this was done was and I sure as hell don't want to do it myself.) and he called me back to say that it would cost me $1000 to get the car fixed enough to do an alignment! I don't know if you all have noticed a theme in this thread, but I don't exactly have a grand on hand, so I politely thanked him and told him I would take care of it myself. I live in a college apartment right now, so there really isn't any place for me to get under her and verify what the tire guy told me was wrong, but he seems to think that I have leaks in both my front struts and that the control arm bushings are pulled completely out. I'm going to be heading up to my parents house in the next few weeks, so hopefully I will be able to get something accomplished there, and for substantially less than $1000. On a sidenote about bad news, Living in Illinois sucks this time of year: it's dark by 5 and it's neither cold enough to snow, nor warm enough to exist.

 

I'm assuming the amp is aftermarket? What's that wattage and what wiring kit did you use? How is your system wired and set up?

 

You pay too much for stuff!

 

Darling,

Yes it is in fact aftermarket, made by a company called visonik (never heard of them). I bought the car with the system already in it, so I don't know the wattage or much about how it's wired up, all I know is that it has two 12" subs in the trunk. To be honest, I don't really know anything about sound systems in cars and I'm not big on doing any kind of electrical work on a car just on principle, so when I say that I don't know why it's not working, you can read that more like "I'm too scared to fool around with it too much." Haha.

 

Hm, I installed my own systems, so I have some experience. It could be a lot of things that causes the amp not to work. Did the amp work when you got the car?

 

Wow, what a nutty couple of weeks it's been.

Brought my car up to get some of the suspension stuff fixed (was originally supposed to be struts and bushings). $1,700 and 5 days later, the only original parts in the front suspension are the control arms and the springs. Let's just say that the amp is not even on the list of things at this point. Maybe in a few months I will be more inclined to do that kind of stuff, but right now I'm too overwhelmed to even think about it.