b-dubs89

i have a 98 malibu and i can tell you the acoustics of this car body are lousy , and i have noticed the same thing you have with the subs raising hell with the 6x9's in the rear deck , boxes are not a bad idea , but i would like to try baffles for the by9's

i kind of like the sound of the volt , i think a car that drives by electric and generates its own electric energy could be awesome for mileage , the railroad has been using diesel over electric technology for a long time , big diesel running big generator which powers the traction motors to drive the wheels , scaled down i think this is the ticket to practical economical automobiles for every day people

i never understood why they used that pile of plastic i didn't have problems with it but decided to replace it than clean it i had problems with the lower intake manifold gaskets though i was starting to find oil in my coolant but not coolant in the oil which also raises the question of why would you have plastic on the head and have an acidic coolant running through it that's kind of odd

gm has been going backwards for a while now , the 3800 motor is one of the best engines they had ever made and yet gm quit making it here not too long ago , prior to that they went from a cast aluminum plenum that didn't have many problems often to a plastic piece of shit plenum that was guarrenteed to fail sooner than later . why is it that my 92 buick park avenue with 171000 mile got 31 mpg highway , and a new buick sedan gets somewhere close to 22 mpg highway ? sounds backwards to me . to be frank i am not surprised that gm had money problems and needed a bailout .

wouldn't want to pull the cats on anything with down stream o2 sensors either , you would have a never ending check engine light . kind of hate down stream o2 sensors

i would take a look and see what is out there for cat-back exhaust , bet there's a lot of direct fit stuff out there

the cca might be ok but my opinion is that your 2 t1000's have to pull close to the rated amperage of 0 gauge knu cca . check your ground and get a anl fuse holder . here's another thought about grounding , most newer cars are unibody construction , body and frame parts made of sheet metal are spot welded and glued together ,i am a bit skeptic as to how well sheet metal can serve as a ground when you start running big amps . i think at some point a guy may want to run a ground up the front and ground to the batt or subframe

aluminum has more resistance than copper , current flow met by resistance generates heat . i haven't heard much good about circuit breakers either , but it could be that your circuit breaker is weak , breakers do on occasion get weak or trip easier than they should . could also be that the resistance of your cca cable is somehow makeing the breaker think things are not right , due to the resistance and the heat it causes .

my opinion is the cca could be a problem

so they cleared the code and it come back again , yes? check the exhaust pipe for leaks or holes , if your pipe has a leak that can alter your exhaust flow and alter the reading of your o2 sensor .

that's a good point , do you have any exhaust leaks , that could also cause your problem

i don't think that is very likely , cam sensors are sensitive like that but o2 sensors not so much , what happens to o2 sensors a lot is getting contaminated with carbon and ash, o2 sensors work by reacting to the exhaust flow and produce a small voltage as a result of the exhaust gases . you can actually test an o2 sensor with a volt meter have you cleared the code yet ? if so did it register the code again

if its easy to yank out your alt , go get it tested , throw a charger on your bat

if you got an accurate reading of 8 volts from your battery that is probably not enough for the computer to operate or any other systems .one way i test an alternator as far as working or not is get it running and carefully disconnect the battery if the engine dies after you disconnect the battery the alt is not charging and the engine and everything was running off the batt

have you checked your voltage through out this to make sure the batts aren't dead somehow already did bro, i checked all the main ones. they all looked fine

check for blown fuses in the fuse box under the hood

fukin funny

have to wonder how something like this might sound running off a tuba amp http://www.ebay.com/itm/200640790668?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649#ht_1404wt_1037

check battery connections test for voltage at fuse and relay box , check voltage at starter last time i seen this it was just a bad connection at the batt

sea foam in the intake is kind of risky for catalytic converters and o2 sensors , i think if a guy wants to clean an intake tearing down is probably the best way to do it . a friend of mine bought an expedition and had a code for one cylinder not firing off good and a month of sea in the gas tank corrected that and made it run all around better . here's another fuel additive/cleaner i found that i like as much as seafoam , it works pretty good http://mystarbrite.com/startron/ not sure if the op is aware but some places have shitty gas that will make a vehicle miss , stall ,start hard,die coasting to a stop sign , like caseys for one , i have seen friends cars run like shit on caseys gas and experienced it with my vehicles as well

bad or cloged injectors definetly could cause some of your problems , if your injectors are working that bad 1 course of fuel injector cleaner probably won't cut it , i would do 2-4 courses of sea foam in the gas tank to try and clean these injectors

i think you go through more oil than you should , my experience is about 1 quart by the time due for an oil change in an engine that don't otherwise consume oil . sounds to me like you may be due for a re-ring or complete overhaul . could re-ring only but for the work to get that far you would be wise do a complete overhaul being that far in . in the mean time you could probably slow you oil consumption alot with lucas oil stabilizer , i have owned many high mile gm vehicles and it always slows or stops oil consumption for me .

does it consume oil ? what is your gas milage like , does it consume coolant ?

i have a tablesaw and it's not big enough to cut most pieces for a box , dollar for dollar a circular saw and a rip guide is the way to go unless you can get a tablesaw with a biggg table .rf has a $30 circle jig for router right now , that's about the best deal i have found for one http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/shop/shop.aspx?purl=https://secure.rockfordcorp.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=12005&sitex=10105:54419:US

i wouldn't be too quick to buy any parts if i were you . i have had a number of fuel injected cars that will have a code once in a while for no apparent reason , all it takes is one of many parts to read or perform slightly off to register a check engine light . i had a 97 buick century that would register a code for insufficient flow on the egr once a month , was the egr valve bad , no , was the egr circuit clogged , no i checked it all . also had a 95 dakota and every time i would drive 45 mph in top gear putting around in the country with a light foot it would register a code that turned out to be nothing . resetting the obd is a good first step at solving this , it you get the same code again soon chance are you do have a problem heat shields are a likely source of a rattle ,but so is a bad cat my opinion is that your cat is a possibility , i would also think that the o2 sensor that triggered your code could be a possibility of your problem as well i think there is a good chance that the o2 sensor in question may be full of soot or carbon , chances are if you were to try and remove it to look at it that doing so would ruin it as they tend to be stubborn and tuff to get out , even with the correct socket made for o2 sensors . if you want to and plan on solving your own mechanical problems i would buy a service manual for your vehicle , and not a chiltons manual