New Member 2004 Vibe base
Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 2:21 pm
New Member 2004 Vibe base
I recently became the second owner of a 2004 Vibe with 5 speed Moon/tunes in Sunburst orange. I am not crazy about the color, would have preferred white or dark blue, but I am adjusting. Otherwise I am really happy with the car.
I am really happy to have found this forum. I have already found many answers here. Perhaps I will be able to provide some answers too.
Thing I have done:
Changed the gear oil, spark plugs, chain tensioner, valve cover gasket (#3 hole was filled with oil), power steering fluid. The stock radio was already gone and I did not like the 1 DIN that replaced it, so I installed a 2 DIN LCD radio with Bluetooth, GPS, rearview cam and SD card and USB access. I added a switch to allow viewing the rear view camera any time. With 170 degree field of view, it helps cover the blind spots. The Recalls were taken care of and I felt lucky, the dealer I took it to, did an excellent job and I got the car back in fine shape. It has a noise that goes away when the clutch is depressed so a new throw out bearing (along with a new clutch) may be needed at some point. I added a trailer hitch and am currently waiting on the wiring kit. I plan to do most of the maintenance, but the first oil change was done by a fast oil change place and they bent the flange just under the oil filler cap. When the valve cover was removed, the source of the that odd ticking was confirmed. I had read about that very issue here.
Couple of questions:
How can I confirm the VVT is working? The power curve seems to be very flat.
I replaced the old (clear) power steering fluid (150k miles) with the recommended Dex III (red) transmission fluid and now I am getting significant whine from the power steering pump. Is this really the correct fluid? It there a power steering conditioner that will quite it down?
I recently became the second owner of a 2004 Vibe with 5 speed Moon/tunes in Sunburst orange. I am not crazy about the color, would have preferred white or dark blue, but I am adjusting. Otherwise I am really happy with the car.
I am really happy to have found this forum. I have already found many answers here. Perhaps I will be able to provide some answers too.
Thing I have done:
Changed the gear oil, spark plugs, chain tensioner, valve cover gasket (#3 hole was filled with oil), power steering fluid. The stock radio was already gone and I did not like the 1 DIN that replaced it, so I installed a 2 DIN LCD radio with Bluetooth, GPS, rearview cam and SD card and USB access. I added a switch to allow viewing the rear view camera any time. With 170 degree field of view, it helps cover the blind spots. The Recalls were taken care of and I felt lucky, the dealer I took it to, did an excellent job and I got the car back in fine shape. It has a noise that goes away when the clutch is depressed so a new throw out bearing (along with a new clutch) may be needed at some point. I added a trailer hitch and am currently waiting on the wiring kit. I plan to do most of the maintenance, but the first oil change was done by a fast oil change place and they bent the flange just under the oil filler cap. When the valve cover was removed, the source of the that odd ticking was confirmed. I had read about that very issue here.
Couple of questions:
How can I confirm the VVT is working? The power curve seems to be very flat.
I replaced the old (clear) power steering fluid (150k miles) with the recommended Dex III (red) transmission fluid and now I am getting significant whine from the power steering pump. Is this really the correct fluid? It there a power steering conditioner that will quite it down?