GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

ColonelPanic

I tracked down Pat's video - that was a neat way to test. Never thought about that! I replaced the mounts in phases (from easiest to that just-fricken-get-me-out-of-my-misery rear mount.) Probably no more than a few hundred miles from start to finish and still ended up with vibrations (only when idl...

ColonelPanic

That new Tucson is gonna look fantastic in a few years with all those acres of piano black plastic.

A well-done interior otherwise.

Lots of pics here. And is that a flat load floor I spy? Or nearly flat, hard to tell from that angle.

ColonelPanic

What a gorgeous Fusion Vibe, tpollauf!

ColonelPanic

I had noticed recently that Jahntassa was no longer the GenVibe team captain. :( I hope all is well with him. So that our team would have a captain again (for whatever that role entails,) I took the liberty and appointed myself to that role. I'm not going anywhere. :D If any of the two other current...

ColonelPanic

The GT was designed to use premium fuel only, it should be 91 octane or higher.

It's outlined on page 6-4 of the 2003 Vibe owner's manual.

ColonelPanic

Ahhh! [/i] done.jpg New KYB Strut Plus assemblies, Moog stabilizer bar end links, ACDelco Professional tie rod ends, a pair of inner tie rods picked up locally at Oreilly, one hack job driveway "alignment" followed by one at a shop. The old stuff was clearly in great shape. :lol: old-new.jpg ends.j...

ColonelPanic

Looks nice. I've always liked bodycolor splash guards.

ColonelPanic

So is that the modern (well, early 2000's modern) equivalent of the even older belt-driven air pump? The one that people always used to disconnect?

I'm surprised it hasn't started throwing codes at you yet. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

ColonelPanic

If it's a common item shared between Hyundai and Kia (oil filters, ATF, etc,) I found some success with threatening to go to down the street to the Kia dealer to get the same item cheaper.

ColonelPanic

Add a 96 gallon recycle can to the list of stuff the Vibe can swallow whole. Sure, the recycling folks would have delivered it for an additional five bucks - but what's the fun in that?

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ColonelPanic

No lean codes or rough idle with it disconnected like that? :shock: The other end of that line goes to a junction near the cruise control actuator (provided you have that option.) As you can see, clearly not stock but you get the idea. 20200630_204607 - Edited.jpg 20200630_203527 - Edited.jpg 202006...

ColonelPanic

Yesterday I was going to replace the thermostat, the radiator hoses and heater hoses and flush the coolant... Then I thought to myself I should probably see how the 17 year old water pump was doing since I'd be working right next to it anyway. It's not leaking, but the pulley is looking a little rus...

ColonelPanic

Dang-it. Rumors are that Hyundai won't bring the wagon version of the i30 to the US. I'm going to head over there in the next week to see if they can give me any updates on either this or the new Tucson. https://www.motor1.com/news/400683/2021-hyundai-i30-revealed/ Rats. A modern Elantra Touring eq...

ColonelPanic

548,332,200 seconds (give or take.)

I wonder how many members (whether active on the site or not) are still the original owners of their Vibes after all these years? I suspect my better half is in quite an exclusive club in that regard. Don't think we'll ever let this car go.

ColonelPanic

You're spot on - you're sending an amplified signal straight into the factory amp. The volume will be loud and I've found there will also be an excessive amount of white noise. A speaker level converter wired in between the head unit's speaker outputs and the speaker wiring on the factory harness ad...

ColonelPanic

The other day I decided it was spring oil change time. And with winter + pandemic, it was a super short OCI this time. Dumped out ~4 qt of perfectly good Maxlife 5W-30 from October that had a whole 803 miles on it. Yeah, I know I could/should have ran this much, much longer... What can I say, I was ...

ColonelPanic

I trust all those that are boycotting retail establishments that have denied them service for not wearing a mask are also standing up for the rights of others who were denied service by a business based on other factors...

Oh, sure.

ColonelPanic

Hauled a Honda home the other day.............................. :lol: honda.jpg Also, on two sepaate occasions, I bought home some new 36x80" storm doors. vibe1.jpg vibe2.jpg I was crammed close to the steering wheel and had the storm door right next to my noggin, but made it home just fine. :lol:

ColonelPanic

I think the ride is nice. I replaced a noisy wheel bearing and put on new tires also, so can only compare the package deal. I installed Monroes on the rear first as you did, and thought they were kind of soft / cushy. I didn't want to lose responsiveness in the front, And the KYBs feel pretty much ...

ColonelPanic

Wow, I'm very sorry to hear that - get well soon!

ColonelPanic

Rock Auto rebates page shows $50 rebate on 2 KYB strut-plus units thru June 30. I missed out on that rebate, just finished installing my new KYB strut-plus struts last week. They went on with zero problems. How's the ride with those? Those are my #1 consideration for the front. I put KYB shocks on ...

ColonelPanic

Thanks for the advice and you're exactly right - I was doing a great job at fighting with myself! It's always a learning experience. Everything worked out fine in the end and save for the front struts being trashed, the ride is quite improved. I'll be tearing into the front struts soon as well, so t...

ColonelPanic

Aanndddd, I finally got it. Supported the axle with my larger floor jack. Stuck the strut studs through the top as best as I could. Used my little low profile 1.5 ton jack to go under the strut. Jacked the strut up, got the studs through then just fought with it until I was able to get the bottom st...

ColonelPanic

I seem to have found myself into a bit of a situation... Trying to install a set of rear Monroe QuickStruts ( 171373L/171373R.) So far I only have attempted the right side. First observation, the Monroes are considerably longer than the old factory units and that is causing me considerable drama try...

ColonelPanic

135,939 miles and holding steady.

Probably take her out for a spin this weekend.

ColonelPanic

I don't recall hearing about the V6 filter on the forum over the years, only the 2ZZ-spec filter on the 1ZZ. I often run some sort of Wix-made 57145, I appreciate the extra little bit of capacity it offers. The only time I seem to go back to the smaller filter these days is when I find a deal on a F...

ColonelPanic

Oh, that's awesome!

If only they had 'em smaller than 2", that's too big to fit in the center on those wheel covers.

ColonelPanic

Started into these yesterday. 20200406_185903 - Edited.jpg Used Rustoleum self-etching primer, followed up with Rustoleum wheel paint ("Steel" color,) and finally a few coats of Rustoleum wheel clearcoat. I really like the color of this paint, it's very sparkly. 8-) Where's the other one you might a...

ColonelPanic

Too bad I disconnected my rain barrel a while back. :D That'd need some heavy duty filtering though, with the way my shingles are well past their prime. :lol: Meijer was completely out of distilled last time I was there. It was hard to find even before people started hoarding stuff. The local grocer...

ColonelPanic

$1.679 or so for 87 here right now.

No need to buy more anytime soon...

ColonelPanic

18 years!!!

Happy Birthday!

ColonelPanic

A couple weeks ago, I pulled the throttle body and gave it a good cleaning. Wish I would have taken before/after pics, it was pretty cruddy. Rotated the tires as well. This weekend, I topped off the battery charge and replaced the cabin air filter. Cleaned up the interior and gave the outside a quic...

ColonelPanic

I've been replacing the engine mounts individually as time permits, finally finished that up today. 20200311_185635.jpg Bought another mount from Beck-Arnley for the front. Since the left and rear mounts are much more work to replace, I went OEM (chose Toyota for the left, GM for the rear due to the...

ColonelPanic

Perhaps escalate it to GM themselves if the dealers are unwilling to provide assistance. https://my.gm.com/recalls

They have a contact number for Pontiac vehicles listed at the above link.

ColonelPanic

Yes, that Toyota Red will perfectly fine for SSizler's '03. That's all I've ever ran in the Vibe. Didn't feel like going to the dealer this time, so... 20200205_171652 - Edited.jpg Found the Pentosin to be reasonably priced at Advance Auto compared to what I remember paying for the red at the dealer.

ColonelPanic

Received the "Important Recall Info That MAY Affect Your Vehicle" e-mail from NHTSA today about the Vibe. This one is for the potential for the passenger air bag to not unfold properly, presumably what is referenced in the OP. The NHTSA notices I get aren't VIN-specific, so I ran the VIN through the...

ColonelPanic

Good stuff on that site, it's helped me on a few different vehicles now.

ColonelPanic

Finally replaced that mount today. That thing was smoked! 20200126_181222.jpg Closeup of the tear and fluid leak. I later ripped it open further, there was no fluid left in there. 20200126_145046.jpg Done! Piece of cake. 20200126_151854.jpg The Beck Arnley mount (P/N 104-1736) seems to be of good qu...

ColonelPanic

Replaced battery due to a sloooow crank concern without any troubleshooting whatsoever. Because of course I did. :roll: I figured it's had a rough life - 6 years old, most of that time sitting around and when the car is driven it doesn't travel great distances. And I didn't own a charger until recen...

ColonelPanic

Man, I wish i would have saw this post sooner. Dont know how much you paid but the OEM is around 135 bucks from here: https://parts.conicellitoyotaofconshohocken.com/ I just replaced 3 of mine and posted the vids that helped me here: http://forums.genvibe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=47246&p=527...

ColonelPanic

...the rubber that holds the liquid in has deteriorated, so it can't hold in its liquid. :D Never a good thing when you're a teenager, that's for sure. I was talking about our teenage Vibes............what were you thinking? :o She'll be 18 in less than a year, at this point she's probably gonna do...

ColonelPanic

Apparently these mounts are "liquid-filled" to absorb vibrations. And just like everything else on this car, the rubber that holds the liquid in has deteriorated, so it can't hold in its liquid.

ColonelPanic

The starter died on the Vibe. As I was crawling underneath to check some things out, I noticed a lot of fluid on the passenger side splash shield running down from above. Really nasty looking fluid. :shock: 20191225_115409 - Edited.jpg Traced it up to the right engine mount. Sure enough, I could squ...

ColonelPanic

Yes, same problem - replace the recirculate door actuator. They seem to have different failure modes. Ours is on #3... First time, it clicked until you toggled recircuate. Second time, it made no noise but wouldn't move the door at all. #3 is starting to click as well in either position (only clicks...

ColonelPanic

Interesting color. Reminds me of the "Glowing Yellow" on the new 2020 Sonata. Love it, as bizarre as that color is. Too bad it isn't offered on the on the cheapo trim of the Sonata that I'd buy. I have no need for a large car anyway. :D As far as that Kia goes, I haven't paid much attention to it so...

ColonelPanic

I have seen some posts on non-vibe forums saying that dex-cool does/could turn pink with use. Is that statement totally wrong? That is true in my experience with the two vehicles we own that have this coolant. The coolant starts out orange, but changes to a reddish/pinkish color over time. From wha...

ColonelPanic

Just went to the Mazda dealer today, mainly to express my dismay as to why they were not at the auto show. Out of curiosity, dId they have an explanation for the absence? Mazda's not at the Indianapolis or Louisville shows either. Same goes for Kia as well. Really wanted to see the new Forte last y...

ColonelPanic

The new Escape seems pretty nice. Seems a little more hatchback-ish now, I suppose the demise of the Focus in the US may have had a part in that. I know a lot of the Escape fans seem turned off by this, but as someone who loathes SUV's I think it's somewhat of a step in the right direction. The Mrs....

ColonelPanic

Welcome from the other end of the state.

Glad you found us.

The Vibe is a great car and there's plenty of good info here to be found. Let us know if you have any questions!

And of course, I'm sure someone will ask you to post pics of your new ride. Just a head's up.

ColonelPanic

Sounds like a great find. 8-) Not sure how the sequence worked on the VIN, but that one does seem to be a VERY early example! The fact that the rear axle recall from March 11, 2002 applied to that one would surely indicate that. There were 2,702 units affected. For air bag recalls, it would likely h...

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