GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Yesterday morning I got up at 6 and went out to re-check the lug nuts on my mom's Vibe after rotating her tires a few weeks back. They were all nice and tight. I then checked the tire pressure. All 4 tires only needed a pound or so of air to bring them back up to 32 PSI. Finally, I topped the windshield washer fluid off and pulled the spare out to check the pressure on it. Brought it up to 60 PSI and put it back. Next, I pulled my Vibe into the garage and removed the wheel covers since I was going to be dropping it off to have the squeaky brakes checked and I needed to rotate the tires after that. I also topped off my windshield washer fluid. I dropped my Vibe off at the shop. Within about 45 minutes the owner called me and said the brakes were fine, they just had a bunch of dirt and junk in/on them, so he blew all the brake parts off with compressed air and since he had the tires off, he had rotated them for me (I had mentioned when I dropped it off that I had removed the wheel covers to make it easier for him and because I had to rotate the tires). He charged me $20.00. I set up an appointment to drop my mom's Vibe off with him next Saturday so he can check her brakes and install the GM 2003-2008 Vibe muffler tip ! When I got my Vibe home from the shop, I checked the tire pressure, all 4 tires were around 28-29 PSI, so I brought them all back up to 32 PSI and then re-installed the wheel covers. I also pulled my spare out and checked it. It was a couple pounds low, so I put it back up to 60 PSI and that was that.

Within the next couple days I will be taking both Vibes to the car wash to spray the salt off of them. It's not really worth it to spray them off just yet as the roads are covered in salt (we've seriously only gotten about 2" of snow so far this winter ), but we're supposed to get some rain over the next few days, so I am hoping the rain will help wash the roads off a little. I hate seeing our Vibes so dirty . I can't wait for spring!

I know ! I know....with the time I took to remove it, i should have just replaced it LOL....im cheeep LOL

Dont pay someone to install the GM exhaust tip....took me 2min to install mine last week...

thebarber wrote:Dont pay someone to install the GM exhaust tip....took me 2min to install mine last week...

Unfortunately, it doesn't just slide right onto the tailpipe of the 2nd gen Vibe. It requires a custom sleeve and some welding to make it fit. See my posts about it on the previous page of this thread.

Tip looks good !

I bought an Olloclip 3-in-1 lens thingy for my phone, and used Vibby as the subject of two of the lenses (third is macro, it was too wet outside try it out). In other news, my snow tires make me crave hoonage in the snow. Just though I should mention that.

First is wide angle



Next is normal


(Pay no attention to the bumper hanging off )

Fisheye




I may end up taking better and better pictures, or at least more, now that I'm in a digital photography class at school. I need to satisfy an art credit (one that has already been fulfilled, but that's another story) and I hate painting. So photography it is!

Had the transmission fluid flushed on Saturday and passed 103,000 miles!

Replaced the air filter with a K&N and cleaned the mass air flow sensor.

Replaced the second headlight bulb since I've owned the car (built May 2002, purchased February 2004). This time it was the driver's side, so I removed the battery for easy access to the bulb.

If you're changing them, first, gently pull the plug straight off the bulb, then remove the large rubber O seal by pulling the edges.
The bulb is held in place by a wire catch that hinges toward the driver's side of the car to release the bulb.
Push the top of the wire down toward the bulb to release.
The catch will only lock the bulb in place when the bulb is aligned in the proper position. And of course, replace the rubber O seal before re-attaching the plug.

I purchased 2 Sylvania 9003 'standard duty' bulbs in November 2010 when the passenger side bulb burned out, and used the second one now, over 2 years later.
So despite the extra 'wear and tear' of Daytime Running Lights, bulb life is impressive.

In the olden days before halogen bulbs when cars had separate low-beams and high-beams, I always replaced both low beam headlights at the same time, because the second one would burn out within a few weeks. And always when it was cold, or rainy, or snowy...

washed the road dirt. Twas a filthy car. Wipe down and interior window clean. Had to wait until tomorrow for some plastic and rubber treatment.

After a year of having the part on my shelf, I finally replaced the belt tensioner piston. Took a little longer than I expected due to working space. Replacing it has cured my "growing at cold idle" sound, a slight squeak & a partial throttle growling knock sound. I always had that sound since I bought the Vibe. The piston was in bad shape, the top & bottom bushing were cracked & elongated. After the new piston was put in the tension on the belt is much tighter. I had to place the breaker bar at a 12 oclock position & pull down HARD & barely got the belt back on the alternator pulley. Nice & TIGHT !!!! No more squeaks, rattles, growling or knocks. I also noticed that it idles a bit higher & very quiet at idle as well , maybe its due to the belt not slipping.

Also bought a mini fire extinguisher from walmart ( 18 bucks ) It fit right in the cubby behind the rear seats perfectly !

I checked the plugs today since I'm coming up on 100k. Other than a bit of soot on the base of the threads they could have been new from the box. No sense changing them yet!

Took my mom's Vibe in today to have the squeaky brakes checked (lots of dust in/on them) and have the GM Accessories 2003-2008 Vibe muffler tip installed finally!

As usual your cars look great. I am curious as to why you rotate your winter tires parts way through the season ( not that it is a bad thing). With the milage you put on your vibes I wouldn't think it was necessary but I am sure you have your reasons, and would like to hear them ( not trying to convince you not to BTW).

Oh yeah, tire rotation... I should do that. I put a lot of miles on my Vibe.

The check from Gieco to repair her rear bumper is in the mail, and it can't get here fast enough!

Scwmcan wrote:As usual your cars look great. I am curious as to why you rotate your winter tires parts way through the season ( not that it is a bad thing). With the milage you put on your vibes I wouldn't think it was necessary but I am sure you have your reasons, and would like to hear them ( not trying to convince you not to BTW).

The winter tires get rotated every 5000 miles just like the summer tires do, but we don't put nearly as many miles on the winter tires as we do on the summer tires, so this means the winter tires typically only get rotated every other winter. For example, the winter tires on my Vibe have not been rotated since March of 2011 and the winter tires on my mom's Vibe have not been rotated since February of 2011. I keep strict track of when the winter and summer tires need to be rotated. When I swap between the two, I have a little notebook in the glovebox of each Vibe (where I keep track of oil changes and any other maintenance, etc.) where I assign a number to each wheel and tire so I know exactly what position to put them in when they go back on the vehicle and I do the math so I know when they need to be rotated next. Below is an example of one of my entries:

Friday November 25, 2011 - 27,785 Miles
• Installed winter wheels & tires - Rotate summer wheels & tires after 4616 miles = 34,656 miles
• 1 = front driver | 2 = rear driver | 3 = front passenger | 4 = rear passenger
Saturday March 24, 2012 - 30,040 Miles
• Installed summer wheels & tires - Rotate winter wheels & tires after 1406 miles = 36,064 miles
• 1 = front driver | 2 = front passenger | 3 = rear driver | 4 = rear passenger

Here is how I would figure out the mileage for the next rotation...

So, when I installed the winter wheels for winter 2011-2012, the Vibe had 27,785 miles on it. The summer tires had just been rotated not too long before putting the winter tires on, so once the summer tires were put back on in the spring of 2012, they needed to go 4616 miles before needing their next rotation. When the summer tires were put back on, the Vibe had 30,040 miles which means... 30,040 miles + 4616 miles = next rotation of summer tires at 34,656 miles.

Hopefully this makes sense to everyone. It might seem like a lot of extra work and all, but I am very particular about the maintenance of our Vibes and I want to be sure everything is done when it's supposed to be so the Vibes will continue to be problem free for us for many many years to come.

My can of Rust Bullet arrived today and it finally warmed up a bit so I touched up four or five rock chips. Since it's a nice silver color I decided to touch up the motor cover lettering while I was at it. Not made for plastic, I know, but I figured worst case I could sand it off and get GrafxWerks decals. So far it looks pretty decent!

Especially considering how bad it had faded:

Touch-up part two today. The Rust Bullet dried nicely and I topped it with a color-matched touch-up paint. Glad I did my homework on here and followed recommendations to not trust the brush that comes in the bottle. Check out the size of the original brush compared to the brush I used! Would have made a mess of the tiny little chips I had to fill.

One way to fill a fender...

Full exterior detail: wash, clay bar, polish and wax. Took me eight hours and it was dark by the time I was done, so no pics, but she shines now(as much as a white car ever does)!

Yesterday I requested two oil testing kits from Blackstone Labs and also ordered a 10 pack of washers for my OEM wheel locks from McGard so I can finally replace the one that got all mangled last summer .

had to replace the driverside ballast last week....it had a good lift....1.5yrs....and i think i put in a used one i had kicking around....

luckily, i sell HID's, so i have lots of replacement parts..

Looked at her and sighed sadly Get her back at 10 am today, barring fate.

My mom's Vibe turned over 37,000 miles yesterday and mine turned over 37,000 miles today.

Touched up a few more tiny rust spots I discovered while detailing this weekend. You guys weren't kidding when you said the Vibe paint sucked, especially on the white with no clearcoat. We're almost talking a throwback to 80s paint...

GOT HER BACK WOOOO! Found overspray on the A-pillar. Not-yay. Time to bust out the claybar and pray that's the only place that got hit.

EDIT: pictures!

Windshield replacement has eyebrow tint or whatever.

Roof painted black due to unforseen hood-windshield disaster.

Frontal view.

Lubed all the hinges, locks, seals and rubber hoses with silicone spray.

Did I say this already? Oh, well...rolled over 80k miles the other day.

As mentioned under another topic ..... gave it it's second ever oil change Also I bought it a navigation aid, or actually it is for me The Garmin nuvi 2455 for only $115.00 A neat little tool for assisting me in my travels to Florida & back

Just replaced the passenger side door lock actuator. Bought the actuator at Rock Auto $130. It was much easier than I thought. I also put on some sound deadener on the door panel from soundproofcow.com & all I can say is WOW !....my little Polks have some REALLY nice bass. Not earth shattering but it sounds much more full than it did before. Im really shocked as to how sound insulation transforms the sound of the existing speakers. It also sounds quieter in the cabin which get pretty old with the Vibe. More music & less noise. All i have left to do is the driver side & I will be very happy with my current system for now. Before summer im going to pickup a Kenwood HU & upgrade from the stock HU after 6 years LOL !

cptnsolo77 wrote:Just replaced the passenger side door lock actuator. Bought the actuator at Rock Auto $130. It was much easier than I thought. I also put on some sound deadener on the door panel from soundproofcow.com & all I can say is WOW !....my little Polks have some REALLY nice bass. Not earth shattering but it sounds much more full than it did before. Im really shocked as to how sound insulation transforms the sound of the existing speakers. It also sounds quieter in the cabin which get pretty old with the Vibe. More music & less noise. All i have left to do is the driver side & I will be very happy with my current system for now. Before summer im going to pickup a Kenwood HU & upgrade from the stock HU after 6 years LOL !

When you do the driver's side, could you take a few pictures? I just want to see for myself how extensive the application of the sound deadening needs to be, as I also have Polks in my car, my subwoofer died, I can't afford a new amp and I was thinking of doing the sound deadening as a summer project.

Thanks in advance!

Sure ! Let dig out some pics of the rear doors that I have. I dont have a step by step, just have a final pic before I put the door panel on.

cptnsolo77 wrote:Sure ! Let dig out some pics of the rear doors that I have. I dont have a step by step, just have a final pic before I put the door panel on.

Sounds good, I've done the speakers before so everything leading up to that shouldn't be a problem. I just don't know which way I should place the sound deadener to get the best improvement, so I'll try to copy yours

Got my GrafxWerkz order!

Put winter rims & tires on it. Tires are General Altimax Arctic's. I am really enjoying the all black look.

This the the rear door from last year. All i did was trace the moisture barrier ( plastic ) over the material, cut openings for the power window connector & the support bracket for the door handle. I used my fiances kitchen "thingy" that she uses to crush garlic to press the material into all the little corners & crevices. In spanish its called a "pilon" All you really need is something with a round blunt end, but not too small. I think they make something called a roller for this type of job. Ditch the moisture barrier. The door sounds more "solid" sound when I close it as well.

Thanks for the picture, that clears it up pretty well, and looks really good! Definitely gonna look into doing this when the warmer weather comes around.

Rayven01 wrote:Got my GrafxWerkz order!

Looks great ! What color is the GV decal? Reflective white?

steven wrote:Put winter rims & tires on it. Tires are General Altimax Arctic's. I am really enjoying the all black look.

Looks great !

Realized that the place that the battery tie-down bolt hooks into is on the MOTOR MOUNT. My battery is finally secured, and here I was worrying I'd have to replace the tray and both the metal parts under it or something. Next up: Cleaning up my projectors wiring and installing LEDs instead of CCFL in the shrouds.

vibenvy wrote:Looks great ! What color is the GV decal? Reflective white?

Chrome mirror. It's a little bubbly right now, hoping it will smooth out.

Charged the battery up for a week and put it back in. I killed the battery by not running the Vibe enough while it was very cold a couple of weeks ago. Was dead enough not to open door locks with the remote. Not super fun work in cold weather. That little tiedown was also a bit of fun to get to hook up right. I guess in the cold, everything's tougher to do.

What doesn't kill you, will make you think twice next time before attempting!

vibolista wrote:Charged the battery up for a week and put it back in. I killed the battery by not running the Vibe enough while it was very cold a couple of weeks ago...I guess in the cold, everything's tougher to do.

As a proud Vibe owner like you, and one who has only 8,582 miles on his 2009 Vibe (in other words, I don't have a life), I an freqently in this situation. I suggest you look into getting the Schumaker Model Sem-1562A battery maintainter/charger. Whenever my Vibe has been sitting in the garage in cold weather for several days I check the voltage and, if need be, hook this up to the battery. If you want peace of mind, this is the way to go.

Coolant and thermostat flush and replacement. I hate the alternator for being a pain to pull out to access the thermostat. NEVER AGAIN! Also had to overinflate the passenger tire so because wriggling and squeezing under to get to the engine coolant plug was absolutely exhausting.

I also did a mock-up for IMPENDING FENDER STRIPES using an old picture:


I may change the angles of the stripes to be more parallel to the headlights' angles, but that's the basic gist of it. Check out my super-awesome photoshop skills.

lannvouivre wrote:
I may change the angles of the stripes to be more parallel to the headlights' angles

YES, plus maybe fade them away into the fender further down towards the door jamb! Love the color choice for the stripes

vibenvy wrote:

Scwmcan wrote:As usual your cars look great. I am curious as to why you rotate your winter tires parts way through the season ( not that it is a bad thing). With the milage you put on your vibes I wouldn't think it was necessary but I am sure you have your reasons, and would like to hear them ( not trying to convince you not to BTW).

The winter tires get rotated every 5000 miles just like the summer tires do, but we don't put nearly as many miles on the winter tires as we do on the summer tires, so this means the winter tires typically only get rotated every other winter. For example, the winter tires on my Vibe have not been rotated since March of 2011 and the winter tires on my mom's Vibe have not been rotated since February of 2011. I keep strict track of when the winter and summer tires need to be rotated. When I swap between the two, I have a little notebook in the glovebox of each Vibe (where I keep track of oil changes and any other maintenance, etc.) where I assign a number to each wheel and tire so I know exactly what position to put them in when they go back on the vehicle and I do the math so I know when they need to be rotated next. Below is an example of one of my entries:

Friday November 25, 2011 - 27,785 Miles
• Installed winter wheels & tires - Rotate summer wheels & tires after 4616 miles = 34,656 miles
• 1 = front driver | 2 = rear driver | 3 = front passenger | 4 = rear passenger
Saturday March 24, 2012 - 30,040 Miles
• Installed summer wheels & tires - Rotate winter wheels & tires after 1406 miles = 36,064 miles
• 1 = front driver | 2 = front passenger | 3 = rear driver | 4 = rear passenger

Here is how I would figure out the mileage for the next rotation...

So, when I installed the winter wheels for winter 2011-2012, the Vibe had 27,785 miles on it. The summer tires had just been rotated not too long before putting the winter tires on, so once the summer tires were put back on in the spring of 2012, they needed to go 4616 miles before needing their next rotation. When the summer tires were put back on, the Vibe had 30,040 miles which means... 30,040 miles + 4616 miles = next rotation of summer tires at 34,656 miles.

Hopefully this makes sense to everyone. It might seem like a lot of extra work and all, but I am very particular about the maintenance of our Vibes and I want to be sure everything is done when it's supposed to be so the Vibes will continue to be problem free for us for many many years to come.

Sryy haven't checked in in a while. This does make some sense, but I guess for me if I knew the tires would need to be rotated part way though the season, I would likely rotate them early when I put them on the car. Your way works for you and is technically more correct, and is in line with the admirable attention to detail you take with your cars maintenance.

Just a quickie rinse ( sprayer on stream with no soap ) knocked off dirt, shook out the floor mats & sprayed some armor all on the tires. Lazy mans car wash LOL....

Next weekend if the wheather is cool...ER, I will do my annual clay & wax job.

Washed the crud from last week's sleet storm off.

I gave my Vibe a nice, quick cleaning today. She was getting as salty as a french fry again, so a good rinsing was needed. When I got home (since I have to use those quarter-operated pressure-washers due to the rear bumper damage) I dried off what was left and used some instant detailer to get the extra slime off, and did a small bit of cleaning. It felt good to clean the Vibe by hand again, and she sure looked like she appreciated it!

lannvouivre wrote:Coolant and thermostat flush and replacement. I hate the alternator for being a pain to pull out to access the thermostat. NEVER AGAIN! Also had to overinflate the passenger tire so because wriggling and squeezing under to get to the engine coolant plug was absolutely exhausting.

I also did a mock-up for IMPENDING FENDER STRIPES using an old picture:


I may change the angles of the stripes to be more parallel to the headlights' angles, but that's the basic gist of it. Check out my super-awesome photoshop skills.

Mopar stripes?

tpollauf wrote:YES, plus maybe fade them away into the fender further down towards the door jamb! Love the color choice for the stripes

It's cuz white and red go together so well! Like on peppermints and candy canes and the Toyota GT-One!

thebarber wrote:Mopar stripes?

That's where I got the idea, that and a white corvette sporting the same fender stripes.

I washed the Vibe, waxed her, cleaned the windows, clay-barred off much overspray from the paint and the glass. Less than 12 hours later, it sprinkled and was windy/dusty. Instantly ruined 4 hours of work