GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi,

I've actually been reading this forum for months now on and off but just decided to sign up.
I have a 2004 Vibe Base Automatic with the moonroof and amp/door tweets. It was purchased as a gift for me to replace a death trap mold incubating dodge that leaked all over the place

I have to be honest that when I first saw it on the lot (had originally come in to test drive a Saturn L200 but the rust underneath it and dented gas tank quickly ended that notion) I did not like it. I have always resisted the trend towards aerodynamic looking cars and such but it also just looked kind of funny to me. However it was a very good test drive and the car has continued to grow on me.

I bought it with around 167k miles on it, and it was very clean all things considered. I am always amazed how clean the undercarriage is when its up on the hoist at my mechanic. Not just the interior, even the engine bay was very clean. There are no major leaks or anything so far and I hope it stays that way. The only thing that bothers me is the way water leaks through the sunroof seals (4 corners, etc) and how the A/C seemed underpowered for a hot/humid climate.

But other than that its great. I like it I love how easy it is to get in and out of the car especially and how the ride height and field of vision is a step between a car and a truck.

So far I have done my best to take care of her, but I did hit a deer the other month It cost me a new hood, and it cracked my grill near the emblem / hood latch but I am living with it. The upper/lower bumper already had cosmetic damage, along with other parts of the car (gashes in plastic, chipped paint, some rust spots I need to take care of with touch-up). It was in a previous accident of some sort that caused all the cosmetic damage but I can't gather exactly what happened. Perhaps a side-swipe with a concrete road barrier and some gravel was involved.

When we bought it from the dealer the front struts had been replaced. I have since had new rear shoes put on, regular 3k oil changes, I also had the transmission flushed because this thing does shift kind of hard, and I don't think it had ever been done (very dirty looking). I believe I have noticed an improvement although it still doesn't shift as smoothly as I would like. I have also replaced the factory alternator with a high output alternator (see my audio upgrade thread) from Singer, put a new smaller belt on along with it, and also upgraded the factory charging and ground wires. Also put a new hood on and new headlights as a result of the deer accident. and new washer spray nozels the old ones were kind of gunked up anyway. I also put on some brand new tires (Pirelli Cinturator P7 all season)

Once my audio is done I will probably replace the front rotors, pads, and possibly calipers too.
Don't have any pictures yet but will take some soon. Not fond of showing off my scratch up paint and plastic exterior though.

Edit: Here are some pictures I took as it had just rained and the car looks better wet

Welcome to the club!

BustedVibe wrote: the A/C seemed underpowered for a hot/humid climate.

Welcome to GenVibe So where exactly is this hot/humid climate ??? Hint... update your profile for us A nice long intro and even nicer long write up on your audio upgrade story. Looking forward to pics when you get around to it!

Welcome to the forum, BustedVibe! My Vibe wasn't love at first sight for me either, yet it grew on me. A few small modifications made it my car. I see you are well on your way to do the same.

I'm in Wisconsin. We can have pretty nasty summers out here. I actually had my A/C charged and throttle body cleaned too when I did my big 3 but forgot to mention that Depending on how lazy I am I might take lots of pictures during my audio upgrade

Ok. I find the AC in my car a bit lame too. Make sure you have a fresh cabin air filter and put the fan on high. If I get something done to the charge in my AC I will insist on having it completely evacuated and vacuum pulled for extended time (several hours) before the refill.

Well I think when we did it he said I had .3 or .4 pounds in the system, I think we had the machine pulling stuff out for 15 minutes or so. Given it was spitting out lukewarm / warm air even on cold and the compressor running I am hoping there just wasn't much in there to suck out.

It worked last summer though so idk (it was not "great" then either but no worse than it is now I think). Hoping there is no big leak, he did put some dye in and we'll check it in a month or so unless it gets drastically worse before then. I do tend to run the blower on high at least at first, but I had noise like that especially when trying to listen to music. I have found setting the vents to dash only seems to help as far as getting air moving quickly through the cabin and typically I do leave it there with the A/C going.

I haven't checked the cabin air filter yet but I will try to remember to do that. In fact I may go out there and do it in a bit before work since I can grab a new one when I'm out if needed. Although it was pretty clean when I got it (although we have lots of pollen in the air here so who knows). I know the engine intake filter was pretty clean though, so I can't imagine the cabin air being -too- bad.

haha.. I just checked my cabin air filter, it was pretty damn dirty. You could see little bits of leaves sticking out from the access slot where you slide it in / out.

It was pretty tough to pull out too, one side was stuck. But now I'm worried about stuff that may be sitting free in the filter box (twigs and little leaf bits maybe). Gonna have to find an easy way to get it vaccumed out or something. I ran the blower and I know there was stuff in there (although it sounds pretty clean now) I went down to the local parts store and they'll have a new filter for me in about 1 hour. So then I can test it when I leave for work later

It didn't look disgustingly bad, but it definitely had debris stuck in the filter, dust/pollen buildup etc. Although it was mostly on the one side. Hoping changing it will make a difference. I rechecked the heater flap control since it is right next to it and it seems ok. There is not really any play in the slide mechanism and when set to cold it appears to be all the way back. Unless the thing has millimeters of tolerance I doubt there is a problem with the slide cable.

The filter was dated 2014, but I'm not sure if that was just a manufacturers date or close to an install date. I can't remember if they said they had changed it at the dealership when we bought it or not.

I updated my post with some pictures

You are very knowledgeable, BustedVibe.

One thing though about pulling vacuum on the A/C: The enemy of A/C is H2O. That's why there is a dryer in the system. It's a molecular filter. It is rather difficult to vaporize H2O with vacuum. You need to reach a very low pressure and you need to keep it there for quite some time to let the pump capture those molecules. 15 minutes is too short for that.

You can also insulate the the low pressure pipes under the hood. It helps some with the initial cool down. Another trick is to seal off the perimeter of the space between the condenser and the radiator. It improves the airflow through the condenser.

I wish the evaporator would be easily accessible for proper cleaning. Any dust caught there is just blocking air flow and providing a substrate for mold growth.

Your vibe looks pretty darn good. I expected some obvious blemishes after your description. I couldn't see any.

I'm not really all that knowledgeable. In fact I am not a "car guy" or anything. I mean I even have my mechanic do my oil changes, haha. I pick up bits and pieces here and there through reading this forum and other places though. The rest is just me trying to make logical reasonings. Tomorrow I might put on my mechanic hat to try and fix the new noise I just introduced to my air blower (hopefully debris from a filter change)


I actually have been considering whether or not I wanted to try insulating the A/C pipes under the hood. I have heard some people claim it worked great and helped get things cold fast, while others have said it won't matter, or that it made no difference. At this point I don't fancy paying anothe recharge / 134 fee just to have it sit on vaccum for an hour or two.

I will maybe look into sealing the space you are talking about if its an easy job for me to get to. I just wish I was one of those people who could brag their Vibe A/C was like an ice box


Also, the car really does have scratches and gouges and stuff all over the paint and plastic trim. It just doesn't show up well on camera (it was also sunset when I took those pics) and I'm sure the water helped it look better than it is. If you are standing next to the car you would see all the scratches and blemishes on the surface.

I actually have been considering whether or not I wanted to try insulating the A/C pipes under the hood. I have heard some people claim it worked great and helped get things cold fast, while others have said it won't matter, or that it made no difference.

Either way, it won't cost much. I will do mine in the next few days.

What material are you going to buy to do it with? I'll do my own research but I'm not sure currently what is actually safe under the hood.


Today after it finished storming, I took my blower motor out and there were a few bits of leaves in it but nothing like I was expecting, no twigs or anything. However after re-assembly the growling noise appears to be gone. I hope it is nothing major, although replacing it shouldn't cost more than $50 from Amazon. There is a noise when the fan is on the lowest setting, I think it sounds like bearing sleeves (appears to be using them?) going bad or something. In any case if it starts making noise again at least I know how to take it out and put it back together again! (thanks youtube).
Space was really tight and that was the hardest part (aside from hunting down a 7/32 socket for the 5.5mm screws)


I also took some better pictures of my Vibe after I finished, since apparently people don't believe its really beat up!
You can be forgiven for thinking the stuff on the front end is dired up dirt/mud - its really not.

Did I mention this thing gets parked under/next to a walnut tree

The words "scratch" and "character" have the same root. Therefore your Vibe has character.

Welcome and congrats on the Vibe! It looks pretty good IMO, and like was said, it has character now. Good luck with it!

I just purchased a set of Sylvania's brightest 9003 bulbs for my headlamps.
I'm not sure what I'll get out of them, but I'm hoping it will fix an issue I have to live with.

My headlamps are already adjusted "down" but you can barely see anything going down the road at night unless the high beams are on. The lights are about hood-level with walls and such when I pull in to places though.

When I hit that deer, my drivers side headlamp assembly was broken at the mounting screws. I was not about to put one shiney new headlamp on and have an ugly fogged up one with it (although they put out very good light). I don't know what kind of bulbs were in them either, but I chucked them after the new ones were installed (oops).

Then I found out the passenger side assembly could only be adjusted so far upward (the driver side beam was higher). These lights also have a funny dispersal pattern and directional beam. I was not about to try and go through the hassle of a return (bought them as a set, plus there were "installed" on the vehicle). The passenger beam does this weird thing in where it points inward towards the center of the car (much more pronounced angle than the drivers side beam).

At any rate I matched the drivers beam height to the highest the passenger would go. I'm hoping getting some high-end bulbs will give me a proper dispersal pattern and lighting, and that I would have had to adjusted them "down" when I got the high-end bulbs anyway.

Guess I'll find out Sunday when they arrive from Amazon, $28 shipped not bad for something that is like $50 at a walmart

Here are a few things I've learned regarding headlights (thanks to The Candle Power Forums);

1.) If your headlights are yellowed, hazy, foggy, etc., replace them with genuine OEM headlights. The cheaper aftermarket headlights are inferior in every way and won't perform nearly as well as OEM, hence the cheaper price.

2.) Your headlights need to be adjusted by a professional shop using a machine. You eyeballing it against your garage door is not good enough. Any reputable body shop should be able to adjust your headlights for you for a decent price (I was quoted $25.00 by my local body shop).

3.) Sylvania bulbs are junk (I used to use nothing but SilverStars). The best halogen bulbs currently available are Philips X-treme Vision.

I am in no way trying to bash you or anything, I'm just sharing all this information that I've learned. I used SilverStars in the past. I adjusted the headlights myself in the past. Once you have brand new, clear OEM headlights that are properly aimed with legitimate bulbs, the difference will be very noticeable.

Another trick to seeing better at night is to dim your gauge cluster. I always used to have mine on full blast until I read about this trick. It really does make a huge difference.

I'm not expecting maricles, but for what I was willing to spend to try and fix the issue I figured I would give it a go.

I really could not afford to drop almost $300 per headlamp assembly when I had them replaced, so yes I cheaped out and got a $200 set of lamps. (forgot who makes them, can find them on carparts.com or something).

I am running on the assumption they just come with really cheap and crappy bulbs in them. They were installed by the local bodyshop that did my repairs, however if the guy truly did go through the trouble of aiming them and such then I don't trust him to do any further work on my car. Since it was never mentioned that the passenger side had a broken adjuster (you can literally turn it freely with your thumb/finger its that easy) and the beams was not set as high compared to the drivers side which required a proper phillips head and some elbow grease to turn it slowly.

He also skimped on some paint touchup he said he would do on the edges of my drivers door/fender where the fender was pushed back. The whole thing was a stressful headache for me and I just wanted it to be over and done with.

Lesson learned on the headlamps. Hoping the bulbs will make things better at least.


What I should have done was spend the money on one good GM headlamp, and then got a refinishing kit for the passenger side

Holy crap my new bulbs arrived today. That was less than 24hours on a 2-day shipping item

I just put them in when I got home from work, it was easier than I expected, although the spaces were a little tight. Had to pull out my battery to do the drivers side. I can tell the light is whiter already (also tested the drivers before putting in the passengers). hopefully a fair bit brighter so that I can see at night without street lights or high beams, haha.


Will go for a test drive in a couple hours when it gets dark - assuming a tornado doesn't pop up during this crappy weather that is rolling in.


Oh man.. I'm glad its summer, that gives me some time to save up for a pair of these (I really want my audio system )

I'm wondering if I shouldn't try to look for a local junkyard with an appropriate year Vibe I could steal the OEM lamps from and then use a refinishing kit on them

Doing a quick search on eBay brought up plenty of decent looking used OEM headlights for under $100.00 each. You could also check out car-part.com to see what's available in junkyards near you. You may get lucky and find a well maintained set of used ones for a decent price. The headlights on both our 09s still look brand new because I clay bar and wax them on a regular basis.

I'll check it out. I originally perused ebay but the stuff looks so similar to the crap replacements I bought I didn't pay much attention or try to identify serial numbers when I originally looked to see the other day.

I really like the black on the Vibe, looks nice in the rain too!