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Wellness Check after Relocation

909 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  zoneo 
#1 ·
Hey guys!

I recently shipped my '02 GT to Oahu, Hi. coming from Denver, CO. Being such a drastic climate and altitude change, I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for me to keep her in tip top shape.

Prior to shipping my car, I took her in for some maintenance. Flushed all fluids, including steering, tranny, brake and coolant. Had the transmission serviced and a rear differential leak repair and replaced brake pads. The shop also replaced my intake manifold as they told me it was the cause of my leaky coolant (I got ripped off, Ford verified my part was fine and I was misdiagnosed, don't even get me started.)

Since shipping to the island, once thing I have definitely noticed is my MPG has plummeted to the point where im probably getting about half the mileage I was getting in Colorado. Now, this is something that I imagine a BAMA tuner could probably fix for me, but I don't own one. So I was wondering if any of you fine drivers would mind tuning my car, or if you had other manual ways I could go about adjusting the oxygen levels accurately.

When I bought the car a few years ago, the previous owner told me there was a rack and pinion leak but I nor any of my friends were ever able to find it. After getting my power steering fluid flushed, my steering got significantly easier. (Expected) After shipping to the island, I soon noticed that when I turn my steering wheel while either stopped or slowly moving my steering does that awful squealing noise. I assume what's going on is my fluid leaked out, but I don't get is why I wasn't squealing before? Could it just be because of the fact that the fluid is new, and therefore probably less viscous?

It seems everytime I put some money into the maintenance of this car, more issues seem to come up. The car has a new engine with less than 7K miles, with 153K on the original transmission. I'm concerned that if I keep putting money into my car, I'm going to end up running out of car to replace, or funds. whichever comes first.
The transmission feels okay to me, but my dad noticed 2nd gear was "Notchy". how long do these transmissions usually last?

any and all information is appreciated.
Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
That's the great thing about modern cars with computers is that they can handle climate/elevation change pretty easily. I suspect your MPG changes could be because of fuel differences compared to Colorado. That's a guess based on that it was running okay in Colorado though. As far as your transmission goes, the best thing to do is change it once a year and GM Synchromesh or Mobil 1 ATF and filling it with just under 3.2 quarts. It's pretty typical for the TR3650's to be notchy. If your not abusing it and replace your clutch when it starting to fail, she'll keep going.
 
#5 ·
I dont think a tune will fix your gas mileage maybe a little but not by 50% better, at least Ive never heard of that kind of increase?? Do you think its possible they got any fluids on your belt or pulleys when doing all of that work? That can cause squealing at times, or your pump is now going....it would be odd if your rack was fine, then shipped and its not? Just seems like the issues all revolve around having all those things done or "fixed" and now you have the issues...

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#6 ·
As far as the trans, keep your fluid fresh like mentioned every year or 2 depending on how much its used, replace the clutch when needed like mentioned, Ive seen these trans go for over 300k miles and Ive also seen them go before 100k...

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#7 ·
@steve96 the previous owner told me the rack and pinion had a leak, but i could never find traces of it, and it was never an issue until the flush. i guess it's possible the viscosity of the old fluid to the new fluid could cause a leak, but i checked the other day and i seem to recall the fluid level being right where it should be, maybe even a little high. is a little extra bad also?
 
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