I had a private message from a forum member asking me if replacing my spliced harness with a new one and the crate engine depot connectors stopped the surging and here is my reply.

The person that contacted me showed some pretty severe surge on a video and I responded.

"Mostly not like what you are seeing, though when cold it still does surge some and is up and down.

Actually I don't notice much difference between the last version of soldered wires, vs. the new harness and the adapters from crate engine depot.

Not to say I wouldn't do it, because I would. I think over time it's more stable, though with my HHR I don't know if it will ever be that stable.

I do know to make my car run solid without surge I must set it to comp mode and traction control off. I must let it really warm up not just take off and go and to stop the torque management thing from shutting it all down, I must manually shift and do it before the redline."

Anyway, I've had the gmpd stage 1 problems and done most things to fix it like having it soldered and wrapped twice, added a new top motor mount, moved the IC up towards the bumper, bought the new harness and had it installed and the crate engine connectors. (All on my nickle, not even messing with GM's silly warranty).

This weekend, I kook the third over 200 mile road trip with this car this weekend, from L.A. to Vegas, it ran fine until Nevada where I pulled off for gas and L and I did not work, only drive.

Once we got to the hotel Reverse did not engage, only drive. On the highway it's fine, but obviously there is a big problem, so I dropped it off at the dealer and hopefully they can get to it early in the morning, as I'm due back in L.A. Sunday night.

The last road trip I took with this car was also to Vegas and it blew the fuel pump and went into limp mode. Findlay chevrolet fixed it fast (they're great and hope they can do it again).

The thing is I'm really to the point I just don't trust this car. I love it, I hate to part with it, I truly love driving it, especially at speed. It cruises as 110 mph like most cars do at 70 and feels solid, but the lack of reliability I just cannot deal with, so unless it looks like the problem is minor, I think I'm going to sell it.

IMO


P.S. We were staying at at a nice hotel which has it's share of high end iron. S classes, a lambo or two, always a ferrari. They parked my SS outside because of the no reverse gear thing so I could drive it off and every time I went outside there was someone out there looking at the car and always commenting on how great it looked and they either asked how I customized it, or they didn't know chevy made anything that looked like this. Two 25 year old's that were driving a STI limited asked if this was a new chevrolet that just came out and I said no, it's a 2008 . . . they stopped making it.

All they could say is sick man, but why the hell did they stop making it?

So in the end, I do want to keep this car, but it must be reliable. I just wish someone could go through it top to bottom, find every glitch, and fix it.

If not I'm going to an STI hatch, or try to find a low mile magnum srt8.

 

Do you think some of the problems are from mods,that a stock SS would not have.Or would it be the same?

 

Doing it again, I would never have upgraded anything. I don't think the car really is meant to have close to 300 hp with the auto and the stage 1 upgrade wasn't very well thought out.

It's just not worth the problems.

If you want a nice dependable car, then stock it is fine, rides well, has good utility and a good price.

If you want a really hot hatch I'd go with an STI or a EVO. Obviously much more money, but those two companies have a lot more experience at this and build their cars for harder use, or if you want to stay with American cars, then something like the new Regal GS. It's tuned to just 270 which is probably where this drivetrain lives the best.

IMO

 

Same here.
My last trip to the dealer, was the last time to the dealer with the SS. They understood my frustration, and offered me too good a deal to pass up.

 

Thanks for the advice,mine is 08-SS-5-SP.I think I will leave it stock.

 

I'm not saying not to. Some upgrades like exhaust, sway bar, the stronger motor mounts are all great additions.

Anything that adds power, even the gm stage 1 or power upgrade or whatever it's called at the moment, is just too much for the drivetrain.

If I was going to do it again I would send it first to that company in Michigan that upgrades the auto transmission, then I would send it to someone like ZZP and have them find a good tuner to match the power to the tune and the hardware.

I don't know why my transmission went out, since I was on the highway, but I think the standard gm torque management, or traction control plays hell with the transmission, because if you get on it hard from a slow rolling start or a standstill, most of us have hit that dreaded cut out which slams the car off, then back on. It's abrupt and has to cause problems with the gearbox.

I guess when I get it back I'll decide what to do, but I already kind of miss it.

IMO

BTW: Love the orange camaro. Looks very retro like Nickey. http://www.nickeychicago.net/images/...Rod-Jun-67.pdf