UofMfanJJ

I apologize ahead of time as this is a forum for people who love Chevrolet, and my 2004 is a piece of ****.

Original owners of the car, it was handed to me last month. 150,000 miles.

2004 base 3.4L.


Cluster has malfunctioned completely. The speedometer still works right now but last week I was going down a side street and my needle bottomed out after passing 100 MPH while I was barely rolling down the street. I have read this is a known issue with the 2004 models, and is wide spread. No recall. How would I go about replacing the cluster with a digital cluster?

Now to my real question. I replaced the fuel pressure regulator because it had a puddle of gas around it and was creating a bad fuel smell within the car. We accidentally snapped a vacuum line but have replaced it. Accelerated fine before, now I take about a quartermile of pedal to the metal for it to get to 40. Sometimes even longer. We unhooked the MAF and took the arm that comes from the air filter off to get to the regulator easier but everything appears to be connected back properly.

We removed 2 spark plugs to attach a flexible vacuum line to where it had snapped to the regulator. Put them back on, going to try to tune those up soon.

Completely unsure what is causing my acceleration problems. My friend who's working on chevy/ gm projects all the time said that it sounds like my cat. converter is clogged, but why did the acceleration problems begin after we replaced the regulator?

I have no way to check the fuel pressure right now, but it appears to have pressure built up in the service port when you release a little.

I'm also smelling coolant and sometimes outside I can smell a faint burning smell but can't quite describe it, it's like strong but also faint at the same time. Possibly oil? Unsure.

Also appears to have a problem with the light sensors somewhere as the radio light is way too dim at times at night.

Anyone with suggestions and common problems to check for please feel free to respond.

All I know is I'm glad it's a free car because I'll never buy a Chevrolet, their customer care service is complete garbage.

EDIT: I do need a new battery, have been priming the fuel rail everytime I start the car because it's hard to start, have to crank 3-6 times. Can't remember if this was an issue at first when I replaced the regulator. Was a non-issue before the regulator change, would fire right up. Have to give it gas to just get it to fire up, but again, I do need a new battery. Have to jump it just to leave work tonight.

tech2

when you find a fuel pressure gauge...check: the pressure and for pressure leakdown after you shut it off.

UofMfanJJ

Replaced the battery, Battery light is still on but the alternator has 144k miles on it I do believe and has been doing overtime as I have been jumping my car for a month.

Still hard starts, but isn't as bad. Some of the lights in the car appeared to be less dim with the new battery, but the last time I drove it today, it started to show up again, as the radio and odometer miles were starting to dim really low so I couldn't see.

I guess we found a fuel pressure gauge and hopefully will check on that tomorrow. My friend who does more work on cars, and is more familiar says that he thinks that the acceleration problem sounds more like a spark plug not getting spark and or possibly something with the fuel system. If I went pedal to the metal before I would accelerate just not as fast. Now you can hear the engine doing overtime and not getting speed at all, very slow acceleration. I can still achieve high way speeds of 60 or 70 but it takes a really, really long time sometimes.

Also if I let up on the gas and keep pumping it, I can get to 40-50-60 just a wee bit faster, but the front of the hood of my car used to really buckle down and accelerate if I were to barely press the gas at all, and if I really stepped on it I could get up and go. It only stopped after the regulator was changed. I went out and bought cleaner for the fuel system as I do believe there might possibly be air trapped in the fuel line still.

Plan to take the car to autozone / oreilly's to get free codes to look at.

I have been told to check the catalytic converter for a clog, and because I put my car in a ditch on 94 east bound during the first snow, it sat in 3 feet of water and mud and weeds and tall grass and ****. I have a hole on both sides of my resonator so I could see how it got clogged, however I had this issue only after I replaced the fuel pressure regulator.

Completely confused. The check engine light went away temporarily before the crash. I do believe it came on right before I crashed. Crash didn't appear to add damage to the engine, but I do need a new fender and need to get the front end damage looked at more closely.

I paid nothing for the car, and honestly do not have a problem with how the car looks so much as how ****ty Chevrolet's seem to run. Before I got the car it ran hard and was driven for the most part pretty safely and with care. I'm going to try to save the car and do what I can with it.

So far on my list of things done is a new battery, I had to add 3 quarts of oil because when I received the car I had no oil in my engine, however I caught the issue before it did any damage I believe. Oil changes were done regularly, I'm not sure why my cousin handed my the car with no oil in it, probably just being a dick. I have added some used tires with better tread than the ones I had, but plan to overhaul the car in the long run when I catch up money wise.

I want to get a 3.8L and rebuild it and I have a friend who believes he can upgrade it to a 4.8L, supercharge and twin turbo. I want to get a bigger battery and run two 12s with a digital cluster and an ipad touch screen, possibly overhaul the dash with a dash kit and add a center console somehow but keep my bench seats unless I cannot find a way to add heated seats into the fuse panel and wire in as is.

The car had minimal damage when received, it had minor damage to the driver's door because my uncle who lives down the street was ****ed up on medications and side swiped the door before I got the car. Once I bang that out and get a new fender, there's no rust on the body, except under the protectors at the bottom underside of the doors, but it is very minimal and I lost the drivers side cover in the crash. The passenger side was missing when car was received.

Hoping the project costs me less than 2 grand, I have someone who can do all the work, and has offered to help me for very little compensation.

Not a chevy fan, but my impala is hopefully going to be one of the baddest impala's on the road, if it doesn't blow up first. Hopefully I can save it before it's too late!

EDIT: I have been smelling what smells like a faint burning smell, almost like oil. After I get home from a 14.7 mile drive home from work, it is very strong outside of the car at times, however I do believe it's mostly what i'm smelling from the holes in my resonator. Could be wrong. Also have been smelling coolant recently, but my neighbor wanted to check my radiator side when it was still a little too hot with pressure after the car had been turned off and I spewed a good amount of coolant. Still have a good amount of coolant left, but maybe I'm just driving with low coolant.

Regardless, I just hope the car doesn't ****ing explode.

EDIT EDIT: I appreciate any advise or info in the right direction with my nimbus. Thank you!!

UofMfanJJ

I apologize in advance if I seem hostile or have a sailor mouth about the issue, I am very frustrated.

In advance, I will also take ideas for the car overhaul and if you have any ideas on the security of the car I will really take your suggestions. I live in Metro Detroit, and my friend said I can get a special torque on a screw where it would be very hard to steal anything from my dash, and would result in only breaking it.

I plan to upgrade the security system on the car as best as I can before adding any expensive merchandise to the car. Chances are if I can make it very hard to steal, with a security system I can hear.. Someone's either getting a whooping or sitting in jail.. or both.

and even if I don't catch them breaking into my car, not only do I have full coverage insurance now after my crash, I have the piece of mind that they only broke something and couldn't get away with it in their grimey little paws.