TROUBLE SHOOTING
Here's a list of all the things that have gone bad on my car and symptoms that went along with them.
ICM (Ignition Control Module) - My car had an intermitent problem where it would stutter at crusing speeds. If you tried to give it gas it would cut out completely and almost stall. It happened once everyother week, then once a week, then every other day. When an ICM goes bad it is related to the heat that it is constantly subjected to. When one is bad what happens is that as it heats up it will no longer function correctly at a given tempurature. That is the case sometimes but not always. When My car was at it's worst, you couldn't start it and keep it running at all. But my IAC vavle was not in good shape at that point either. It sits right under your coil packs and does not take long to replace but costs about $120. In the corse of trying to figure out what was wrong with my system I changed the fuel pump and later on the spak plug wires trying to fix it. I went about 100 miles on a new fuel pump and the same problems came back, about 1000 miles on the new wires and it came back, and I've been going several thousand miles with the new ICM right now with no troubles to report. There is no way to test these to see if they are bad which is why they suck.
IAC Valve (Idle Air Control) - My car had a shaky idle, and I mean shaky, like bouncing from 700 to 1000 roughly. It would also stall out at certain times too after a bit of shaky idling. It cost about $25 or $40 I think and is very easy to replace. Consult a chiltons manual.
Alternator - This has gone out on me twice now in under 90,000 miles. If you pay attention to you volts, if you have a meter for it on your dash, you will notice that it does not fluctuate when you stop and go anymore. Instead it will stay steady at a slightly lower than normal reading. Also, your dash readings are analog they will bounce all over the place, like my speedometer did ( I hit 75mph in first gear somehow). My ABS light also came on at times. ALSO, if you have a very good ear you can hear a slightly distict humming noise comming from the alternator like I did. I would say that you're good for about 50 miles from the second it goes bad, unless you run a lot of accessories. Eventually the car just won't start though. Its about $65 to $85 for one depending on where you go. It takes me under an hour to change my alternator now, easily.
Radiator - I've had the side pack blow out on me once before so I had to get it rebuilt. The worst part about this job was getting to the hoses on the bottom of the radiator, not fun stuff.
Radiator hose - You can go as far as you can get without overheating your engine. But for how easy and cheap replacing a hose is I wouldn't recommend going very far at all before fixing it.
Transmission Bolts (READ THIS) - The bolts on my 4T60-E transmission literally fell out on their own. I noticed this only once the transmission began to slip really bad one day. Here's the story:
About 6 days ago my transmission began to slip. So, I looked under the car and it was leaking. So, a day or two later I went in for a closer look after filling the fluid back up so it wouldn't slip atleast ( the leak wasn't horrible). At my first look half of the seam of the oil pan was covered in tranny fluid. So Iassume the gasket is bad. I go buy a new one and a filter. I get home, get setup, and go to take out the first bolt i see on the pan. It just so happens that I could take the bolt out by hand since it was so loose. That was teh loosest one, but they were all really loose. So i just torque them all back up past the recommended a little bit with some thread sealer compound like the chiltons say. I drive it. It still leaks.
I go in again for another look. There is a buldge sticking out of the back of the transmission that is held on by 3 bolts. It is about 4 inches in diameter. Mine is missing one bolt and another i could take out by hand. By this point i'm really starting to question whats going on. So i go buy and identical bolt and bolt that hing down real good. I drive it. It still leaks. So lastnight I did a pan drain and filter change and i took that buldge thing off completely. It has an o-ring for sealing purposes, the buldge does, but it looks to be fine. I know this is the sorce of the leak for sure too. The pan's gasket is reusable and in perfect shape. The leak is barely there anymore though, which is good I guess. And it drives fine. I actually haven't got a good look since i did the stuff last night though, it might just be fixed, hopefully it is. I would just like to tell everyone to check their transmission to see that it's not falling apart on them.
As of right now its driving and gripping through the gears better than ever. I think the deep cleaning of the trans pan shavings did it some needed good. I'd recommend doing a filter change and pan cleaning at 80,000 miles.
Transmission coolant line - I was leaking fluid badly and began slipping the transmission before I new anything was wrong. It loses fluid quickly enough that I would say you have 3 miles max in the city before you're stranded once that breaks. Its and easy fix if you get the parts though, just R&R (remove and replace).
Nails in the tire - >: ( ............I've had about 8 so far, 2 killed my tires and forced me to get new ones.
MAP sensor - My car was giving me a check engine soon light, so I did. Nothing seemed different at all. The scanner said the MAP sensor was bad though, so I changed it for about $30 or something, I can't remember. Once I got that new one on I immediately noticed a gain in performance, a mild one. So I guess if you replace that and there is a definate gain in power, then you know that thing was bad. Its an easy quick change, check the chiltons manual. Its black and right behind the intake plenum and infront of the coil packs.
Starter - The car won't start, very simple. You try to start it and it just makes a "click" noise or nothing at all. Try giving the starter a swift tap with your tire iron or a screwdriver handle. That can free up the gears sometimes. That is a sign that your starter is going to go out for good soon though... usually. I think they run about $85. I had a friend install it because I had to work and needed the car the next day. Install time is about an hour or two I think.
Control Arm Bushings - These are notorious for wearing very quickly on the Z26's and cars with the same suspension setup in the front. Mine were horrible looking at 70,000 miles. They made a bad clunking noise when you went over bumps, almost sounded like a popping noise. If left neglected they can break off and really do some damage, like tear up your ground effects because you're sliding along scrapping the ground. From GM directly they are about $60 for all 4 control arm bushings, so you could proablably find them for about $30 elsewhere if you're lucky.
Sway bar endlinks - These give you more of a rattling noise when they break, nothing horrible happens though, just performance losses. They are about $15 for a set and you can get those in polyurethane too. These break easily on the Berettas. if you can locate them, which is easy to do, it is very easy to tell if they are broken or not. They are basically a bolt, so if they are not tight or they are ... broken... then replace or tighten them. I've never heard of them comming loose though.
I've been stranded because of this car more times than I've been ditched by a date... well, its close but I think a certain someone raised my ditch rate quite a bit all on her own. But I'm not bitter. She's still cool to me.
Its funny, you could swap cars for girls in there and its all the same.
