Adventures of the $1 Fiero GT!!

[Solo2driver]

Couple hundred miles on the car now, everything still running well, still need to put that thermostat in. I don't think I will be driving the car enough to really go through an Auto-RX treatment or three, but we'll see. There is a little shimmy in the steering and the front shocks are gone, but everything is pretty cheap (comparatively) on this car to replace, so I may end up keeping it. Anyone know where I can get a replacement dogbone for the '87 GT automatic? Prothane's aparently won't fit, dealer and parts places don't have them. Tranny shifts great, BTW, but that top mount is toast. Pics coming, need to send the computer back to "the shop" and recover files again, I'm tired of this!!

My RX-7 is back up and running again, so the Fiero may sit for a little while until its time to smog and register the car.

-JamesW
$43 Fiero (I had to put gas in it, hehe)

 

[dagmando]

Boy I wish I had know a long time ago that people would actually collect these cars. My frat brother gave me his Indy Fiero when we graduated because he didn't feel like paying to ship it back to California and definately wasn't going to drive it. This was 1992 and it had 140K niles and ran pretty good but was undrivable in snow and I already had a Grand National for summer. I traded the Fiero in 1994 for a 1982 Toyota Corolla with 90K from the guy that owned the gas station on the corner. I tried selling it for $1000 and nobody would buy it with 160K+ miles and the mechanic liked the look. Oh well ....

 

[Bugshu]

Wowzer, look at that interior.

Man would I love to design a soundsystem for that car. You could easily build a competition soundsystem and use the car primarily as a show car.

I wonder if any major players ever sponsered a fiero for their demo cars. It looks like a natural.

Happy Motoring All,

Bugshu

 

[reyjay1]

quote:

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Originally posted by dagmando:
Boy I wish I had know a long time ago that people would actually collect these cars. My frat brother gave me his Indy Fiero when we graduated because he didn't feel like paying to ship it back to California and definately wasn't going to drive it. This was 1992 and it had 140K niles and ran pretty good but was undrivable in snow and I already had a Grand National for summer. I traded the Fiero in 1994 for a 1982 Toyota Corolla with 90K from the guy that owned the gas station on the corner. I tried selling it for $1000 and nobody would buy it with 160K+ miles and the mechanic liked the look. Oh well ....

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I have no idea why anyone would collect that abortion of a car known as the fiero, other than to have the conversation piece of owning one of the top 100 worst designed/built mass production cars ever. Every one should be recycled for scrap.

 

[OMCWankel]

My co-worker has one, with 80K, that he uses for a daily driver. There are known problems with the Fiero GT, but also solutions to the problems.

IMO, the major problem is access to the motor for maintenance/repair

 

[Judgeman]

ferst off, i hate you Solo2driver

and welcome to the MR world, I got a good deal on my 91 MR2 turbo, but nothing like that

 

[eljefino]

There had been at one time a very active Fiero newsgroup. It was actually the place to me to go for computer/driveability problems across the whole GM line and my cutlass ciera in particular.

Apparantly the front suspension is pure chevette. (Parts bin from lightweight RWD car.)

The fires, as I understand it, were a result of the "Iron Duke" 4 running out of oil. To cram it in where it sat, they reduced the oil pan size and capacity to ~3 quarts. GM "fixed" the problem with a sticker by the gas filler saying check your oil when you fuel.

There's a "fix" involving the fuel gage and low fuel light since on at least some years the gage bounces all over during key-on-bulb-check. The fix inovlves switching that wire to the low fuel light that goes ignored.

Also if you have a manual tranny it seems getting the clutch bled right is no simple task. It involves jacking one side of the car up at an odd angle, IIRC.

There's one for sale up the road from me for $500. I try not to get too close to the siren song of new projects though.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by eljefino:
The fires, as I understand it, were a result of the "Iron Duke" 4 running out of oil. To cram it in where it sat, they reduced the oil pan size and capacity to ~3 quarts. GM "fixed" the problem with a sticker by the gas filler saying check your oil when you fuel.

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That's very interesting. Current GM owner's manuals warn that continued driving with the low oil pressure can result in an engine fire. I was wondering why they said that instead of "severe engine damage" like other manuals do.

 

[Solo2driver]

Runs out of gas with at least one of the little hash marks still showing ABOVE "Empty". Don't ask me how I found this out, at 5am this morning

-JamesW