Page created: January 1, 1999

Part I: So There I Was...

...sitting at a light. I had just helped my sister pick up her Conquest TSi from the transmission shop (slave cylinder) and we were on our way home. She’s lined up next to me, her TSi turbo spooled. The light turns green and we both shoot out. Except she actually made it across the intersection. I, on the other hand, heard a big “pop” and felt my stick shift grinding as I shifted from 1st to 2nd. I managed to get it into a gear just to get it out of the way of traffic, and then had it towed to the transmission shop, the same one my sister just came from.

It seemed that I had been driving with a broken transmission mounting bolt. I could’ve probably gone on like this for some time, but I apparently broke the only other mounting bolt in my little street drag. I figure the first broken bolt was a casualty of autocrossing with my school’s car club. Since the shop had the transmission apart, I ordered a Centerforce clutch for it and had it installed. The regular clutch was fine, but I liked the Centerforce a lot. It felt “grippier” than the old one.

Unfortunately, it’s never shifted well since then...

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Part II: So There I Was...

...just driving along, when I felt the engine “miss” at a certain RPM. It happened a couple more times after that. About a week later, the engine just completely gave out. I had it towed to the dealership where the service lady, upon hearing the car, promptly said that a sparkplug or two wasn’t firing. I, of course, patronized her. And of course, she was right. The ignition coil housing cracked, making one of the two ignition coils useless. They replaced it, and the car ran just fine again.

Or so I thought. About a month later, I noticed that the catalytic converter was making noises. Since I had to pass emissions testing, I had the catalytic converter replaced-- first by a universal one that lost me 10-15 hp on my seat-of-the-pants dynanometer, and then by the significantly more expensive OEM version.

I thought the cracked housing was just a random failure until I talked to other 1990 GTZ (with Quad Four engines) owners that had the exact same thing happen-- they lost the ignition coil, and then the catalytic converter.

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Part III: So There I Was...

...a son from a family of GM car owners. Will I buy a GM car again? Can you say “Porsche. There is no substitute?” (I have more stories, but you should be moving along.)

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[ Part I ] [ Part II ] [ Part III ]