I have a 99 Trans Am. It has 51,000 miles on it. I have two problems that I am trying to figure out. The first one is, when I start my car in the morning the belt squeals horribly for the first 5-10 mins of driving. The service tech at Pontiac told me that the 99's have a problem with the pulley's, something about not having the right offset. I am just curious if anybody else has experienced this, and what it may be from. I have a factory installed Hurst in my car, when the rpms are up, mainly in third gear on up I hear it rattle inside the shifter. If I hold it tight enough, or push against the shifter it stops, but if I just let it sit there normally it rattles like crazy. The guys at the dealership are playing stupid because I brought the car in for the same problem before the warrenty was up. If anyone knows what is going on please get back to me. I am tired of getting the run around.

Thank you

 

OK, First off I would stop going to the dealer, Sounds like they are trying to screw you.

Belt issue- Has your belt ever been replaced? When did the belt first start to squeal? When the car is warmed up, Put the car in neutral and floor it up to about 5,000 Rpm's. Does the belt squeal at all when you do this? Try it a couple of times.

Shifter- The only thing I can think of is the shifter stick is loose.
Does it feel loose at all? Try to give us alittle more details..

Answering question's will help me and others help u a little more.

Welcome to the board

 

As for the squeal....

The idler pulleys will eventually start to squeal. The bearings dry out and start to squeal. There are 3 of the same pulley. The "squealer" could be any one of them. You may want to buy one new pulley & install it in each of the 3 positions until you find the bad one.

As for your shifter.....

Have not experienced any rattling with mine, but by your description, sounds somewhat normal.

Gordon
www.provenperformanceconcepts.com

 

There is a TSB out on the idler pulley for 99s, which can acount for the noise (this is fixed even out of warranty). A lot of cars have had that problem and fixed it with the new pulley.

However, could also be the belts as pointed out before. At 50K, they may need replacing. Keep fixes either way.

Sorry, no suggestions for the shifter.

 

is the tsb out for 00's also?

 

hey welcome to the board...


and i would not go to that dealer anymore sounds like a bad place,,,,try a different one but i would just get a new pulley...

 

I think the TSB issue has been answered.


As for your shifter ... the shift handle is loose. Grab your 13mm box wrench (no room for a socket) and tighten it down.

I've got an aftermarket shift handle on my stock Hurst shifter. After a month of driving, the bolts would start to back out and it would rattle in 3rd unless I kept a little pressure on it.

I used Loc-Tite on the threads and solved my problem.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I am contacting pontiac about the TSB. I think I will take the hurst out and just check over everything. If it is a TSb does that mean they will fix it for free.



Shane

 

My belts squel, I am calling ELCO Monday. I also have a leaking power steering resevoir.

 

no prob....and im almost positive then if it is a recall b they will fix it for free

 

I had problems with belt squeal,got real bad and nothing helped.Switched to a Goodyear Gatorback belt and that took care of it for me.It's been good now for several months!

 

The rattle in your stock Hurst could be that the rubber retainer on the stick is worn out and torn. You will have to replace the stick to get rid of the rattle. My suggestion is buy a Spectacle Solutions short stick for like $34 to your door. Real nice piece there, well worth the money and improves the shift.

 

TSBs do not get fixed for free. If they fixed everything on the Fbody that had a TSB for it, GM would have gone out of business a loooooong time ago.

 

Recalls get fixed free. TSB's are just for the repairing dealership to be aware of so when the car comes in with the problem, they know exactly what it is and how to fix it. It also means it's a common problem, but not enough to issue a recal.

For the shifter, I bet the handle is loose or maybe the stops (i'm not familiar with the T56 though, so i'm not sure).