Wish I would have bought a fuel pressure gauge

This happened at the end of summer 2011, I never posted anything about it on here because I hate the fact that it happened @ 25K.
Long story short- Went WOT when high pressure fuel pump started going bad without knowing & I beleive I detonated cyl #2. Wideband o2 sensor went bad right before this happened so I had no idea because of not having any exp in a vehicle having fuel pump problems. All I have exp was if a fuel pump is bad the engine will not run .............. I didn't know the stock high pressure fuel pump can gradually go bad. Specially at 25K.............Shes at 28K now because its my only transportation. Strapped on cash & had to ride with a few friends to work every morning mon-fri to work. I'm gonna be 25 march 1 & am pretty bummed about this. Been able to start saving money though finally & once it gets nicer out utilities will be going down so more money able to be saved lol. I've only done simple mechanics on a car myself, brakes, simple bolt ons,down pipe, lowering springs, change oil, tires lol never tore into an engine & honestly I dont have the tools or knowledge IMO to do it in my garage at this point in time. I can put a god time down on street tires though just not a mechanic.
Sharing this becuase I would like opinions & advice that can assist me in what I should do other then grab my ankles & try to smile about it............... Oh yeah I still owe a little over $6K on the car but the monthly payments are only $198 so its not braking my bank.
What would you do in this situation, get a vehicle from a buy here pay here & slowly save for fixing the car or paying someone to? Or baby 42 miles round trip to work everyday & save more $ not having a silly buy here pay here payment? Lately life hasn't been goin my way financially as I know I'm not the only one out there but damn! My luck is purely ****. I really like my cobalt, fwd tq steer & all its american, a chevy & all around a fun little car that is well worth its bang for buck out the dealership as well as little added cash in mods for night and day difference in performance. I wanna fix it & keep it, I'm the first owner & will be her only owner & all I can say now is one day(hopefully soon) my luck will change & I can get her back to operating on full compression once again.
I'm not even sure on what the cause is but have talked to so many ppl about it & I lean more towards a ring being fried. Hasn't burned oil since it happened & only smokes when I build 10-15psi & let off & a little white smoke rolls out then goes away & obviously the car misfires at idle but when moving I dont notice anything. No sluggishness, no spit or sputter. I'd appreciate opnions & advice on this also if anyone is up for it.

Done with my short long story lol thanks for those who wasted life reading it & for those that post advice or opinions I greatly appreciate it

 

Is that offer riding with your friends to work still available? What about taking your car off the road until late spring saving some cash in the mean time. Hopefully by then you'll have enough money to properly diagnose and repair the problem. It's still driving you places so that is a good sign, but there's a chance you could be making it worse, 42miles is a decent haul, and it sucks being stranded on the side of the road.

I'd say find out what's really wrong with it and make your choice from there.

 

My greatest fear is the piston is rubbing the cylinder and carving it up, & no, riding with friends is not an option anymore so I'm really left with no other option other then to drive it. When the dealership diagnosed the leak being at half the compression it should be who knows what its like today. I baby the car ever since it happened at 25k & i'm at 28k now, I'm 25 so refraining from romping on the throttle isn't an issue when being depending on vehicle to get me to work & home. I have a few buddies living with me at my house along with having a GF so I if I need to go somewhere one of them are nie enough to help me out. I still hate it being the age I am & beng in this situation.

 

Do you think you'd be eligable for a Line of credit? You could repair/replace an engine easy with a low 6% intrest rate. Shove any Credit card debt on there too...

 

I honestly don't know, I've never checked, I already pay a loan for the car. I have my house payment & every other bill under the sun other then family/kids(knock on wood).

 

You're in the same boat as me with age/car payments/house/bills. Please go in to your bank and ask them about the line of credit. You will love the super low interest it's 1/3 of my credit card rate, and you can borrow money from yourself anytime you need too easily online. They gave me $19500 to play with it's great.

 

why dont u have warrenty

 

Ok I will talk to them & see what they say when I get off work during the week, thanks.
If you don't mind me asking what is your credit like? Mine currently is just under 650 last time I ran it.

Funny thing is dealership replaced fuel pump knowing my mods & trifecta tune. I know a tech there, his dads the service manager. Bothe them are into cars(obviously) & take their typhoon to the local drag strip & the son has a few older gen m3's. I've met the GM & I am also good friends with the recepsionist. Point is I thought I was cool with the service manager. He never gave me bs for what I've done till they replaced the pump, noticed it was still mis firing & then did a compression test & discovered cyl #2 is poop. He told me he won't cover it under warranty & the reason why he said is because I had after market software(trifecta) & that I was running too much boost(23psi). It threw me for a loop also & I know I could get the dealership flagged for doing warranty work on my car knowng of all mods but then said no to me once they would have had to open her up
They didnt flag & void me but he verbally said no so I said a few un kind words & left. This being months ago I am still lost & don't know what to do.any ideas?

 

At least your car still gets you around when my took a **** it out of commission for months! Trifecta strikes again!

 

That's cause you have the type s cobalt.............


















time to get a beater for 500-1k lol

 

I'm not sure I'll have to look into that.

 

de-mod an take to another dealer. im having a few misfires hear and there, they told me to take my mods off and come back and will talk, fair enought for me

 

also whats the leak test showing # wise?

 

Stock tune and stock mods. Try another dealer. Its worth the work for that kind of problem.

 

Car is a 2008, 3yr/36k warranty Im **** out of luck, I though about doing that when it first happened & just go to another dealership but I sold my stock parts like a *******. Another thing the service manager said was they can tell I take very good care of the car by not beating the **** out of it and hot rodding it 24/7. Even though it's seen its far share of passes at the track I didnt have rubber built up in wheel wells/bottom & side of side skirts. Just another reason why I don't get why he would just cover it for me like he did with the fuel pump but as soon as its something serious he leaves me hanging.
I don't blame trifecta tune for any of this for the record, & the #'s for compression test were: 65psi in #2 cyl#1,3,4 were atleast 135 is what my print out says.

 

5 year/100k mile powertrain this would fall under.

 

I bought a 1991 Civic Hatchback for $800. Been driving it around for 8 months now with no more money spent. See if you can find a deal like that, then start saving to ship your car to zzp.

 

Hmmm..............I may be able to talk to some fellow lnf owners in the area & use their stock parts, or atleast have a trifecta dealer remove my tune.

I was thinking about that, a little honda that'll get 35+mpgs & just DD it while all other extra funds are put aside for the balt.

 

ya demod, remove ur tune and take it somewhere else, if they didnt flag ur car, then u still have ur warrenty, and u have 5 year 150k warrenty on ur power train. thats what i have anyway

 

sounds like a ringland problem or a valve stuck.
i just sold a complete 10k miles lnf motor for 700$ man..

 

if you are driving it around when it's blown you're going to do more damage, whether it's to the cylinder walls, the head, etc.

stop.

If you haven't eaten a cylinder wall you're fine, new rods and pistons $980 and someone can install them for you.

If you have eaten a cylinder wall, you need a new block and that's expensive.



If you can't afford that, buy a 500 dollar civic and get by on it and save money.

Personally, you own a high performance car, you had a tune, and **** happens sometimes. I wouldn't put something stock back in to have the same problems later. Make it stronger.

 

Knight, the reason that he will not cover your car in the current state is that GM corporate will come look at the car. The external mods you could fight and win against (laws for that, SEMA), its the Trifecta tune that is getting you know. That tells me they found it when they scanned the car. With so many of these cars doing this, once they put one is as having a problem they usually send someone out to look at the car.

What factory parts do you need?

Don't forget plugs. They will look at the plugs to see if they are aftermarket or OEM.

If you are loosing compression in #2, then its a good chance that you took out a ring land. This would not be good for the block. If the block is messed up, then can put in a new sleeve on that cylinder. Does the car make any weird noises when started, at idle, or while driving?

 

What I am worred about is......say I manage to get stock piping & intake back on along with stock dp & remove tune. What are they gonna say to me with theamount of time thats gone by & the additional miles put on car after the fact.Once a code is thrown can they or can they not figure out when it was thrown? Why didn't the service managaer just tell me to de mod & remove tune then return?
This happened back 8/26/2011, pretty much garaged it a month after that, It mis fires at idle but thats all I ever notice is the mis fire at idle rpm.