CobaltItaliano

Well, I'm about to graduate college and start my career which hopefuly equals 4x more income then I'm generating now.

I've got a 07 2.4SS/NA auto right now that I bought used with really low miles (1st car), and will most likely just give that to my girlfriend if I can afford the LNF and use her Ford Focus as trade in or sell outright if I can find an LNF locally.

I've been on this forum for a over a year now and the information on here is excellent. So, hopefully some posts in here will help me out.

Basically, I'm just wondering what I should look for while searching around for one? Like common problems that I should be aware of, sounds that I should find un-normal, etc. Obviously I know the G85 should be checked for, but besides that I'm not really sure if theres something else?

I've been browsing through the LNF forum and used the search button but really didn't find much regarding this.

By the way my plans for it would'nt be anything crazy. It'd be my new DD and all I would really do is simple bolt ons like intake, charge pipes, intercooler, full exhaust, tune, and appearance stuff. Not sure the above plans have anything to add extra in help?

Thanks all!

padlock

iTrader: (9)

go for it! i did and dont regret it, only thing is I have 2.5 years of school yet lol


only other advice I can give is dont get the GF n her vehicle involved in this i dont care how long you have been dating.. **** happens and she could end up potentially walking away with a car much more valuable than her POS focus...... so yeah.. this coming from a guy who just got out of a 3.5 year relationship.. until shes got a ring on her finger.. keep your **** seperate imo


as far as cobalts go.. just look for G85 if you can find it.. after that its all preference really.. 4doors FTW

nobody2u

Agreed, tell her to buy her own damn car haha.

Common problems? Uhhh... off the top of my head there isn't something that all LNF's have to deal with. Maybe check the rotors? They seem to go bad kinda quick for some people. Other than that, the usual things... go WOT and check for clutch slip and boost pressure.

CobaltItaliano

I'm not worried. Both the Cobalts would be in my name and we've been dating over 5 years and if I can get hired soon after graduating we would go for a vacation where I would propose.
I think I'm gunna go with a 2 door so I can keep the baby talk quiet for a a while

padlock

iTrader: (9)

only common problems I'm aware of are as follows

Rear pads squeak from factory (if they are still factory rears)
porous blocks on 08-early09 models
oil leak underneath the HPFP by the valve cover (not a huge deal really.. mine leaks a bit but its only some residue so I ignore it)
check to see if it has/had mods or a tune. dont wanna get a beat up one



past that im not sure what else could be wrong with it

casionerd

iTrader: (3)

Look for one that wasn't owned by a kid and doesn't have stupid mods. If you're looking for a stock one, and want to see if it was "returned to stock", you can check the downpipe nuts to see if there are marks on them that show they were removed. You'll be looking for shinier spots on the edges of each nut. You can also check the two nuts up by the passenger strut top where the K&N shield would bolt in. You can look at the nuts on top of the struts to see if they have marks or if the factory paint lines don't line up. These things can help determine if the car once had an aftermarket exhaust, intake, coilovers or springs. If you can find one that has the GMS1 upgrade, that'd be nice. You'll notice this by the 3 bar map sensors. Just search images on here for "GMS1" and you'll see. You can get the vin# and verify with your Chevy dealer (or maybe Sarah/GMcustomerservice on here) that all of the recalls have been done. If you know a mechanic, you should have him look at it. Only problem is not a lot of people are familiar with the LNF engine and the place or person you're buying from probably won't let you do a compression test since it involves removing plugs. Make sure the hotside charge pipe is attached to the top of the engine. I think if you search "charge pipe flex" on here you'll find it. If you test drive it, it should boost around 15psi if it's stock. If it has had the GMS1 factory upgrade, it should boost 19psi. If it boosts any higher, it has a tune. If it has a tune, it could be Trifecta or HPT. If it's Trifecta, you should get a different max psi by either turning on the cruise control or pushing your traction control button.

edit: Actually, forget all that. Really the best thing you can do is take a bunch of pics of the car you're interested in and then post them on here and ask what mods can be spotted or if anyone recognizes the car and knows its history.

Be sure to check the classified section on here or look for posts about cars spotted for sale.

CobaltItaliano

That's what I'm kind of clueless about. I've never owned a manual car and haven't driven them much. Just doing research on here it seems like the gears like to make a thump noise (especially 1st into 2nd) because of a noisy drivetrain.

I'm sure I could research clutch slip and boost pressure and find out exactly what it is though unless someone wants to take the time explaining them.

I'm trying to find one thats close to stock as possible because then A) It probably wasn't beat on and B) I can do my own upgrades the way I want them

nobody2u

Boost pressure is easy. If it's on the stock tune just floor that bitch and watch the boost guage. If it goes somewhere between 13-15 psi, then you're good to go. Watch out though, the first time I floored my car I wasn't ready for the torque steer and almost went off the road on a narrow on ramp lol. Just make sure you hold onto the wheel tightly as it will tug a bit. As for clutch slip, you'll see that when you floor and your RPMs go up but your speed doesn't, mean's that clutch isn't holding. That can be caused by someone putting too much power through it and the clutch can't handle it or lazy/bad driving style (flooring it at too low RPM, not rev matching etc).

Also, charge pipes aren't necessary on stock turbo, especially if you are using stock the intercooler.

CobaltItaliano

Thanks man I appreciate it.

Another question is about the RPD? IS that basically a boost gauge/wideband all-in-one?

And I was going to upgrade to the ZZP IC eventually. I was going to upgrade the plastic pipes because frankly I hate the ugly plastic and don't want them cracking.

CobaltItaliano

Thank you kind sir!

Rear pads squeeking meaning they need to be replaced because the factory ones are garbage and GM didn't want to issue a recall? Or squeeking but still good?

And I know the LNF has the Brembo brakes so when they need to be replaced do they need the Brembo Rotors/pads or can I use different aftermarket ones liek R1 concepts?

nobody2u

Yeah the RPD will give your boost pressure along with a few other things. I just have the regular boost gauge myself though so I don't know much about it. I'm tuned with a catless downpipe and intake and never had an issue with my stock intercooler and or charge pipes. Doubt I'll ever upgrade them either. Since there aren't really any gains to be made.

You can go aftermarket for the pads and rotors, but the stock braking system has better stopping power than anything aftermarket. The rear brake pads just squeak, not really something the dealer will fix nor is it a problem, just a side effect of performance brakes. Mine used to squeak, but they are work down and need to be replaced so they don't squeak any more as of right now haha.

padlock

iTrader: (9)

i highly doubt you'll find an LNF with the factory squeaking bastards on the rear.. but its just a matter of switching pads out if thats the case

as far as the front Brembos go.. OEM rotors and pads are the best performing setup you can really go with.. you can go Hawk pads and R1 rotors (and there are other options as well) and such but they wont outperform the OEM stuff on the track.. if anything people run ceramic pads to get rid of brake dust as the OEM stuff kicks a decent amount out, but I dont care about brake dust. performance>dust

Dart_SI

iTrader: (1)

If you get an RPD youll never use your speedometer. lol

BlackLsCoupe

iTrader: (4)

dont do it. youll love it too much

cruzcontrol

I would also check the purge solenoid, that things goes out a lot on these cars. The little bitty bezel for the sun roof swich tends to fall off on some cars too. The chrome trim on my passenger side handle has peeled off once. If you care at all, you can also check for the usb port, mine didn't come with one, only an aux port. Might be hard to test it with dealers, but you can try to NLS and see how that works, also press the traction control button twice when parked at a light and the car will go into launch control, holding your RPMS at 5000 with the accelerator depressed, if it was tuned some people can customize this to their liking. Not sure what else...

CobaltItaliano

Thanks everyone for the replies. Can someone with an RPD explain what it all has? lol. I've seen a few pictures of them but never really saw what they did besides measure psi, afr

Wert842

iTrader: (3)

Do it. You won't regret it one bit. I love mine. After having it for a month I got addicted to it. I wanted to mod. Started out with a K&N Sri, then a zzp catless dp, and then a trifecta tune. It made one hell of a difference and really opened up the car. Honestly for the money I put into the car it's unbelievable.

Try and find one with lower miles and a good price. The prices dropped a good since I got mine in May. I got my 09 SS/TC with 16k miles in stock form for $16k.

Also see if sokxost still has his white ss for sale. That thing is a steal! There's also a couple other good deals in the for sale thread on here too.

CobaltItaliano

So I have to jump in on this. So this valve gunk just appears because the LNF is DI?

The thread I saw on this has gone back and forth on seafoam working/not working, some people up to 80k miles and never did anything and their car still running perfect. So just trying to figure this all out. I would plan on owning the TC forever so is this valve gunk going to cause an issue for me?

07SSYellow

iTrader: (7)

biggest thing you should do is...

BUY MY SEDAN!!!

BoostedBeaner

dont do it! Cobe has an LNF

CobaltItaliano

^lol as do you?

nobody2u

I've never seafoamed and my car is perfect.

padlock

iTrader: (9)

define "perfect". Did you actually pull your IM and check?

nobody2u

Well I've been without a CEL for well over a year now, car runs beautifully. Last CEL was due to a misfire in Cyl3, dealer replaced the injector under warranty (only CEL since I've owned it).

That's all I got haha.

user 72239

iTrader: (4)

I traded in my LSJ for an LNF, best upgrade you wont regret it coming from a N/A.

All the other posts here pretty much hit it on spot.