The SS Camaro lives again.

[Aaron]

About a year ago my Dad was driving it on the highway and the Diff blew (That's the short version of the pinion doing something bad, the drive shaft breaking off from the diff and flopping around like a fish outta water, and a lot of other shit fucking up). Anyways, we go into the GM dealer who had just done a diff service the week before, and the fucker looked me right in the eyes, and said "That's what happens when you drive them like race cars, hanging the back end out around every corner." Mind you the car had 19,000 miles on it, and I couldn't drive it any nicer if I tried. Yah, I hang the back end out. Yah, I know fuel cut happens at 6200rpm. And yah, I know for fucking sure that it'll peg the 155 speedo, and still be going strong. But I also know it'll get 32mpg highway, and it's a whole lot of fun to watch people rev it at me, thinking I'll race them. I won't. Compared to what I do every day to my BMW, Fiero, Mom's car, sister's car, any of them, I baby the shit out of that SS. We had a local diff shop fix it, and he put a new diff in (A good one, but still the 10-bolt). Fast forward to a week ago, it's got 22k on it. I was driving around downtown, and noticed every time I shocked the driveline, it'd make a wicked cranking noise, like it was trying to turn the drive shaft against its will, like it was binding. By shock, I don't mean hard, I mean very soft, like every time I shifted, or left the line easy. Just any change that involved the clutch really. I limped it to another local diff shop, that we trust, pissed that the diff fucking failed again.

Turns out, the shop before failed to properly bolt on the torque arm, which runs alongside the driveshaft, and secures the diff from moving. It came loose. Luckily I caught it early enough, and wasn't being hard on it, so it didn't damage anything. They got new bolts, torqued them properly, and it's driving good.

It amazes me every day how poorly built this Camaro is. For $22k, it is a sweet car. The engine and transmission are fan-fucking-tastic. The LS1 screams at God with any movement of the gas pedal, and the 6-speed is a blast and a half. But look beyond that, and the pimpass paint job, and it really is a GM. The diff blows at 19,000 easy miles. The T-tops leak. It's the noisiest car on the highway I've ever driven. The door panels are starting to get loose. The dash is starting to get loose. The decklid sometimes won't release when it unlocks, and you have to do it a few times. I think that's about it for now. My Dad found a Laguna Seca Z06 in the paper, they are dark blue with silver and red striping, great looking cars, and as far as I know, the Vettes build quality is miles ahead. So he's thinking about it.

Now that I've made the longest post in history because I'm bored. I'm going to be putting a few hundred miles on it tomorrow, let's hope it makes it.

[Honest Don]

not sure what to tell ya. my 2000 Formula has 89k on the clock, has a big stack of timeslips dipping into the high/mid 11's, has been beat on for a few autocrosses, and hasn't had any driveline problems other than needing a clutch.

Still feels solid too, but then again, subframe connectors were one of the first mods I did.