Pontiac Bonneville Owners: Accessories & Modifications

homer2000ssei

has anyone else done the heat wrap install on the exhaust cross-over pipe?

I did it, and cant believe the amount of heat reduction thia stuff can handle. It is touchabke after a long drive, where normally your skin would melt just being near it.

It was a 10 minute install (tricks required) and absolutely helps reduce heat around the intake.
Of course, less heat is GOOD

sixxer

Oh boy, this sounds like it is going to be fun removing my seat now. I never did attempt it last weekend, just didn't have time. Now it is this weekends project. I'll let you know how it goes or if I discover anything. Sounds like the removal method is the same as with my Stratus I had. It was fairly simple in that car. I'll keep you posted.

ezrapon

my seat pulled straight up with about 5 pounds of pressure... it weighs about 6 pounds, very light, not a lot of reduction. There are little wedge clips that hold it in... no pushing in an lifting like the old cars.

homer2000ssei

Geez - maybe its not worth it - but I have to try now that the challenge has been presented...

thanks for the tip

jbrnsn

Does anybody know how to adapt an aftermarket CD changer (FM modulated) to the 2001 Bonneville radio? The antenna connection on the Bonny radio is not standard.

mfahey1

I just wanted to let people know that Saner is now in a position to produce front stabilizer bars for the new generation Bonnevilles. When I ordered the rear one this spring, they were having problems with the forming dies for the front bar but that is apparently behind them. I'll let people now how noticable the difference is when I receive it and get it installed.

Mark

refiner

I ordered my front bar not too long after you. Did you receive yours yet? Matt

mfahey1

Sorry I didn't reply until now. I was away and just now getting back into the swing of things. I haven't gotten mine nor have I gotten an update from them on anticipated delivery. I would have liked to have had it for my recent trip on New England's two laners.
Does anyone know if the stock front bar is the same for the SE and the SSEi? I was going to offer my stock one up to anyone who wanted it if it was different on the SEs.

mfahey1

As luck would have it, I got a call this morning from John at Saner who said mine was going out today. I should have it the middle of next week. I'll ask about yours as I would think that he would set up the dies and run as many of one kind as he can.

Mark

mfahey1

Matt, when I talked to John at Saner this afternoon, he said that yours is done as well. You may well have already heard from him by now but just wanted to let you know in case you didn't hear from him today.

Mark

refiner

He called me this week and said he was shippng it out.Thanks for asking.Matt

mfahey1

When I get the front bar installed, all that will be left to reasonably further upgrade the Bonneville's handling will be new tires. Anyone have any ideas how you tell your wife that the tires are absolutely shot at 13,000 miles and that you just have to have new ones? I would guess that the other real upgrade opportunity is different struts but that is talking big bucks that I know wouldn't fly.

theiceman

lessee, how to tell your wife that the tires are shot at 13k miles without adding to the impression that the Bonneville is a money pit. Hmmm. How about the one I've pulled (with great success I might add - something I don't see too often)? The tires are still fine but their tread is a mite too worn for my comfort level going into a winter. Even better, the tire shop is prepared to give me a credit for the existing tires!

tpken

"Gee Honey - I was just reading that my tires have the same rubber compound as some of those Firestone tires that have caused all the trouble. It might be best to get some different shoes rather than take a chance!"

If not that, then try another tack - "You know I dreamed last night that we had an accident with the Bonneville - something to do with the tires - think it's a premonition? We better not take any chances!"

Use that imagination Mark - and if all else fails, drop an empty Gordon's bottle behind the tire and see where that takes you!

Ken

theiceman

Aren't they making those out of plastic these days?

Good idea about the Firestone compound though.

Mark: You have the RSAs right? Why exactly to you want to change tires? I like my RSAs just fine.

mfahey1

I'm assuming that the standard tires on the SSEi are the usual compromise of both wet and dry traction, longevity, noise, dynamic response and who knows what else. Improve one or more of these and something else suffers. I had a Taurus SHO that was absolutely horrible and I really mean horrible in snow and that was with the OE tires. My point is something along the line of "be careful what you wish for". I might want tires that allow me to feel like the car is on a rail on dry pavement but I might be scared somethingless on wet pavement or snow. Now if I could just designate the Bonneville as strictly a nice weather car, I could make some of those tradeoffs. Last year I got a chance to drive a Mustang Cobra that was only used for road racing. Now that was a car on a rail but I wouldn't have wanted to try to drive it on wet pavement.
I guess I'm just wishing out loud. Maybe when the tires really do need replacing based on tread wear, I'll shade my choice of replacement tires more towards dry pavement handling. I do, however, appreciate all of the suggestions on how to approach the subject.
BTW, my resolve to keep "my" car out of my wife's hands was just reinforced today as I observed the door ding in our new van. Somehow, she never knows how it happens and it certainly is never her fault but it also happens to her, not me. I told her my car is nearing 2 years old and has more miles on it than hers but is spotless when it comes to dings and chips. Oh well, SOS.

theiceman

I know this is going to sound sexist but...

My wife is a magnet for dings and scratches. Did I tell you about the time she backed into a curb with the Bonneville and bent the exhaust and scratched the back underside plastic? Of course, you all remember the time she shredded a tire by hitting a curb. I found a few suspicious scrapes on the front underside of the Grand Prix when I was watching it.

I learned to live with these things a looooong time ago.

mfahey1

I guess I just needed to vent a little last night. Heavens knows, if I vented here at home, I'd definitely be the bad guy for getting uupset about a dent. I was upset first at the people who are so careless and inconsiderate that they do this to other people's cars, second that I don't particularly care to have to park from here to kingdom come to avoid the dents, and while I realize she wasn't the one that put the dent in it, based on her track record, neither does she do a particularly good job of developing that 6th sense about how to avoid door dings or in some cases, worse.
There. I'm done. Out of my system and not to be mentioned again unless of course, my 6th sense fails me and the Bonneville gets dinged.

theiceman

I guess you could consider us "friendly ears" - many of us are there.

tpken

Ohhhhhhh the story I could tell.............!!!

Biting my tongue!

OUCH!!!

Ken

refiner

Got my front sway bar today. Talk about heavy duty. I'll have it put in next Monday. Should be able to take some curves at warp speed.

mfahey1

I also received mine today while I was gone. I may have to tip the UPS guy for his near hernia in lugging it to the door. I'm anxious to see what it looks like and more importantly, how the car handles with it.
Anyone else have the Saner front bar installed?

mfahey1

Matt, I of course jumped right into the installation tonight and had everything loose in about 20 minutes, including vainly looking for my air ratchet. Getting the old bar actually out seems to be another story altogether. So far I have done everything I can think of to get it out but it would appear that you have to disconnect the tie rod ends. Ouch. I'm going to count threads and hope I getting the toe-in back to where it is now. If you or anyone else knows a better way, please post ASAP.

mfahey1

Just to let you know, Matt, but this has turned out to be a major, major project. Diconnecting the tie rods turned out to be only part of the solution. I confirmed it with the service manager where I bought the car that you also have to disconnect the cradle, loosen the engine and even jack on the catalytic converter flange.
So far, I have the old one out but because of the larger diameter of the new one, I'm still struggling to get it back in. I'm too stubborn to have the car hauled off and have someone else do the job but I think that if I had known then what I know now, I would have thought twice about this.
Just thought I'd warn you.

refiner

Thanks for the warning. I made a appointment to have my mechanic put it in. I don't have the patience. And from what you told me I'm glad I did.Thanks again, Matt

mfahey1

Good move. The secret to it all, as I found out, was to disconnect the exhaust pipe from the manifold. With it free to move around, things were much easier. In talking to the Pontiac service manager, they remove the actual tie rod so as not to disturb the alignment. I counted threads very carefully so hopefully, it is close enough.

Mark

tpken

Good Grief! Mark - I sure hope this turns out to be worth all the aggravation!! I know for sure you'll never want to put the old one back!

Watch those scraped knuckles - and it's a good thing you're retired.

Best wishes

Ken

mfahey1

It actually gets better. I finished up last night and was too tired of the whole affair to clean up the garage. When I tackled it this morning, wrapped in the bubble wrap were two pieces of bar stock, nicely painted, and 4 washers, none of which I had noticed in my haste to get going. For some reason, the pieces appear to have to be placed under the bushing brackets which are of course already installed. @#$%&*. Also, on the shipping box was an envelope labeled shipping instructions. I hadn't bothered to open it because I had already paid by credit card. In the envelope was a set of installation instructions, which although they were not totally accurate as confirmed by the local service manager, were at least something I could have gone on. Double@#$%^*
At any rate, I took it out in the country for a trial run (without the spacer plates) and while it handled better, I would have to say that the improvement is incremental and a small increment at that. Maybe after I mentally accept the fact that I have to get back under there and install the spacers, the improvement will be more noticeable.

Mark

refiner

I can see already I'm going to have a problem with the headers. From what you said Mark the rear header might have to come off. I hope not. I can see this is going to cost a few bucks.Matt

mfahey1

Matt, you may be lucky and not have to remove the rear header. I only had to disconnect the exhaust pipe from the manifold so if the same is true in your case, you may only have to disconnect the collector pipe, assuming you are still using the catalytic converter. The clearance problem was as the exhaust pipe sweeps down to the elevation of the converter. Also, based on an e-mail from Saner, the spacer bars are only if the mounting area on the subframe is not level. Mine were and everything fit up fine without them.

mfahey1

Now that I have the bug to change out the pulley, I went shopping online at SLP only to find that while the pulley was a very reasonable $70, the tool was $140 and at least from the picture, didn't appear to be much at all.
Anyone interested in selling/renting/loaning me the tool or is there a good reason to have one on hand?

davidchivo

I just had my mechanic install the SLE/SSEi rear sway bar on my 2000 Bonnie SE. What a difference! The car handles remarkably better, especially in transient curves and when taking a sharp corner. Pontiac should have made this a standard feature on this car. I would like to dump the standard Affinity tires, but like MFahey1 I cannot convince my wife that they need replacing after 9000 miles. A great car just got better with my rear sway bar. By the way, I ordered it bar (and other necessary components) from gmpartsdirect.com. If anyone needs the parts #, please let me know.

tpken

That makes two of us now driving an SE on rails!!

I love the feel of mine too - what a difference it made. You described the feeling of confidence very nicely. No more leaning on those twisty curves. Mine has 38K on it - the Affinities are definitely ready for replacement. Got to get to that sometime soon.

Out of curiosity, how long did it take your mechanic to install the part? Our local Pontiac dealer charged 2 hours of labor and complained about how difficult the job was.

Best Bonnevillian wishes for a smooth and solid ride for many miles and years to come.

Ken

davidchivo

TPKen - I had my local mechanic install it. He did indeed, charge me 2 hours and also mentioned that it was a challenging job. The tricky part, he explained, was removing part of the rear suspension to line the bar up to where it needs to be installed.

What kind of tires are you thinking of putting on your SE? I am wondering if a 245/50/16 would work. My guess is that the ratio would affect the speedo callibration; there may be other adverse handling effects.

I am also interested in adding one day a front strut tower brace to my Bonnie (it did wonders for my previous car, a T-Bird, although the Bonnie is a far better built car). As far as I know, no one makes an STB for the car. If anyone knows of a source, please let me know.

tpken

I thought I was all set to go with the Goodyear Aquatread III but it has a minimal snow rating so that's out now. Not sure what to do and the wallet is pretty thin anyway.

Ken

mfahey1

I've always heard that a general rule of thumb is that you can go up a size in width (10mm) and go down a size in aspect ratio without significantly affecting the calibration. The true determinant is, of course, the actual circumference of the two sizes. I've actually thought that when it comes time to replace tires, I would try to do the same thing as David is considering. I know when I tried to do it for my SHO, I ran into a host of tradeoffs in going down a size. Basically, the tire I was considering had even less wet traction that the standard tires. Highly rated on dry pavement but pretty useless for northern Illinois winters or southern Maine for that matter.

sixxer

Well, we finally got our first dusting of snow in the Ottawa area. So, naturally, I got to test my new snow tires. I was quite impressed! The roads did appear to be fairly greasy, saw a few people sliding. I wasn't one of them. I was quite impressed with the stopping power, actually, very impressed. Traction taking off was good as well. So far I am quite impressed with these tires. Anyhow, it is supposed to turn to freezing rain throughout the day, so I may get to check out traction on that as well. Depends if it is slick during my commute to work tonight.

Stan

tpken

We had it too overnight but it didn't stick to the road surfaces in my coastal area although inland they would have been dealing with it for sure. We'll get our turn before long!

Glad to hear the Alpins are as good as advertised.

Ken

fantascp

Hi- i'd appreciate the parts #s for the rear sway bar etc

first ken and now you- i'm convinced- time to have the Rear Sway Bar put in my 2000 SE also !!!

Thanks,

Chuck.

tpken

You'll not be sorry!

Ken

davidchivo

Hi, I am sorry for not having logged onto this site for a while.

The numbers are:

25604387 (x2, bolts)
25650388 (x1, the shaft itself)
25650389 (x2, insulators)
25684759 (x2, links)
25689592 (x2, clamps)

I bought my parts from gmpartsdirect.com. Although they have high prices for shipping, overall it was still a great deal.

I did not find this to be a job that I could do myself. I had my local mechanic install it and it required 2 hours of labor.

Finally, I love the feel of the car with the rear bar in place. Other than the crappy Firestones (that will be replaced one day), I would not change another thing on the car.

Good luck!

sixxer

Well, I figured it was time for an Arctic Alpin performance update. Still great! Mind you, still no snow! Well, a bit, but next to nothing compared to what we usually have in the Ottawa region. So, no deep snow comments as of yet, but in light snow/on slippery roads, performance is great! So far I have only come up with one negative thing about the tires. This would be on wet roads. The tires whistle on wet roads, quite loudly. The stereo can drown out the noise easily at a low volume, but the noise is a slight annoyance until you get used to it. Otherwise, I am still a satisfied customer!

Take care,
Stan

sixxer

G'day all!

I just installed a stereo amplifier in the trunk of the Bonneville.. My only dilemma is.. Does anyone have any ideas as to where I could find a switched 12V supply back there which I could tap off of to switch the amp on and off? Most of what is in the fuse box appears to be powered all the time and switched elsewhere? It'll just make thing easier, for now I 'temporarily' wired a light switch into the trunk to switch it on and off. Looks kinda out of place!!

Stan

mlm4

Stan,

Good luck finding a switched 12-volt supply. I recently tried to find one in my Tahoe and couldn't other than for the radio, but without the wiring schematics I don't know which wire is which. If you have the SSEi the power for the air compressor is switched off of the ignition, if you can find that circuit.

Come to think of it, most of the Bonnie's electronics are managed by controllers (computer modules). The days of switched power on the fuse block may be gone.

mfahey1

In a car with the CD changer, the changer and wiring are located on the passenger's side to the rear of the wheel well. Sometimes they will install wiring for accessories even though the accessory itself isn't installed. You might poke around behind the insulation to see if you can find anything.

thill381

Run a wire to the fuse block (which is under the rear seat, as close to the trunk as you can get) and pull out a fuse to a switched accs. i.e. lighter. Attach the wire from your amp to the blade of this fuse via a blade fuse clip (a clip that fits onto the blade of the fuse and crimps to wire). This will allow the amp to turn on only when the ignition of the car is turned on.

smfran

I changed the fuse location for my lighter so that I can leave my cell phone charging even when the ignition is off. I came across this info in the owners manual.

mfahey1

For those of you who have been around awhile on this site, you may remember Intense(Scott Cook) who spent so much time getting his SSEi to go fast and faster.
He's been very busy since we last heard from him. I saw over on ClubGP that he just had a 1/4 mile run of 12.65 sec @110.92mph which is flat out flying for a Bonneville. He is selling a modified transmission with a limited slip differential that is helping him get these numbers and I suppose the 359hp at the drive wheels doesn't hurt either.

theiceman

12.65 in a Bonneville? Holy $@^&@!!

mfahey1

If I remember correctly, when he was doing the initial modifications, he was quite pleased to get it under 14 seconds. I can't decipher all of the abbreviations he used for the modifications he has done but traction has to be a big part of it. Forgot to mention yesterday that the transmission he is selling has a 3.69 drive ratio as compared to stock 2.9 or 3.05 so that makes a huge difference right there if you can get the car to hook up.