Various small annoying problems

**Guerrillakilla13** · 05-30-2012, 08:08 PM

Instead of listing these problems on 6 different threads, I decided to ask them all here

1. When I turn on my outside lights, my left light on my left tail light sometimes turns on and sometimes doesn't...?
2. The plastic piece you push in on the shift knob (automatic tranny) keeps popping out if i press it in too hard and release; it'll just pop off in general.
3. when i take a right turn whilst braking, I get a terrible grinding kinda noise from my rotor area.
4. My front brakes squeal...A LOT, and very loudly. The shop said it wasn't their brake pads
5. my center console compartment lid springs snapped, or something like that. so now nothing is supporting the lid. I have to use my hand.
6. I have to hit the trunk button twice to get the thing opened sometimes. The first time will pop it up, but I still can't get it open with my hands.

any help with this list of problems will be greatly appreciated. I'll come back and cross off the ones that have been resolved.

I know the answer to some of these may be really obvious (like #2 and #5) but I still want to hear your opinions on what I should do

Thanks in advanced!!

**FinZ28** · 05-30-2012, 11:01 PM

For #6, try measuring the spring in the back where the hatch release mechanism is. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy another spring and run it piggyback to the original spring. This seems to be the common fix to this problem.

**Too Fast** · 05-31-2012, 02:33 AM

1. You have to remove the taillamp and find out what's happening. Probably the bulb is almost burned out.
3&4. Better get that checked right away. If your wheel bearing is going bad, it could be so bad that it's ready for a terminal failure. Or it could be something simple like a brake splash shield rubbing the inside of the rotor. These cars are not known for brake squealing issues, so get this checked at another shop right away.
6.Yeah, the double spring is the fix. Easy to do, like Chris said, I finally did it and am so happy!

**FinZ28** · 05-31-2012, 04:02 AM

For #5, you either need a new hinge or console lid/hinge combo. You should be able to find them online, or possibly in a salvage yard.

**SStrokeME00** · 05-31-2012, 05:45 AM

I'm so glad I read this, I've had the same problem as #6 for a while now, I just never knew how to fix it!

**Guerrillakilla13** · 06-01-2012, 12:40 PM

Thanks everyone for your input!! I can't go back to my original post and edit it I guess, so here's that list again and i marked in red what your solutions have fixed theoretically thus far

1. When I turn on my outside lights, my left light on my left tail light sometimes turns on and sometimes doesn't...?
2. The plastic piece you push in on the shift knob (automatic tranny) keeps popping out if i press it in too hard and release; it'll just pop off in general.
3. when i take a right turn whilst braking, I get a terrible grinding kinda noise from my rotor area.
4. My front brakes squeal...A LOT, and very loudly. The shop said it wasn't their brake pads
X. my center console compartment lid springs snapped, or something like that. so now nothing is supporting the lid. I have to use my hand.
X. I have to hit the trunk button twice to get the thing opened sometimes. The first time will pop it up, but I still can't get it open with my hands.

FinZ28, thank you for that suggestion! I'll stop by home depot and buy one when I can. I have a busy schedule during the summer so I can't do all these things immediately unfortunately

Too fast, I thought it was a bad taillamp. but at the same time, it does still turn on so i wasn't sure. I looked at it; there was a small black mark on the actual light lens but after hitting it a few times with my hand it turned back on and stayed on..for that time being. lol. i'll buy a new one and see what that does.
3-4 isn't freaking me out too much, because it only lasts for like half a second, and ONLY when I'm taking a right hand turn..but i wanted to see if there's anything common with that I should know about. When I'm due for my free tire rotation I'll have em check it out for me. Thanks!

**bhunter0830** · 06-16-2012, 05:19 PM

1. check the sockets. They can be picked up for $5-7 at your box stores. Make sure to put dialectic grease in them. The rear lights are known for collecting water, but then again all of them are!

4. recently had the same problem when I changed my pads and rotors. Come to find out the hardware that was in the box was a hair off from the old ones. This caused the hardware to squeal badly. Got the old hardware back out of the box and took a wire brush to them to clean them up and made sure there was plenty of grease on them when reinstalled.

**Guerrillakilla13** · 06-16-2012, 10:43 PM

bhunter thanks man but turns out the damn thing was burnt out haha. Never had encountered that type of problem before where it was just the lights fault. and yeah when I got the car the left taillight was practically black from the water damage lol

as far as the brakes go what do you mean by old hardware? and I just gotta clean the new rotors?

Here's where I'm at so far

X When I turn on my outside lights, my left light on my left tail light sometimes turns on and sometimes doesn't...?
2. The plastic piece you push in on the shift knob (automatic tranny) keeps popping out if i press it in too hard and release; it'll just pop off in general.
3. when i take a right turn whilst braking, I get a terrible grinding kinda noise from my rotor area.
4. My front brakes squeal...A LOT, and very loudly. The shop said it wasn't their brake pads
X. my center console compartment lid springs snapped, or something like that. so now nothing is supporting the lid. I have to use my hand.
X. I have to hit the trunk button twice to get the thing opened sometimes. The first time will pop it up, but I still can't get it open with my hands.

I could really use some help for #2, i don't really want to glue it back if that's not what I should do.

**Smittro** · 06-17-2012, 02:20 AM

2. Replace the shifter button with one from ebay or a junk yard.

There's a "U" shaped clip that slides into the lower front of the shift knob.

The clip slides strait into the slot in that location.

It can easily be pried out with a small pick or regular (flat head) screw driver.

Once the clip is removed the knob will simply pull up off the shifter shaft.

4. sounds like either cheap pads and/or hung calipar pins. (common issue).

Remove the calipar pins and grease them with high temp grease and replace.

These cars eat front rotors.

Personally,, I used to replace rotors everytime I changed pads on my 01 Camaro,,

which has the same brake setup as the 02 T/A and birds, z28, ss, etc...

**bhunter0830** · 06-17-2012, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by Guerrillakilla13

bhunter thanks man but turns out the damn thing was burnt out haha. Never had encountered that type of problem before where it was just the lights fault. and yeah when I got the car the left taillight was practically black from the water damage lol

as far as the brakes go what do you mean by old hardware? and I just gotta clean the new rotors?

Here's where I'm at so far

X When I turn on my outside lights, my left light on my left tail light sometimes turns on and sometimes doesn't...?
2. The plastic piece you push in on the shift knob (automatic tranny) keeps popping out if i press it in too hard and release; it'll just pop off in general.
3. when i take a right turn whilst braking, I get a terrible grinding kinda noise from my rotor area.
4. My front brakes squeal...A LOT, and very loudly. The shop said it wasn't their brake pads
X. my center console compartment lid springs snapped, or something like that. so now nothing is supporting the lid. I have to use my hand.
X. I have to hit the trunk button twice to get the thing opened sometimes. The first time will pop it up, but I still can't get it open with my hands.

I could really use some help for #2, i don't really want to glue it back if that's not what I should do.

The steel clips that the pads slide on when in the caliper. There should be three pieces. One for each end of the pad where the tabs slide into the rotor and on that sits inside of the caliper itself.

**Smittro** · 06-17-2012, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by bhunter0830

The aluminum clips that the pads slide on when in the caliper. There should be three pieces. One for each end of the pad where the tabs slide into the rotor and on that sits inside of the rotor itself.

The clips are made of steel.

**Guerrillakilla13** · 06-18-2012, 08:56 PM

Thank you, i'll look online for a shifter knob. Haven't found anything yet but i'm not one to give up that easily.

I think it is cheap pads, but the shop who did it insisted it wasn't. Go figure. lol Before the new rotors and brakes I wouldn't hear a single thing. But I will look into it. really hope it isn't damaging the rotors til I grease those things up

**Too Fast** · 06-20-2012, 02:48 AM

Yeah it could be the hardware that the pads ride on, rubbing the rotor. There is a small piece of metal the pads ride on, on the caliper/pad mounting bracket, and it can be very noisey if it rubs the rotor. If no damage is done to the rotors, and you can change the pads yourself, buy some high quality ceramic pads. You'll clean your wheels once after that, as well as your calipers, and you will be amazed at how clean the wheels/calipers stay. My calipers look almost new after the pad switch, and all I did was go thru a quality car wash, 6 months ago. Wonder what they'd look like if I took them off and really cleaned them....

***SMWS6TA*** · 06-20-2012, 11:38 AM

Ryan one more thing about the rear tail lights. I drilled 3 holes on the bottom side of the lights with a 1/8" drill bit. One for the reverse lights and two for the others. Since doing this my lights have not filled with water or discolor from the water eating the chrome lens.

**JayTA98** · 06-20-2012, 07:18 PM

on number 2. if you take shift knob out by removing the u shaped clip you will noticed underneath the closest side of the "T" there is another small u shaped clip. If you remove that one it allows you to pull the whole black button out. If you look at the button there is an area that the small u shaped clip makes contact to keep the button in place. That area is probably worn out. I had the same issue and I ended up using some JB weld to fill the missing area and filling it down to fit. It worked great. The other option is a new shift knob.