Hello! I am a brand new Fiero owner. I have had my 1988 GT for a total of 4 days. I bought this car with the eventual aim to do a LZ9 swap. I am planning around 2 years from now. So now that I have my intentions with this nice car out in the air, it has been a wild 4 days with this car! I bought it as a running car that "needed a little bit of work from sitting for 9 years" The PO says this year they flushed the transmission, changed the injectors, fuel regulator, and oil. It had something draining the battery because it needed a jump to get started. The block was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago. The AC doesn't work nor the temp gauge. I bought it because it has really clean and complete interior, and body. It does need replacement sails since they are spider webbed and cracked.

Well Lets start with the drive home. The car runs and it runs ok, not great not bad. It seems there is some odd vibrations from the trans when coasting. I have not figured that out yet. On the way home I turn off the AC he had running even though it didn't work. I found out why shortly after when the check engine light comes on. The PO had the AC on to bypass the nonworking fan switch. I get it home after letting it sit to cool. I do a parasitic amperage draw test. it has no draw, not drain issue. I decided I needed to play musical cars and I needed to move it. I go to start it, it doesnt even turn over. Battery if fine so I think there maybe an issue with the neutral safety switch. I eat lunch and go out to see if I can trouble shoot. It starts right up. I had texted the PO about it and he said yeah thats why I had to jump it! Now I know it is a solenoid issue on the starter. So day one I figure out I need a Temp sending unit, a temp switch and a starter. I also noticed that there is a Torque absorber instead of a dog bone. If I didnt have the title I would have thought it was an earlier car. While I am not saying the 84-87 are not good, but I wanted the better suspension and I only wanted to buy an 88.

Day 2
I am really bugging about the year on this because I posted a pic on PFFFB and a couple of people are saying it is painted wrong to be an 88 and wrong color wheels. So I get under the car and verify that it is indeed tri-link. It is, but while I am under there one of the arms on the left side has a nut that is backed almost all the way off. I find it is frozen in place there. I go to work and come home and am looking for the starter and I see a trans bolt not all the way in... I am looking at the brake MC and under the combo valve I see a pinched brake line. But then I see a new line ran in non stock locations (rear line). I order my dog bone, temp sender, fan switch from the Fiero store.

Day 3
I go to title and plate the car. The PO signed the title but dated it for 2015! The BMV is trying to charge me 4 years of registration fees, 4 $15 late fees, 1 $30 late title fee. I ask them to hold on and I contact PO. He apologizes and quickly fills out an affidavit and faxes it to the BMV ( Indiana is very German it is a Bureau here not Department) so I get that cleared. I got to Autozone to grab a starter. They take soo long I finally get out of there and get home. When I pull up the neighbor is admiring her so Im like yeah come on over and take a look. I pop the deck lid to put the starter in the trunk for storage until this weekend when I can get it installed. I lift the lid and POP! the left hinge sears the pin. My neighbor being gracious helps me to take the deck off since I can not close it with the hinge sprung. It starts raining on us right then. We get the lid off and covering the bay and trunk again by setting it over, I throw a tarp over bay and trunk first. We talk for a bit and it stops raining. I try to punch the broken pin out, it will not budge, I try to drill it out and break 4 drill bits. I call it a day.

Today
I start looking up hinges and what to do to fix. They all sat to replace, replacements are not easy to come by, I develop a new plan. I get on McMaster Carr, I order me a piece of .500 OD x .260 ID tube, a bag of 3" 1/4-20 18-8 stainless steel socket head cap screws to use as a pin, and a 1/4-20 18-8 SS coupler to use a the vent rest. Friday I am going to cut off the pin and barrels cut new pieces of tube and weld them in place. (Tomorrow I have a birthday party to attend.) Saturday I hope to get all my parts installed so I can actually drive her.

In the state of Indiana you are allowed to use and display a year of manufacture plate. When I discovered this I got on eBay looking for an Indiana 1988 plate. I found one that was also a vanity plate. It says "HICCUPP" I tried to include pictures but I guess I cant figure out how small to make them to be acceptable. Below I have linked some URLs to me in the car just after purchase and one of the year of manufacture plate. From now on I will call her HICCUPP.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EFtUrYEAaP43zhcE8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KEieaPnXsbpfSQ6H8

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1988 2.8 GT Oce

What a great find! 88's are the sought after years and your's looks clean.

quote Originally posted by ChuckR: I am really bugging about the year on this because I posted a pic on PFFFB and a couple of people are saying it is painted wrong to be an 88 and wrong color wheels.

Its quite possible someone bought the car new in 1988 and didn't like the "plain" monochrome paint scheme they used that year so they painted the lower fascia silver to match the earlier models. That is why the silver looks a little more like "aluminum" silver than the medium silver the factory used.

I am using PIP for the first time, i figure this is a good place to do so.

Thank you for the complement! It looks nice and runs OK, I am making a list of things to solve or look into. The main thing is the Temp and Oil pressure gauges are not working. I just found out today that the fuel gauge only kind of works. It got to 1/4 tank and I was OUT! I costed into a gas station parking lot and a cop stopped and helped me push it to the pump. Thank you Mr. Police officer. The fan switch isnt working so I have to hit the AC switch to keep the fan running (ac doesnt work. When I was putting in starter i notices the high pressure plug is missing from the compressor another item on the list). I had to fix the hinge pin and starter this weekend. I changed the temp sender sensor (to gauge) and fan switch with no improvements. If I ground the fan switch plug the fan does come on so it isnt wiring, at least on this. It had a torque absorber for the upper mount instead of the dog bone that is supposed to be on the 88 so I changed that out. I found a harness connector not connected and havent found where it goes, it is right next to the coolant cap / thermostat. it is a 4 pin connector, maybe it goes to an option not equipped? not sure.




These are pictures of my hinge pin solution. it is a 1/4-20 stainless steel socket head cap screw with a Nylock nut, a locking washer backed to a coupling nut to act as the vent support. I cut off the corroded solid barrel and pin then welded on a new barrel made from a piece of .500" OD steel tube with a .260" ID. as you can see in the picture it is loaded with grease on the inside... I will mask off and paint it all. Also you can see that the limit cable is gone on this side and looks to have been this way for years.

Today I took the window switches out to clean them, windows go up and down a bit faster now, and fixed the "lighter" so now I can charge my phone as I use it for a speedo since it is in Kilos and I dont want to math and drive. I heard it is dangerous. Sorry for my rambling posts, but I kind of wanted to document my first week of ownership! I have thoroughly fallen for this little car.