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[Gray Haze]

My little additions...

Fuel Lines, Ive noticed on ALOT of 3s cars the plastic covers on the fuel lines are starting to crack, and rot, as are the fuel lines... This can lead to a catastrophic problem.

Rubber hoses to Turbos, and Throttle body. I've seen this put 3s's on the side of the road a few times now.

Radiator Cap. Ive seen quite a few of these on the sides of failure, or close to it. Failure can lead to loss of coolant, as well as in ability to raise pressure on coolant system lowering coolants boiling point.

Radiator Fan Switches on 1st Gens. Ive seen a few cars now whos passanger side fan does not kick on at low speed, only on high. These switches I guess can over time fail. Seen it on two cars now.

Knock Sensor. Suggested replacing @ 120K, Have experianced cars that knock non stop causing a CEL, as well as sensors that are OVERLY sensitive. One case was a car that would knock in high revs no matter what according to datalogger, removed sensor, goo had leaked out of it, replaced and performance was back to usual false knock gone.

Oil Cooler Thermostat. Gut(Hotter states) or Replace (colder cliamates). Have seen a hand full of these that are inoperable causing a bypass of the oil cooler, leading to very fast oil break down.

Engine Compression Test. I cannot stress this enough, if you start having severe issues with oil in the intake tubes, dip sticks blowing off, oil caps seeping heavily, oil caps BLOWING OFF, do a compression check, if #s are within 10% of each other, and above 140, check PCV valve, otherwise start looking into doing a leak down test, as well as checking your valve stem seals.

Lifters. This was mentioned, but one tip was not. SOAK them in diesel oil or ATF, or VERY thin weight motor oil, Sitting on the bottom of hte lifter submursed in fluid. I would say atleast 24 hours to allow air bubbles to bleed. do not allow oil to drain out of lifters prior to install. I have seen a handful of cars throw the rocker arms off on fresh start due to no oil in the lifters.

Power Antenna. After I would say a good 10 years or so, I would remove the mast from the motor, remove the motor assembly, disassemble, use a good parts cleaner that does not eat plastic, get all the old lithium grease out, and replace it to ensure a smoothly operating power antenna, may also want to grease the antenna mast itself.

Water Drain Hoses. Those 2 hoses that hang down behind the rear wheels? YUP blow em out, this can cause water to leak into the hatch possibly if they clog. Glass Top cars have ports on the front of the glass top area as well if I remember correctly, It could be in the back part around the top.

Windsheild Washer pump motors. The tops sometimes break off causing blown fuses whenever activated, or they fail to work at all. Cheap and easy fix, goto the junk yard the same pump is used on so many cars that it isnt even funny. one trip to the junk yard for me yeilded about 20 of these things...

Rear Active Aero Spoiler. Remove spoiler from car, remove screws from mid and side sections, pay attention to parts orientation. Parts clean out the metal tubes, regrease. Helps with making the spoiler move smoothly, and not jam. Also use some white lithium grease on the while slide parts that move the actual spoiler up and down.

Engine Accessory Belt Idler and Tensioner Pulleys. These tend to fail in the 70-120K range noticed by a squeak upon cold startup. Check belt tension first and adjust if needed. If noise doesnt go away, replace em.

Stock Harmonic Dampner (crank pulley). This thing likes to seperate after 70-120K as well, usually causing the outside of the dampner to push the power steering belt into the tbelt cover, ruining accessory, and PS belts, as well as possibly destroying timing belt and cover. I'd inspect every 30K atleast, and replace at 120K for DAMN sure.

Keep water away from 91-92 Cam/Crank angle sensors. Its on the intake cam of the rear head. This thing gets water inside of it, and you WILL be stranded. Has happened to me personally twice now. Took my current one apart, and RTV'd the ever living CRAP out of it, hopefully it wont happen again. This is a problem for those who LOVE to wash their engines alot.

Starter Electrical "Click, Click, Click, Start" Fix. Cut connector on 12awg wire by itself that runs down to the starter, wire a relay in place drawing power from the battery directly, switched by relay to starter, use stock starter trigger wire to trigger relay. This 99% of the time fixes the multi click start issue. Replacing the ignition switch, and starter, and 4awg cables along with 12awg trigger cable did nothing on my car, relay was only fix.

Transfercase Bolts Torque. Make sure the tcase bolts are torqued down to spec that hold the housings all together, as well as the side cover. I have had a catastrophic TCase failure due to bolts not being torqued to spec after recall was performed. Use of BLUE thread locker is highly recomended.

Front Suspension & Frame Torque. IF you've had your trans out, axles, engine, anything of that nature, make sure you torque all these bolts down to spec. use NEW cotter pins on castle nuts on both ball joint, and tie rod end. This can lead to further catastrophic failure.

Front Upper Strut Isolaters/Mounts. Ive seen this on a hand ful of cars now as well in the 120K+ Range, the rubber that holds the upper bearing in place that your strut is bolted to starts to tear. Monitor these things, if it starts to crack, replace ASAP. A strut going through the hood, fender, or any where else other than where its supposed to is a BAD thing.

CV Axle Boots. Under the car? Check all of these damn things out. if you catch one when it rips, its a very cheap and simple fix. Failure to replace boot and regrease upon failure leads to needing whole axle rebuilt at a much higher cost.

Front & Rear Steering Rack Boots & seals. Check to make sure they are not full of fluid. If they are filling up with fluid, its time to rebuild the rack, or replace it. if they are broken, but dry, just replace them.

Ball Joints & Tie Rods. Grab the bottom of the wheel Jerk it around, if the play comes from a drivers to passanger side direction, replace Ball joints, if it goes from a front to rear motion with slack, tie rod ends.

Silicone Hoses. If you are using Silicone hoses for vacuum hoses, TRY to not use them for the hoses that run from upper charge pipe, to boost solenoid/controller, to wastegates. Try to find a metal T to use as well. Silicone hoses are prone to cracking and breaking once gas, oil, and other fluids/chemicals come into contact with it. If you insist on using something other than rubber, use Viton. For pretty much everything else, if your using silicone vac hoses/couplers, check the hoses much more often for damage.

Coolant Levels. With engine cold, Occasionally make sure the coolant system is full, take cap off, start engine, let it rise to operating temperature, wait til fans start to cycle, make sure coolant neck is full before capping. If your loosing alot of coolant for no reason inspect radiator cap, and hoses.

Stock Rubber Turbo Intake T hose. Check where it rubs against thermostat housing for holes. Unmetered air = bad.

Pressure Test. Always check for boost leaks any time you re assemble the IC Pipes after working on the engine. This will ensure no leaks, and no weird stumbling issues.

1991-1993 ECU's and ALL ECS Control Modules. If you've never replaced the capacitors in these modules, do it now. Once the caps leak out, damage will be done to the boards, and surrounding components. The ECS module does it just as fast as the ECU does. ECU caps affect 1991-1993, ECS caps affect ALL ECS equiped cars. When the ECS module craps out, it can cause weird hesitation/stumbling problems.

Turbo Oil Feed Copper Washers. You mentioned replacing the front, dont forget that the rear has two on it as well where it attaches to the Y peice for the idiot light.

Store your car for extended periods of time? Open underhood fuse box, Yellow plastic peice in center, with a black rail on each side of it. This is labeled as IOD Elimination. IOD = Ignition Off Draw. By pulling this up anything that would normally have power when the key is off will no longer have power. Helps save the charge on the Battery. Will disable stock security, suggest only doing if your car is stored in a secure facility.

Brake Fluid. If its black, for christ sake, bleed that crap out PLEASE... I can't count the number of 3s's ive seen in which the brake fluid resembles that of grease... This is not healthy for the normal function of your brakes, master cyl, lines, OR ABS!!!

Brake Lines. There was a recall on these due to being TOO SHORT, make sure your car had this done. Any time you have the wheel off, Inspect these for wear and tear. This is a CRITICAL item.

Clutch Slave Cyl Line. Another failure prone part, especially if you've had bad motor mounts.

Brake & Clutch Vac Hoses. I think EVERY 3s ive ever touched, these hoses have been harder than metal and break instantly when trying to work with them. Alternative for this system is to do the following. 1/8NPT Plug, Remove Nipple near throttle body, and plug hole(can also use for greddy, AEM, etc map sensors). Leave clutch nipple in place, Get a rubber hose & metal T that will fit the nipples to both clutch and brake boosters, and plenum. Remove Valve from one of the stock hoses, boil new hose in hot water(use gloves) press into hose, make sure valve allows engine to suck air, but not blow. Run this from plenum to T, then T straight to clutch and brake boosters. Remove metal hardline on firewall for clutch, it is not needed. This gets the brake booster hose away from the rear turbos heat, and also allows for easy removal of plenum.