“The problem is in the cluster!” Ah, it’s a clusterf--

18 years later, and still one of the baddest looking cars on the road

The smoothness in ride was designed in by GM engineers. The 4th Gen is a great road car with decent gas mileage. It’s ludicrous that they stopped making them in 2002.

Your presentation skills have been improving a lot lately, Wizard. I came over from Hoovie's channel and the differences between when you started the channel and now are night and day. You're an extremely smart guy and I love your content, keep up the great work!

There is a great place in Pontiac, MI called Scott Speedometer Service that I'm sure can repair that speedo. Ship the speedo there and it will be taken care of.

I have a 2000 WS6, almost to 11,500 miles on it. Excellent cars with rising values. They're a hell of a lot of fun to drive for a stock car, too.

Ok it's time to take my WS6 out of storage.

There is another youtuber auto mechanic, Eric from the South Main Auto channel, he sends defective gauge clusters to a company called United Radio in Syracuse, NY and has had good success with them fixing bad clusters. Might be worth looking in to if you haven't already. Cheers!

I bet the customer wouldn't have complained if it was recording less mileage 😜 Beautiful car.

Car wizard loves this car, takes out for a drive to “check” speedometer. 120 mph and 500 miles later, needs more “testing” lol.

A rare moment when u can actually see a GM car with a dash not separating lol

My very first real job was working at a car dealership. The sales people got brand new demos and a tank of gas a week is part of our pay. The caveat was we were only allowed to put 3000 miles on our demo, if we went over the mileage we had to park the car until it was sold. The older car salesman never sweated the mileage. They just had the car put on a rack and had one of their buddies unhook the speedometer from the transmission. This was 1988. When they got back from their vacation 1,500 miles added they just had the speedometer hooked back up and sold it to the next unsuspecting consumer. So the first thing that popped in my head when we had a car with this low mileage and it's only problem is the speedometer I had to be a little suspicious if the odometer had been tampered with. I really love your videos. Keep up the great work.

That Firehawk takes me back! My folks had a 2001 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am WS6 with every performance addition from factory. My folks loved that car it was the king in the day. Good video Wizard thanks for taking me down memory lane today. I am a fan of the channel all time thanks for keeping us sane in these rough times. Keep it up 👍🏻

i’m 23 years old and these cars are so nostalgic to me. just remember being a young kid hearing these cars drive by sounded so menacing and the look of them is just so perfect to me down to the honeycomb tail lights. i’m going to need to get myself one some day they’re just so hard to come by around where i live and when you find them they are going for a premium

The Firebird is always the thing that reminds me of my favorite childhood tv series Knight Rider. The car was such an amazing thing in it, unsurpassed by many movie cars. Maybe except Herbie the bug, but I'm not certain about that.

I love Wizard videos he breaks it down from A TO Z simple and to the point.

This little birdie just wants to fly, thanks for helping to keep it on the road!

Seems like the best option for the XLR would be to use the cheaper radiator and buy an aftermarket oil cooler.

One of my favorite things about you (car wizard) is that you let us look under the cars and describe everything,thank you again and again!

Wizard, awesome work as usual - there's not a single video that you've uploaded that isn't a wealth of information. Keeping good honest and hard work at its finest. Many people and shops included should emulate from your example. Stay safe.

Why don't you put an external oil cooler on the XLR? This way you can install a "cheap" radiator.

Thanks for keeping us entertained in quarantine wizard.

I had a 2001 Firebird Formula, and I loved it. One really stupid thing though is they used nylon worm gears in the pop-up headlights, and they make an awful noise when they go out. I replaced mine with metal worm gears.

I like watching you get better and more comfortable with making videos. Keep up the good work!

these gen TAs are my dream car

I like Firehawks. My Firehawk is 10 years older than this one. And a lot more red. And third-gen. But it only has around 6k miles on it. So it's not as experienced as this one.

Man, this takes me back. I had a 2002 WS6 wayyyyy back in the day. I never should have let that car go.

YESSSS, I Saw The FireHawk in The Background of Hoovies Turbo Beetle Video And I Was Waiting For You To Mention it , What an Amazing Beast And in Mint Condition as Well, Thanks Wizard & Mrs Wizard .

Instantly hit the like button as soon as I saw the thumbnail! Trans Am was my first car, and I'm going to get another one hopefully soon!!

Trans Am Depot in Tallahassee had a specimen like this. Beautiful.

The more I see that Lotus in the background the more I want one. I don't know a Car Wizard so I'll hold off for now. Like the Firebird Firehawk too so thanks for shooting this vid.

I believe the speedometer is run by the Body Control Module. I think the BCM uses a formula to set the voltage for the step motor (which includes the rear axle ratio where the VSS is because there were two ratios available). You seem to be off by a constant 125% and it may be that the BCM glitched out, not the speedo in the cluster. You can flash an adjusted value to the BCM to get the right speed indication if it is indeed a true 125% off the entire range. While clusters in these do go bad, BCM issues seem more common in my experience. The linear scaling is the tell. Flash the fix rear ratio value and see if the speedo holds true for a while. You are correct, they will be collectable and an example like that should avoid the parts yard for pieces. But I am biased as a 2002 WS6 owner, luckily its not special and I can butch it up to fix the GM issues.

United Radio would be my first choice for the cluster repair.

This car was awesome when it came out and when I first saw it, I was immediately hooked, 4th gen (and 3rd gen for that matter) f-bodies are getting harder to come by that haven't been hacked to death or beat to pieces unfortunately. Absolutely beautiful car, wish I owned one.

Had a 2000 Trans Am, Ram Air, WS6, it would get 18 mpg around town and 22 mpg @ 90 mph. Great car, rode good, fast, had that high spoiler very attractive ride. Never had to replace anything in 120,000 miles except tires, battery and brakes.

Thanks for the ride-along. I miss my Firebird.

Car Wizard - question for you...... have you looked on GM Parts Direct? Unless there's something wrong on their website, according to the diagram if you scroll down to reference number 1, a new radiator from GM Parts Direct, for a 2006 XLR, is $274.40. And it appears to have all the fittings for oil and transmission cooling lines. www.gmpartsdirect.com/auto-parts/2006/cadillac/xlr/base-trim/4-6l-v8-gas-engine/cooling-system-cat/radiator-and-components-scat

Pontiac Trans Am Firehawk!! 🤤🤤🤤

A Good Mechanic is worth his weight in Gold. This video just made me subscribe. Imo the 98-02 T/A WS6 is by far the best F-Body ever produced.

That's why you're the best Car Wizard! You think of everything, not just putting in any old part!!!!

I like how the wizard didnt beat on the firehawk. Always a worry when you give someone your car

This was my dream car. Now they're skyrocketing in value. They're double to quintuple the value they were only 6 years ago. A WS6 with 3000 km is being sold for $48,000. The market is exploding for Trans Ams and Firehawks.

I've seen similar issues in instrument clusters in my workshop and always been able to get instrument repairers to fix them. Probably the best option with this great car!

The ride may have be a left over of how Herb Adams used to design the suspensions. Softer sprung but with massive sway bars! Nice video. Great car. Love seeing one all original in such nice shape!

Those f body cars have been going up in price. I want one

Me and the Wizard have the same addiction. My daughter has a 2010 beetle. I have a 2012 beetle both with the 2.5 5 cyl

Really enjoy videos! Keep them coming

I like seeing how professional you are with this car.

That's actually a built in feature to keep you from getting speeding tickets! :-)

Make sure the car hasn’t been tuned. Hptunners has a speedometer calibration. That adjust the signal the ecu sends to the cluster not what’s reported to obd2.

Wow. Your shop is amazing. Thanks for the infomative content.

That era "F body" car wasnt the most user-friendly for seating and "entry & exit", but that one is a gem that can only go up in value. What a jewel. Just wait until barrett Jackson hears about it...

What a beautiful machine, I pray I never have to sell my ws6

I wanted one of these so bad right when I was turning 16!

I had one of these!! Almost zero complaints! Ran 12s

Longtime Hoovie sub. First video watched from Wizard’s channel. I am impressed... this is top notch content.

OBD-2 speedo? Something like ScanGauge 2. I had this in my car for a while. Then you don't have to worry about GPS signal and you know the computer reads right. Also doubles to read scan codes, fuel mileage and more

I've seen four in my life, two with flush headlights. I don't even know where the flush lights come from. Awesome car. I love this one and the WS6 package.

Thanks for showing a lot of the cars you show are not seen often here in Australia.

Such a brilliant car. I had a 2000 Firehawk with longtubes and a Borla. That car was scary fast. Sold it like a chump...Also, worth noting that there were only 1334 Hawks made in 2002 and was the only year for a whale-tail spoiler.

Always loved those cars, would'n't mind getting one someday.

I'm actually interested in buying one of those

3:33... "in town" looks a lot like "out of town". I love rural areas. Great videos Car Wizard!

It's a common problem for older GM vehicles to experience gauge cluster issues. It happened to my '04 Tahoe, my buddy's '05 Hummer H2, and my neighbor's '03 Yukon Denali. There's a company I know of that repairs gauge clusters and they do excellent work. Model Electronics in Ramsey, NJ. If you're local, you can drop off the part and they'll repair it for you and warranty the work, or you can send it out to them. I'm sure there's other independent services that perform this type of repair, but that's one place I know of that specializes in OEM auto electronics.

I bet Wizard hopped into a clean dress after he saw the mileage.

My favorite car... I've been hunting one for years. One of these days I'll find one and actually be in a position to buy it.

Great coverage, care and equipment; Your lift is really cool! Firebirds' are generally well built.

So neat seeing the SLP / factory airbox!

On the Cadillac, just use a aftermarket oil cooler. A stand alone oil cooler.

Would love it if this customer emailed doug demuro, such an interesting looking car

One of the most beautiful cars ever made!

This is what you call an "undocumented feature" to get the feeling you are going fast, but you are actually going the speed limit. Saves you a lot in traffic tickets and points on your license.

Hey, you can play the harp on the radiator. ✌️ MCM Stay safe

The car actually has less mileage than what’s on the odometer. The speedometer shows it’s traveling faster than actual speed. I would conservatively say the actual mileage is in the 9,xxx miles.

Those old Firehawks or WS6s were some incredible performance buys of it's day. Still love them after all these years!

It's so funny, judging from the outside and the size of the building, I would only expect farm equipment to be in your shop. In the meantime, so many nice cars. A Perfect Sleeper building! Love your videos. I use knowledge gained from you to help me fix cars and post a video once in a blue moon.

Hi. I love your vids. My 2 cents worth about the XLR; Have you considered the option to repair the radiator. If there is only one tiny crack it should be easily fixable by means of epoxy glue and proper surface preparation. Anyway I have a hunch that this specific radiator is only manufactured in small batches (maybe only one?) and there is a great risk that a brand new unit will have the same weaknesses as this bad guy.

"and now we'll get it up to 130 and see how far off it is"

It's funny you brought up the XLR. After I watched that video I looked it up. I work in the CQ conglomerate, and we had 5 in my local warehouse, none in any stores, and the description specifically said without oil cooler.

Trans Ams, especially of the 93 -02 4th gen years, are my favorite car of all time.

It almost sounds like it's switched to kilometers inside the cluster, Wizard.

I swear officer, I was only doing 52mph

I love the amount of 4th gen fbodies that have been appearing on your channel as of late 😊

Am I being dumb? If you have an oil cooler and radiator in one, would it not be cheaper, long term, to separate them with ‘aftermarket’ parts? Ok, you would have to change some hoses and fittings, and maybe fabricate a bracket or two, so initial cost to fix the problem might be higher, but then if cooler core blew out or got damaged, you just replace that one part rather than an over priced dealer part. So long term ownership wise, cost would be reduced?

My favorite car, in one of my favorite color. How was the ride?

With the speedometer showing a higher speed than it's actually driving is he putting more miles on the car. Is that really a 8k mile Firehawk??? Nice!

Great video... hope we get a video removing the cluster and rebuilding it! I think the furthest off I have had is just like 1-2mph because of larger tires. My wife's BMW seems to be about 1-2 high as well with no modifications.

Awesome car. I love the 4th gens. I had a 97 with the lt1 that I got a good deal on because it needed the optispark replaced, like what you were saying. It really wasn't that hard to take the water pump off and change it. I owned it for several years before selling it and never had any issues with it. But ls1's are definitely an upgrade

It is in kilometers 🤣??

maybe that odometer is lying too. Looks like someone broke the speedo, while messing with the odometer.

thanks for a great video Mr Wizard. Have a great day and stay safe.

Love these cars my cousin still has his 95 Firehawk SLP with a built auto as his daily driver even in Chicago winters throw some snow tires on and it shreds

What about installing an aftermarket oil cooler on the Caddy?!?? Edit: realized this is a repost, but hey the more the better so he sees it hopefully and answers us :D

Why would a car with that little miles have a bad cluster? Oh it is GM

@5:30 I'm voting resistor drift - just from the relative age. There is some kind of compartor circuit that turns the signal into an analog signal for the needle on the gauge.

The XLR doesn't need the oil cooler. Plug it off and get rid of it. It was a rare option only needed if driven under extreme conditions, mostly for a V-Series. If the customer really wants an oil cooler, install an auxiliary or aftermarket one. At least if the radiator needs replacing again, he'll just need the common available one. I was the factory SoCal Cadillac District Service Mgr for GM at the time the XLR was in production.

Doug demero was talking about wanting to review one of these

Is that a Canadian car? I see a Motomaster battery

My dream car! I actally sat in the back of one of those, was just a teenager but i was around 6'6 ft tall at the time. Friggin awesome cars.

all LS1's had 350HP. it is a well known fact, that GM underrated it's HP. since it put out approx. the same as the corvette. but they knew if we were aware of this, it would hinder sales of the vette when you could buy a firebird/camaro with about the same HP. i own a WS-6 LS1, so i would know. this particular year, and '01, lost the bigger cam, but gained the better intake manifold. your video's are excellent, and i just subscribed. this firehawk looks just like mine, same color. thanks for this. looking forward to many more.