Grateful New Member - 05 XLR

[Tom]

Hello to all! After a little over a year of ownership of my 05 XLR, I finally decided it was time to join and give thanks for the vast amount of knowledge contained within this forum. I also realize that after a year of ownership I too have some valuable insight to provide new or prospective owners. I look forward to sharing my experiences and hope they can provide the help that I so often came here searching for.

Thank you all for creating and contributing to the most valuable resource available to XLR owners.

Kind Regards,
Tom

 

[jjsea55]

Welcome aboard, Tom!

 

[Rob]

Welcome aboard Tom!

 

[rleonard]

Welcome Tom. I hope we can be of service.

Bob

 

[XFireXLR]

Congrats and welcome to the forum!!!!

 

[ChicagoDave]

Congrats and welcome to the best XLR forum on the web!

 

[Comfortzone]

Enjoy the forum, Tom!! I have probably seen you around Louisville! There are a lot of XLRs around here!

 

[Tom]

There are a tremendous amount of XLRs around here. I saw 5 others today! I spent 8 months in North Carolina last year and probably saw five others total.

Looks like you have found a way to stand out in a crowd though with your mods!

 

[mtrocket]

Welcome Tom!!! Continue to enjoy your XLR. Exterior/Interior color, mileage, etc?? Pictures???

 

[sschooley]

There are a tremendous amount of XLRs around here. I saw 5 others today!

AWESOME....In Central Florida I might see five (5) other XLR's over the course of five (5) months at best. Not anything close to the thirty two (32) we saw join together at Homecoming last summer in Bowling Green.

Anytime you see an XLR where I live here in Central Florida it is a special and rare day...... You all, I encourage you to enjoy how lucky and blessed you are to experience these most special machines because only the lucky ones get to have that opportunity!

Steve

 

[Tom]

Not a daily driver...

After 2.5 years of ownership and 35,000 miles behind the wheel, I had to let the 2005 XLR go. I bought the car from a private party w/ 53k miles and got to 88k before having to call it quits.

I know many of you do not use this car for a daily driver (good idea), but I've put it to the test over the last 30 months. The following are the issues that I experienced and fixed (mostly in the first year):

1. Leaking radiator
2. Water Pump Failure
3. Shifter Cable Failure (Left me high & dry, had to be towed)
4. Glove box lock/handle assembly replacement
5. Aftermarket gas cap replacement (original is duly noted as not fit for service)
3. All new belts

The following items were recently found during an oil change and recommended:

1. Rack & Pinon PS Fluid Leak (Complete replacement recommended)
2. Front Cam Seal Replacement (They have "weeped" since I bought the car and have only gotten worse)

Lastly, these are the other issues that just generally prompt me to step away and run from this cash pit...

1. Roof seals leak through the door a/c vents after a hard rain.
2. Leaking roof seals caused the power lock on the driver side to fail (a/c vent is located right above this switch)
3. In the last year the roof would not cycle down. Randomly it would work, but generally always sticks when the top is supposed to roll back. Did not work at trade time
4. Solenoid valve that releases gas cap cover would stick OFTEN. I mastered picking the lock with a credit card.
5. FOBs randomly "reprogrammed" and would not allow all user options to be accessed.
6. 6 disc changer would not eject properly (sometimes)
7. Very noticeable transmission "shutter" in 2nd gear at certain RPMs
8. Over the last 3 months the "service fuel system" message has been appearing the DIC. Prohibited the computer from giving a gauge reading. Generally fixed itself after "sloshing" the fuel around in the tank. I pinpoint that this failure often occurred after going up an incline (i.e. highway on ramp)
9. Way too much heat dissipated into the cabin from the drive train. Very uncomfortable on 5+ hr drives.
10. The melted DRL lenses just absolutely made me furious every time I looked at the car. GM made an obvious engineering error and would not own up to it.

I'll stop here but just wanted to share my experience. I gained much valuable knowledge from this site and truly thank all of the members. The amount of time I spent here, actually speaks to my experience with this car. You would think for this kind of money a guy could spend more time driving and less time trying to fix one of the cheap components. I took a big hit on the trade but couldn't be happier in my new 'burb'... GM Warranty Purchased!!!

GOOD LUCK ALL!!!

 

[Rob]

Sorry to hear about your experiences Tom. Would you like to remain a member here?

 

[Tom]

I am welcome to remaining a member. My experiences may be able to help another owner at some point... Although I'm happy to say I likely won't have to visit quite as much

 

[WB6BBZ]

After 2.5 years of ownership and 35,000 miles behind the wheel, I had to let the 2005 XLR go. I bought the car from a private party w/ 53k miles and got to 88k before having to call it quits.

I know many of you do not use this car for a daily driver (good idea), but I've put it to the test over the last 30 months. The following are the issues that I experienced and fixed (mostly in the first year):

1. Leaking radiator
2. Water Pump Failure
3. Shifter Cable Failure (Left me high & dry, had to be towed)
4. Glove box lock/handle assembly replacement
5. Aftermarket gas cap replacement (original is duly noted as not fit for service)
3. All new belts

The following items were recently found during an oil change and recommended:

1. Rack & Pinon PS Fluid Leak (Complete replacement recommended)
2. Front Cam Seal Replacement (They have "weeped" since I bought the car and have only gotten worse)

Lastly, these are the other issues that just generally prompt me to step away and run from this cash pit...

1. Roof seals leak through the door a/c vents after a hard rain.
2. Leaking roof seals caused the power lock on the driver side to fail (a/c vent is located right above this switch)
3. In the last year the roof would not cycle down. Randomly it would work, but generally always sticks when the top is supposed to roll back. Did not work at trade time
4. Solenoid valve that releases gas cap cover would stick OFTEN. I mastered picking the lock with a credit card.
5. FOBs randomly "reprogrammed" and would not allow all user options to be accessed.
6. 6 disc changer would not eject properly (sometimes)
7. Very noticeable transmission "shutter" in 2nd gear at certain RPMs
8. Over the last 3 months the "service fuel system" message has been appearing the DIC. Prohibited the computer from giving a gauge reading. Generally fixed itself after "sloshing" the fuel around in the tank. I pinpoint that this failure often occurred after going up an incline (i.e. highway on ramp)
9. Way too much heat dissipated into the cabin from the drive train. Very uncomfortable on 5+ hr drives.
10. The melted DRL lenses just absolutely made me furious every time I looked at the car. GM made an obvious engineering error and would not own up to it.

I'll stop here but just wanted to share my experience. I gained much valuable knowledge from this site and truly thank all of the members. The amount of time I spent here, actually speaks to my experience with this car. You would think for this kind of money a guy could spend more time driving and less time trying to fix one of the cheap components. I took a big hit on the trade but couldn't be happier in my new 'burb'... GM Warranty Purchased!!!

GOOD LUCK ALL!!!

Please stick around Tom, I think I can say your knowledge of these problems and the fixes with the early XLRs would be a BIG PLUS for the rest of us on this forum and for the XLR owners who just check in to find answers/solutions to problems they have.

 

[hawkeye372]

AWESOME....In Central Florida I might see five (5) other XLR's over the course of five (5) months at best. Not anything close to the thirty two (32) we saw join together at Homecoming last summer in Bowling Green.

Anytime you see an XLR where I live here in Central Florida it is a special and rare day...... You all, I encourage you to enjoy how lucky and blessed you are to experience these most special machines because only the lucky ones get to have that opportunity!

Steve

Shortly after I purchased mine, I saw 2 others. One time I think I saw yours Steve. We're you up at Wgv in st Augustine a couple months to a yr ago? I see a black one that is in my neighborhood here. (Well actually another neighborhood in my village) then there is Rbweddle that is 5 miles up 95 in a gated area. So counting mine there are about 4.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mtrocket]

Hey Tom:
Sorry to lose you as an XLR owner, but glad to have you remaining as a member of the forum.