The CAR WIZARD gets a 2002 Pontiac Firebird Firehawk with a Speed Problem?!? 

“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.

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

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.

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.

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 👍🏻

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

these gen TAs are my dream car

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'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!

Thanks for keeping us entertained in quarantine wizard.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I like seeing how professional you are with this car.

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

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!!

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!

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

Pontiac Trans Am Firehawk!! 🤤🤤🤤

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

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

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 .

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.

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.

Really enjoy videos! Keep them coming

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

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

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

@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.

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.

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

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

So neat seeing the SLP / factory airbox!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

I saw online a RU-vid that fixes them dash issues. It has to do with the needle controler he also does color changes and led light changes. He does more the chevy trucks but same issues as this. All you do is send him the unit and he opens it up with care and then testing each parts to the specs of the original diagrams then will change the faulty parts and test it on his table top testing equipment. Once fixed he ships it back.

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

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

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

Had a 2005 pontiac with failing cluster. Temp and fuel acting up. Bought all new motors for the dials. Replaced all of them myself. Not sure if this helps but you can buy the motors new as a kit and replace them. Easy to do as long as you know exactly where the gauges need to go. Lots of resource online to help. It fixed my issue.

I'm actually interested in buying one of those

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

I swear officer, I was only doing 52mph

Man that radio reminds me if the old radios that used to come with some cars back in the day. My dad had this 1990 vauxhall Cavalier CDi with a Blaupunkt with a cassette radio that looked very similar. Some serious nostalgia there.

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

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.

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

Thanks for the video.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

I also have replaced faulty capacitors on and old Volvo with a Japanese supplied cluster. Glued split plastic gears to the shaft on 1980’s VWs.

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.

It is in kilometers 🤣??

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

Love the videos. Wish you would actually show the repairs in your videos

I had the same problem with a 2005 Monte Carlo. It was a bad stepper motor in the cluster. GM did a recall on some other models and made an improved version stepper motor. I was able to find the new part number motor on ebay and took the cluster apart, desolidered the old one and solidered a new one in place. It worked fine again after that.

Doug demero was talking about wanting to review one of these

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

Thus firehawk will be a collectors item for sure. Although the older firehawks will be worth way more. This body style had minor upgrades where the older one had massive changes. One of the biggest was the 6 speed sequential transmission along with road racing upgrades to fuel system, breaks, and suspension. The next gen firehawks had a better engineered base to work with requiring less major upgrades.

I owned two 2006 Jettas. One was a TDI with DSG, the other a 2.5L with 5 speed manual. Both speedometers were off 4/5 MPH at all times. I never attempted to find the issue as we all know that every repair on a VW is $1000. I just adjusted my driving. Went 220,000 miles that way in the 2.5L and 185,000 miles like that in the TDI. Fun stuff.

Is that a Canadian car? I see a Motomaster battery

The Car Wizard: Does the car read the miles (10100) via the computer or the Cluster?

Those are amazing cars and that customer is smart to have held on to it in such pristine condition. I myself had a ‘94 Z28 LT1 and yes it was a pain to work on and always feared driving it in the rain bc of flooding the optispark. Great vid Wizard!

You don't need a radio in that car, the sound of that engine is music to the ears! Beautiful!