Talk:Pontiac Fiero

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There are repeated references to the long-stroke design of the Iron Duke on this page which are WHOLLY inaccurate. The stroke of the engine is 3.0", tied with several engines for the second smallest stroke (with the 301 Pontiac, 302/283/265 Chev 2.8 V6 etc).

The shortest stroke GM (as far as I know) goes to Buick's 82-87 3.0 V6, a severely destroked relative of the 3.8 at 2.66"

It would be nice to have more detail on the recall issues of the car early on. From what I remember, the 4-cyl engine was from a Pontiac economy car, but when they shoehorned it in, it required a smaller-capacity oil pan. Since a lot of people also drive with an engine that's a quart or so low anyway, that meant the oil would be disastrously low. The recall added an external oil cooler that held another quart or so of oil.

There were also some spectacular engine fires in these cars, plus the fact that they were made from the Enduraflex plastic panels - nice for weight, but not as good when your car's on fire.

--165.254.107.2 16:25, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Engine fires 2 "After Production" 3 brief history 4 repeated spam 5 Fieros in the Media 5.1 Third opinion 6 Unreferenced 7 Statistical, what? 8 External links? 9 Responses to other comments:

[edit] Engine fires

Engine fires occurred only in the 1984 4-cylinder Fieros as a result of improperly routed fuel lines and poor choice of fuel line material. The problem was corrected with an engineering design change and a manufacturer's recall, and didn't affect the series for the rest of its production run. The stuff about cheap connecting rods and borrowed parts is pure speculative hogwash, and probably doesn't belong in the article. --Quicksilver^{T @} 23:54, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

My understanding, and I had a 1984 2M4 before buying a 1988 GT, is that many of the problems were created because the engine was designed to be mounted vertically in the (front) engine compartment of a vehile, but was instead mounted with the top of the engine inclined forward. This supposedly led to the dipstick being miscalibrated by a quart, so when the stick read "full" it was, in fact, a quart low. It would be nice to get some verifiable information on the exact problem as this is the first I've heard that it was a fuel line problem. -- Tall Girl 01:06, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Engine fires did in fact mainly occur in the 1984 fiero's and it was in fact, at the factory's own admission due to failing connecting rods. A large percentage of the rods were weakened from improper construction, and some would break. That is why the Recall for that year included the engine rods being replaced.

http://www.internetautoguide.com/auto-recalls/67-int/1984/pontiac/fiero/base/ - Click the Second Recall, this is official

And yes, Fiero's also had low oil-level issues, which if unchecked would accelerate the breaking of the rods. It was due to the redesign of the engine with a lower oil capacity. XanthReturns 13:10, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "After Production"

Does this newly added section seem somewhat ad-like? It re-states facts from the top of the article about the formation of clubs and relative popularity, but it seems like the point is to mention the specific die cast model.

Regardless, it's better than nothing as a starting point to document merchandising and the kit car aftermarket. I'll try to expand somewhat on the latter this weekend. ChrisCostello 20:43, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] brief history

hey, was there ANY dohc i-4s being produced by GM at all during the fiero production run???RCHM 00:58, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] repeated spam

anyone able to ban the IPs that keep loading this article up with forum spam? Thanks, Stuph 03:26, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fieros in the Media

Why are you keep deleting this section? There is nothing wrong with and every other cult car has section detailing where the vehicle is seen. After all, if you read the top of the article, it says "This article consists mostly of statistical data, and does not contain sufficient information about the subject. Please edit this page reduce the amount of statistics, and introduce more information about the subject."

first off, you should not be putting the request to not delete in the main article. second, this is not the imcdb.com. it weighs down the article and makes obscure references that do nothing to educate the public on the history of the car. should I edit this article to include every fiero I see in my hometown? Stuph 01:11, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

The article is not solely about the history of the car. I see no reference that the page can only be about the history, it can be about anything about the Fiero. The information under the section contains well-known movies so Fiero fans know where to look to see their favorite car, not pay reference to every Fiero made. You were saying that you could include every Fiero in your hometown, so do you know any famous Fieros around your area? Peace.

until others weigh in on the issue, it will stay removed from the article. Stuph 03:49, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

No it won't.

I have requested a third opinion Wikipedia:Third_opinion on this issue, as recommended for conflict resolution. I welcome valid reasoning to maintain such a list. (also, please sign your messages) Stuph 01:09, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

If it's worth a crap, I think it's a very useful section I actually liked seeing in the history. All you other losers that keep saying "this is not whatever spam site.com" can go to hell. I hope that section is added back... it IS relevant to this article - if it were talking about Explorers and Firebirds, THEN we'd have a problem! Meanwhile, bug off and let the section be. 69.227.85.16 10:43, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Third opinion

Though I don't have issue with the section in principle, the information inside it is unreferenced. It needs to be verifiable with reliable sources for it to be included. As an aside however, what's the point? I don't see what this adds to the article, and most of these references are trivial. Fagstein 04:55, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

thank you. now let's hope the unregistered user that keeps adding it, stops until it is either improved or severely edited to make relevant. Stuph 21:09, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unreferenced

Large parts of this article contain unreferenced statements that could be considered original research. If the article remains as such for longer than a week I'm going to start pruning it down considerably. Fagstein 04:46, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Statistical, what?

by what standard is this 'mostly statistical?' what part is that flag even talking about?12.6.40.2 02:06, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links?

Would it be permitted to add links for technical info under an "external links" section, as in the MR2 article? Ajfiero 23:08, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Responses to other comments:

1. When the Fiero was in production, GM was producing an early version of the Oldsmobile-designed 2.3L Quad 4 which was a DOHC 4-cylinder engine. It was widely speculated to be offered in the Fiero in 1989 or 1990 if the car had not been cancelled.

2. The Fiero 2.5L 4-cylinder engine was mounted vertically in the engine bay, not inclined.

3. The fuel lines were not implicated as a initial cause of fires in the Fiero. It was mainly the connecting rods, and lesser suspicions of the valve-cover gasket, and the computer wiring harness was thought to be too close to the catalytic converter or exhaust manifold. Both of these hypothetical problems were addressed by the recall, even if they hadn't been proven to have caused any fires.

The recall included many fixes which proactively fireproofed materials which were not known to be the intial cause of fire but which could burn if a fire had already started. To this end, fireproof insulation was wrapped around wires and the rubber rain gutter was removed from the forward edge of the trunk lid. It is obvious a rubber rain gutter could not ignite itself, and could not be the cause of a fire, but like tires, it could start burning in the presence of an open flame and maybe help a fire spread. The fireproofing efforts were largely successful; yet it is interesting to note that the Saturn SL used a body structure similar to the Fiero, but GM made used of a steel hood over the engine on the Saturn instead of fiberglass. The Corvette continues to this day with a fiberglass hood, which is what the Fiero trunk was made of.

4. The recall didn't add an oil cooler, rather it included switching to a larger oil filter (PF51) which held an extra 1/5 quart or so. The existing oil pan was able to hold the remainder of the extra quart of oil. The allowed the engine to tolerate being a quart low and still have three quarts in the pan. The PF51 has been superceded now by the PF52. The original dipstick was not miscalibrated, but the recall replaced the dipstick with one that would read FULL on 4 quarts instead of three, because the goal was to increase the oil reserve in the oil pan, since some owners were not checking the oil very often. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.9.107.176 (talk) 02:24, 9 March 2007 (UTC).