Not sure if it was a bad product or something more, let me explain.

I was supposed to go to a Kappa (Solstice, Sky) rally in Kerrville this weekend. I had everything setup and ready the day prior, to go. I woke up at 3am to leave a four o’clock. I only got about five miles down the road when I saw the check engine light come on AGAIN! It had come on two weeks before and I checked the code and got a P0011. Which has something to do with the Camshaft position timing over advanced or System Performance (Bank 1)” it signals a problem with the Variable Valve Timing (VVT) system in your Pontiac Solstice.

I decided that it wasn’t worth the three-hour drive to Kerrville with the chance of having the car possible breakdown or worse, doing damage to the engine, to do a rally.

So, I went into the house to start looking for the parts I would need to do the repairs.

I found out that the intake and exhaust VVT solenoids I replaced last June were not so reliable. They were a “A-Premium VVT Intake & Exhaust Camshaft Position Actuator Solenoid Valve Kit” from Amazon.

I already had the oil and filter to change, as I had found some gold looking metal flakes in the last oil change I did. So, I waited until around ten o’clock for the auto stores to open and went to find my VVT solenoids. Car Quest had a set for around sixty bucks, but they didn’t have them on site. I went to O’Reilly’s down the street, but they didn’t have them either and theirs was about forty bucks more.

So back to Car Quest and they told me that it would be around one o’clock before the part would come in.

I had changed the oil earlier that morning, so I went home and pulled the old solenoids and waited.

After getting the new solenoids put in I took it for a test drive and so far everything seems to work a bit better. It seems to have a little bit quicker pick up in acceleration. But that may be just my imagination.

Time will tell if the VVT replacement was the problem or not. It was about two weeks from the last check engine light coming on until this one coming on.

One good thing coming out of it was that there was no metal flake in the oil. It only had around nine hundred miles on it.