Here's the back-story on the car (white '03 Grand Prix GT with 99K miles). We bought it in January for our 16 year old son. We did all the research, had all the checks done, but we have done nothing but funnel money into this car. It's had its Catalytic converter replaced twice (once in November when the dealership got it, and once again in January), new lower intake gasket, valve cover gaskets, plenum gasket and transmission pan gasket/filter (end of January), new heavy duty battery and starter because it shorted out (early February), oil pan gasket (March), etc. It's had at least two and possibly three oil changes since we got it on January 3 because of all the gaskets being replaced. There was a huge oil leak at one point.
Fast forward to yesterday. My son calls on his way home from school. The car is making an awful, loud rhythmic clunking. It increases when he presses the gas and decreases when he doesn't. No warning lights at all, and it stalled once on the way home (about 3.5 miles from school to home). Took it to the mechanic today and he says it has/is a main engine bearing failure. He says it's not worth rebuilding and recommends finding a used engine. The car's computer memory has nothing in it about this. What could have caused this? Would you replace with new or used if it was your car? We've put a good $1500-2000 of repairs into it since we bought it (for about $6K). We've got too much in it to do anything but fix it, and we'll have to keep it until our son is 30 at this rate.
These are the options given to us by our mechanic.
1. Replace with used engine, 2004 Buick LeSabre with 68,000 miles, car not in accident but no one wanted to buy it due to cruise control sticking issue which was not an easy, inexpensive fix. He says it has nothing to do with the engine. He would have to replace some non-engine parts in the Pontiac to get the proper fit but the total, bottom line, includes all parts, labor, and tax is $2700.00. 90 day warranty. This engine has been available for 2-3 weeks and could be gone at any time.
2. Replace with brand new complete engine. Total including everything is $3900. 3 year/36,000 mile factory warranty good at any GM dealer.
3. Rebuild this engine. They will not do that at this shop. None of his mechanics have the experience needed so we would have to take it somewhere else. His issue with rebuilding is there is frequently damage that's not visible so is not reworked. Then when other problems come up later they have to tear the engine apart again to fix them. He says the main bearing likely has damaged other internal components.
Any thoughts or suggestions? We are going to take it to a dealership to get their estimate as well. We are leaning toward the new engine since it has the nice long warranty.
Thanks,
Lynn
Originally Posted by Sabrewings
