Thread: Might buy grand prix. help on engine fire!

so i found a couple grand prixs that look real clean for a fair price. im not a car modder, i like the cargo room and anti lock brakes. the years are 97 and 00 and both have like 150,000k. these seem like decent cars except for when the FREAKING CAR CATCHES FIRE after you park it and leave. looks like it was because oil leaks onto the exhaust manifold and ignites? ive been reading horror stories about this and really would like to know it this is preventable as this is my only qualm about buying the car. i also would be getting the 3.8 non supercharged, maybe a 3.1 if i can find one. help please?

reliability is my main concern here. my 94 saturn's transmission is gone and its running on borrowed time. the 97 is $2200 and the 00 is $2600. id rather spend less and get the 97 so i can change the gaskets

you guys know how much a shop charges to change the valve cover gaskets? if its not hard i could probably to do myself. im no car mechanic but im pretty industrious

the issue that caused the fire is on recall so if you can get the VIN numbers off both cars, you should be able to go to the dealership and take a look to see if they were replaced. Another thing you want to check out is if the lower intake manifold job was replaced. I am handy and did the job myself but i went to the dealership to get a quote just for sh!ts and giggles and they told me 675 bucks NOT including what i did by myself which was replace the valve cover gaskets while i had it apart, paint my valve covers red, and replace my thermostat, and do an oil change with synthetic oil. all which is super easy while doing the job and having everything ripped apart. This all cost almost 200 bucks. If you are not a mechanic and cant do a tune up and/or feel uncomfortable going further than that then please dont try it. you do it wrong and those new gaskets will leak.

i personally think that the 2000's are nicer. mechanically wise for the most part they are the same. 150k is a lot for a 2000 if you consider that 10-15k a year is the average range of mileage. and i also prefer the 3.8's over the 3.1's and 3.4's not that i think those are bad just like the 3.8 much more.

Even if you change the valve cover gaskets to try and avoid a fire, I suspect that the real culprit was the quick disconnects at the fuel lines, which if disturbed even once have a way of leaking and causing a potential fire hazard. I had to replace the o-rings on mine when I swapped motors and its been all good since. And get Fel-Pro valve cover gaskets AND grommets and call it a day. Don't cheap out on those.

The recall was nothing more than them replacing the front plug wire guide w/ an updated version that lead the oil leak to a different location. A crappy bandaid to avoid law suits. FWIW, I'm still running my stock wire guide up front, but have Fel-Pros in place and have yet to see a bit of oil leak.

I personally would go for the 00. The 97's were an odd duck, as well as the 03's. Not hatin on the 97 guys, just personal opinion. And yes, change the LIM gaskets (even on the 3.8's) to the aluminum ones, which all 97-mid-04's suffer from. And I prefer the 3800 to the 3100 any day.

And yes, the 97 GT had the weaker 4T60 vs the 98+ 4T65E (or the 4T65E-HD for the GTP).

I'd walk up w/ $2,400 cash if the 00 is clean and see what they say. Always be ready to walk away. They made a bazillion of these cars so another good one isn't hard to find. I have 265K on my 00 GT and haven't had any major issues with it (aside from me grenading the motor on accident, but was my fault). Still looks better than 80% of the cars on the road today and gets good mileage.

There are a few things that I would check out on either car before buying that are known weak points of these cars. Trans., milky oil, coolant color, etc. If you're not overly familiar with this then just ask and we can be more specific.

well i just checked out the 97. its an SE V6. The seller owns a body shop. he buys cars then turns them over for a profit i guess. this one has been his daily since july because he likes it. it looks and drives fine. he put in the interior of the gtp in this car so now its black leather. the low coolant light was on, he says the car goes through about a soda cans worth of coolant a month but also said his mechanics couldn't find any leaks. he said the light comes on even of the coolant level is like a few centimeters below the full line. the coolant has to go somewhere right? it doesn't just evaporate.

under the hood was normal dirt and grime for a 90's car. there's nothing i can say about it anyway, the saturn's been the only car ive ever owned. the car shifts just fine. is the coolant thing a problem? any red flags? i was planning on getting a pre-purchase inspection by a 3rd party mechanic before i buy it anyway just so i know what the cars about.

edit: the engine said 3800 on it. i assume its a 3.8L

damnit. i assume thats a big problem that cant go un repaired? if theres some comprehensive guide floating around online then cool. but otherwise i dont trust myself doing car repairs