just mine? or all grand prixs?

**Jakegday** · 03-15-2009

hello. first of all, dont take this the wrong way, im not "dogging" on grand prixs, i love grand prixs and have no plans of getting rid of mine, even though.....

i was wondering if i just got a bad one or if all grand prixs in general are giant piles of Sbomb??

i bought a 2001 grand prix gt with 79,000 miles in november. yes, novemeber of 2008. keep in mind i bought the car "as is" so there are absolutely no lemon laws that apply to me in this state. also, the carfax history report came back ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS, not one bad mark anywhere on that. (even though you can clearly tell one of doors has been repainted, very poorly)

since november this car has had numerous problems. i had to replace the driver side window motor and regulator. i did that myself so the part was around $110 i believe. noticed a high pitch noise coming from under the hood, turns out that was the belt tensioner, i did that myself so it costed me $75 (tensioner and coolant) next is when my ABS and traction conrol quit working, that was a broken wire, ended up being $130 to have the shop figure it out and install the new wiring harness. now were at the oil leak i noticed the first week of owning it. since i cant replace a rear main seal plate gasket in my apartment parking stall, the shop charged $780 for that job, it costed a little extra cuz in the middle of that repair they noticed my passenger side CV shaft was leaking grease. thankfully they just charged me for the part there. my car started making a squeaking noise from the front during average daily driving, and the noise stopped right when i pressed on the brakes, so i changed the front brakes and had the rotors turned, about $40 there. 2 days later and the noise is back by the way...... anyways while making that repair i noticed my driver side CV shaft is now leaking grease. the shop quoted me around $160 which i will be paying wednesday. ALSO, since owning the vehicle the SES light has come on probably a hundred times, good ol p0171 there. i was thinking about having the shop track down the source of that since obviously everything ive tried (and spend a little more money on) has done nothing to fix that problem.. ive also replaced the battery,($75) no biggy, but for owning the car for only 3 months it was kinda disappointing

so yeah.... maybe its just me but that seems like a little much for the first 4 months of owning a car. does everyone else have buttloads of problems with their grand prixs, or did i just get a bad one??

**nutcase** · 03-15-2009

looks like someone didnt take car of it BEFORE you. Thats probably why they where selliing it.They trash the car and sell it to you,and you gots to fix everything.

But now the you have everything out of the way..Enjoy your nice "new" Pontiac!

**Iron Indian** · 03-15-2009

I got 2 high mileage well taken care of GTPs and I haven't had a 1/4 of your problems. Thats all I can say....

**BiggRiggs** · 03-15-2009

Sounds like you got a bum deal to me.

I've never owned a grand prix, but have put over 150k miles on w-bodies in the past 8 years and have not had that many problems.

Not to say I've never had problems, but nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing that didn't make sense as to when it happened. (Like a shot battery on a 6-year old/80k mile car, or a window switch dieing at 7 years/90k miles. Stuff like that).

Good luck man. Hopefully you caught everything that can go wrong and are set for a good long while of nothing but fun driving.

-Riggs.

PS.....As far as the P0171, hopefully someone else can chime in about this one as I have never seen it, but consider changing your front o2 sensor, replacing the fuel filter, and check the fuel pressure at the schrader valve on the fuel line.

**Sabrewings** · 03-15-2009

The rear main seal is obvious as to why things are falling apart. That comes from overfilling the crank case with oil. Someone didn't take care of that car properly.

**Smokin2000gtp** · 03-16-2009

Ya my GTP must have had a ****ty owner before me also. Ever since I bought the car I've been constantly repairing it, once I fix a problem another one starts within a matter of days or if I'm lucky a week or too. Luckily I can do most of all the work myself but still. I've had the car a little over a year and have had to replace a ridiculous amount of things.

**WhiteDevil** · 03-16-2009

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

The rear main seal is obvious as to why things are falling apart. That comes from overfilling the crank case with oil. Someone didn't take care of that car properly.

thats only one of the many reasons for the rear main to go bad.

Too much crankcase vacuum will cause front or rears to leak, bad install, dirt on the mating surfaces, ect.

Its just sounds like you got a commuter, thats all.

**04CompG** · 03-16-2009

the thing ive learned about w-bodys is if you take care of it from the get-go, then you will probably have good luck with it. but man, once you let it go maint. wise it will sh*t on you and won't stop sh*ting on you until you get rid of it.

over the years from being on these boards i can't tell you the number of people who have come on here saying , "well i just bought this GP with 75K+ miles on it and ever since i got it its been in the shop..." its all too common. a lot of people beat on GP's, its almost like a fact. expecially gtps. I would be very very very cautious buying a used GTP these days.

**justwhisen** · 03-17-2009

I have had alot of the problems you have had, but I also have 165,000 mi on mine.
I also played catch-up on my wifes neglected maintence.

**Jakegday** · 03-19-2009

hello again. just wanted to thank everyone for their input. without a doubt in my mind this car was not taken care prior to me owning it. weather it was beat on or just poorly maintained, i cant believe its previous owner did not know this car was going downhill

i just got my car back from the shop today. along with the cv shaft, i did decide to have them track down the source of my p0171 code. it turns out the upper intake plenum had a hole melted through it right above the egr port. the exhaust pressure tested nearly perfect so their only guess was the previous owner let the catylic converter get WAAY to bad before having it replaced.
anyone ever hear of that happening? the guy said that it is common for that part to go bad, but not in the way mine did.

so yeah...... HOPEFULLY i do have a nice new pontiac now that will last me for a long long time.

**Scimmia** · 03-19-2009

Wow. As the mechanic said, it's common for the plenum to go bad around the EGR inlet, but I've never heard of it melting a hole above it. That's nuts.

Glad you got everything taken care of

**MARKS99** · 03-24-2009

At least they put oil in it! lol

**FuglyGTP** · 03-25-2009

My GP was neglected before I bought it at 57,000. I kind of let it go for a year and a half or so after I had some initial repairs done to it and now I'm def playing catch up. I beat on my GTP all the time.

**DC1263** · 03-25-2009

Maintain it before it goes bad or you'll be repairing it after it goes bad

All depends on how you look at things.

**GTX** · 03-25-2009

Originally Posted by Smokin2000gtp

Ya my GTP must have had a ****ty owner before me also. Ever since I bought the car I've been constantly repairing it, once I fix a problem another one starts within a matter of days or if I'm lucky a week or too. Luckily I can do most of all the work myself but still. I've had the car a little over a year and have had to replace a ridiculous amount of things.

get rid of it and start fresh

**Smokin2000gtp** · 03-25-2009

Originally Posted by GTX

get rid of it and start fresh

Unfortunately being a college student and everything money is not on my side. If I could get even close to what I paid for it I'd demod and sell it in a heartbeat and get a nicer GTP, but with the economy this way that is very unlikely. Plus I already bought some used Koni's and voglants and am about to redo most of my suspension, so I figure I already have enough stuff replaced on my car that it should last me quite awhile now...well except for the trans lol.

**Blacknight02GT** · 03-25-2009

I've has my 02 GT for over 4 years and its got almost 55k on it and I can count on one hand the number of repairs I've done to it. It has been a great car and all I've had to do is basic maintenance aside from a wiper trans/bent metal tab, washer fluid pump, and driver wheel bearing at 33k. Sounds like you got a certified previously abused GP!

**98GTPCALGARY** · 03-25-2009

My 98 GTP was kinda the same way, But I got a good deal on the car, so I dont mind spending some time in my shop with it. But ya, mine was definitly
"Road hard, and put away wet!"

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