A bunch of little stuff adds up

[Deezul_AwT]

I sold my Grand Prix at a huge lost compared to what I spent on it last year. I wish I had sold it last year before I went all in on repairs, but I wasn't thinking that I'd have all the problems I had last summer. Brakes and tires were all I thought I'd have to deal with. But I had rack & pinion problems, power steering problems, and my transmission losing overdrive. THAT'S when I should have thrown in the towel and just parted it out.

[16MustangVet]

bottom line these cars are cheap to buy cheap to fix an easy to work on.
at the end of the day I laugh about people crying about what a brake job cost them on their audi.........

[Timing]

got my 04 compg about 6 months or so ago, so far this is what ive done off the top of my head

radio + wire harness(6 disc broke)
headlights
headers
frotn o2 sensor
plugs+wires
lim gasket+coolant elbows
power steering pump
front wheel bearings
right cv axle
front rotors+ pads
belts
tensioner pully
trans filter and fluid change
3 oil changes
fuel filter
pcv valve
flushed coolant and changed to green global
tstat
sc oil
fixed hud(stupid spring)
battery
egr delete cus leak in hose
oil pan bolt
blower motor
blower resistor
cabin filter
intake
and soon to be ac condensor
and possible motor mounts

So ya dont feel bad i paid 8 grand for mine but now everything is almost new and its running great

[02NavyBlue]

Hmm how many miles?
I should update the post as I've done more
I replaced my radio faceplate
My headlights are already replaced
I've been thinking about headers, unlikely that I'll go through with it
I'm doing plugs + wires
Intake gaskets will be needed eventually
I'm putting new rotors on
My serpentine belt is dry rotted
I'm doing a trans pan drop+filter
I'm changing my fuel filter
I'm doing a coolant flush, and tstat

So more to go. Good experience for me though, it's fun to work on.

[Timing]

Hmm how many miles?
I should update the post as I've done more
I replaced my radio faceplate
My headlights are already replaced
I've been thinking about headers, unlikely that I'll go through with it
I'm doing plugs + wires
Intake gaskets will be needed eventually
I'm putting new rotors on
My serpentine belt is dry rotted
I'm doing a trans pan drop+filter
I'm changing my fuel filter
I'm doing a coolant flush, and tstat

So more to go. Good experience for me though, it's fun to work on.

It had 89k on it when i got it and has 95k now, granted i didnt have to do all of it. I do preventive maintanance

[Deezul_AwT]

bottom line these cars are cheap to buy cheap to fix an easy to work on.
at the end of the day I laugh about people crying about what a brake job cost them on their audi.........

That's why I bought my GP. I had the Impala, so more or less the underpinnings on the GP are the same. Cracked open the Haynes manual and changed brakes and hubs like nobody's business. Had some help doing the UIM, and if I had planned ahead, I would have done the LIM then as well. Brake pads are brake pads, so if you do the work yourself, those Audi pads are the same. But for someone who owns an Audi, they're likely only going to take the car to the dealership or the "European car Specialist" shops that will charge a premium because they know they can.

[stealthee]

One thing I can vouch for on VW/Audi is some parts are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I remember when my cousin had a mid 90's Jetta and needed plug wires. Now those plug wires are no different than any other normal plug wire, but the cheapest set of plug wires available for it were over $100.

[Frosty]

I have done something pretty evil in the past for leaky rims.... Silicone along the beads (With the tire off fill the beads and remount)..... Took my brothers cars unusable stock rims from 20psi a week loss on 3 of 4 rims to zero.... Yes it makes a mess of the rim and yes tire shops wont redo it for you if they take the tires off but his car is worth 300$ tops and the rims were going in the recycle bin anyways. 2 years later and as far as I know he has only had to add air twice.

[stealthee]

The best way to deal with leaky rims is to use a wire wheel and take off the corrosion.

I was losing air on the factory spilt 5 spokes. I bought some new tires and took them to a buddy's shop to get them mounted. Since he was a frined he mounted the rim to the balancer and turned on the drill with the wire wheel against the bead. The wire brush caused the wheel to spin and it cleaned the hell out of the bead. After that, no more leak, and best of all, no messy silicone idea.

[02NavyBlue]

I'm scheduled to take it to my college auto shop on Thursday to dismount the tire, and use steel wool to take all of the corrosion off. The end may be near.

[RareGMFan]

We may love these cars, and some of us may come away with fairly trouble free examples, but lets face the facts. We're driving cars built by GM during a 3 decade period where they were trying to build cars as cheap as possible. When the trim on your door panels is STAPLED on (the black strip at the top of them), you know you have a pretty cheap car. Yes, the motors can go forever if you maintain them and take care of the LIM gasket before catastrophe, and yes, even the trans can go for some time if you don't beat on it, but everything else around them will break or fail at some point, especially given how old these cars are now. Couple that with the cost and effort of regular maintenance, and it can sometimes be overwhelming. There's a reason these cars can be had so cheap. In the end, it all balances out. You buy a cheap car for a good price, and your upfront cost may be low, but frequent repairs will make up for it. You buy a nicer from the same year, you may not have things break as frequently, but you will pay more up front for the car, not to mention usually more (in some cases, a LOT more) for the repairs you DO end up needing. There's no winning with used cars.

Having said that, thinking back about mine, I've been fairly fortunate in the sense that nothing major has broken. I bought the car with just under 112k miles on the clock on 08/08/07 for $7500 out the door (includes tax, title, doc fees, etc). It was in phenomenal shape mechanically and cosmetically at the time, especially considering the mileage. Only flaws I found were the right rear window and A/C weren't working when I test drove it, so the dealer agreed to fix at least the A/C as a stipulation to buying it (turned out to be the drier). For some reason, the window started working by itself the next day, and hasn't stopped since! It is now about to hit 176k miles. During that almost 6 years and 65k miles, it's needed a crank position sensor, water pump, MAF sensor (replaced with junkyard one....which I'm about to replace again), both front wheel bearings, both CV axles, outer tie rods, ball joints (replaced with very low mileage LCAs from Ed Morad), front pads (x2), rear pads (x1) and a power steering line. Granted the thing has been through 2 accidents (neither of which were my fault), so the body is pretty rough now (used the money to pay off the car instead of repairing it), and there are a bunch of things I've been neglecting doing (heater hoses, belts should probably be replaced, slow brake fluid leak, EBCM needs to be replaced/rebuilt etc, not to mention it needs a COMPLETE suspension overhaul), but I'll be damned if that sucker doesn't just keep going on the original motor, trans and s/c. Of course....now that I've jinxed myself....

I had planned on dumping a good $3k - $4k into this car since the 2 accidents pretty much paid for it, so my cost of ownership of this car for the last 5.5 years has been extremely low. Can't really buy jack for that kind of money, where as I'd have a car that looks and drives as good, if not slightly better than new if I completed the giant to do list. However, late last fall, the driver's side rocker panel molding fell off while pulling into a parking lot on my way to work because the rocker panel had completely rusted through. That was game over for me. I'm just going to limp it along spending as little as possible on it till I'm in a position to buy a newer/much lower mileage car (1yr of unemployment kinda' drained the bank account a bit).

[02NavyBlue]

Yeah that's true in most cases, although can you look at any other manufacture of the time and say their cars in that price range were really much better "quality"? It's a shame that the body goes before the engine+trans but I wouldn't have it any other way unless I could choose make the body better. In my time of owning my GP I really like how GM built the car. They seem to have taken the time to make things easy to work on for the most part. I mean, the intake manifold says "Hidden bolt" with an arrow on it, the panels are so easy to take off, as well as every other thing that is held on with plastic clips (a ton), the engines are easy to modify, and the regular maintenance on these cars are cheaper and easier than a lot of other cars during their time, and these days as well.

I remember going to a junkyard to get taillights for a ford tempo. There were 7 bolts holding the assembly in that you could get to from the trunk, and one more that was on the bottom, which was actually on top of the bumper, so it would have to come off just to get the tail lights off. It was ridiculous. GP's taillights come off with 3 tabs that can be turned by hand, no tools even needed. The front headlight/turn signal assembly comes out with just 2 10mm bolts, can be taken off in seconds. Some cars cost like $50 in labor just replace a head lamp. I'm really happy overall with the Grand Prix's, and many other GM cars on the same platform. Reliable when taken care of, easy and cheap to maintain, nice look, and it's a car from the time that had 200/240 HP and could still get 17/27 mpg. That said quite a bit, especially in 1999.

[1LoudGrandPrix]

on my 01 i've done:
battery
cat
u-bend
front pass hub (x2)
front half shafts
transmission
belt
brakes (front x2)
spark plugs and wires (x2)
motor and trans mounts
lower control arm bushings
rear sway bar links
LIM gasket
UIM gasket
Valve cover gasket
EGR gasket

oil changes and tires (to be expected)
but that's also over 5 years and from 78k to 160k

[Deezul_AwT]

Name me one car company that does high volume that produces cars that aren't made with a few shortcuts hear and there. Honda and Toyota have had big recalls on their primary vehicles in the past few years that I'm sure no one would have imagined. There is one car that GM makes that they will not cut any corner on, and it is also the one car that it's doubtful any dealer with charger lower than sticker price. If you want a car made to that quality and standard, you pay for it. When BMW and Mercedes start making cards that START at $15,000, you'll see cars with lots of plastic and cars that aren't as dependable. Yes, W-Body cars are not the ultimate driving machine. But they aren't little tiny cars likely to kill you in a fender bender, and even some of the most expensive repairs haven't been so bad that it was cheaper to repair than replace. I'm not getting rid of my 04 Impala any time soon, and the 08 is of course going to need a replacement transmission, but hopefully both will make it to 200,000 without any other major issues.

[Frosty]

The best way to deal with leaky rims is to use a wire wheel and take off the corrosion.

I was losing air on the factory spilt 5 spokes. I bought some new tires and took them to a buddy's shop to get them mounted. Since he was a frined he mounted the rim to the balancer and turned on the drill with the wire wheel against the bead. The wire brush caused the wheel to spin and it cleaned the hell out of the bead. After that, no more leak, and best of all, no messy silicone idea.

These were corroded so bad that even after a nice cleaning they were still leaking. Less then before cleaning but still leaking bad. Normally I wire wheel them and life is good.