Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/25 for details.
Options
Comments
With the Aurora, many people found their car was using oil. They tended to fill the car up until the dipstick read "full" and they'd find it would soon be 1/2 a quart low or so. As it turns out, they were overfilling the car. The engine takes 7.5 quarts, but many were filling with 8 or more. 7.5 shows about 1/2 a quart low on the dipstick, but it is definitely the correct amount. There is some info circulating that the oil should be checked hot. Not sure if that's true or not. But the 7.5 quart capacity definitely is. So what I do is fill my engine with 7.5 quarts, look at the dipstick, and mentally make that the new "full" mark. If you are overfilling the engine, you will definitely notice oil consumption. Plus, it isn't really very good for anything.
Most of the people who started doing this noticed less oil consumption.
The capacity for the 3.5 is listed as 5.7 liters or 6 quarts. http://service.gm.com/gmtechlink/arcv_pdf/5_02_e.pdf
On page 6-67 of the 2001 intrigue manual, it indicate 6.5 quarts (6.1L), 1 U.S. quart = 0.9463 litre; don't know why GM has different spec. all over the places.
To the guy with the cupped tires-
The rear of the car is much lighter than the rear and, without any passengers or stuff in the trunk may tend to "float" at higher speeds. If the tires aren't rotated as called out for in the owners manual (7500 mi) they will become badly cupped. Once those tires go on the front, the ride is like crap and the only thing left to do is buy a new set of good tires, curse yourself for not following the recommended service intervals.
I'd be surprised if the struts were bad unless you had high mileage.
The car had 36000mls when I bought it and I think that the tires were never rotated: the front tires are at the end of their life while the rear tires are about 3/8 through, but cupped.
I'd try to rotate the tires, but I'm afraid that the almost bald front tires in the rear would allow it to widen tight curves, a undesirable thing on public roads...
I'll be replacing the tires in a few weeks and treat them well, for tires usually last 60000mls with me...
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
Also Quaife(among others) makes a limited slip differential.
After a day, I'm impressed with the ride quality and low noise. Dry traction is fine and I'm still to check it on wet pavement.
Thank y'all.
3trigs : No I didn't clean the mirror brackets. They still look fine. As for no name cheap gas, I avoid it usually. Sometimes if up in cottage country though, that's all there is. Of course up there, it's not cheap.
The old days, i fear, are gone forever.
You can access this by pulling out the center air deflector. It is just snapped in. If i remember rightly there are several snap holder thingees, two on the bottom , at the left and right, in about an inch from the edge. Maybe one in the center. The top may have one in the center. Cannot remember. As always, it is very easily to see how it is held in after you have it out. haha
I lifted up on the vent and slide a thin flat blade screwdriver near the clips to help assist. Carefull on the vinyl dash and the clip locks are only in about 1/4 inch. There is enough play in the vent hole that you do not have to pry hard at all. Just use the screwdriver to pull the vent out after each clip is freed to keep it from re locking. Do one clip at a time as you remove it, be patient and you should not break any.
It is also excessable by removing the black bezel that surrounds the gauges. If i remember i found this to be a little trickier it that more parts had to be removed around the steering column to get at the bezel and there wasn't as much room to get your hands in there. Been a while. Sorry for the vagueness.
Once your in there, there is a snap on the side of the plug with the wires and there is also a plug snap to hold the flasher card to the inside of the dash.
This component is a circuit card with goodies that is inside a plastic black box affair and looks expensive. Did not price it as i was in there to quiet mine down as it was driving me and da wife crazy with the loud clicking. I ended up wrapping it with 1/2 inch felt insulation and cut the infernal noise by at lest half.
If your lights are flashing well on one side and the other is intermittent slow startup on the other i would look closely first at the condition of the bulbs and sockets to ensure good contact.
Sounds like you may have a bulb going bad or developing a high resistance in the filament or socket. Once the current starts to flow, the contact improves until it cools down again.
If you have a ohm meter check for resistance in the bulb and compare it to an identical bulb, should be no more than a few ohms. The filament should be a fine coil with no pitting or oxidization like look to it.
good luck and keep posting to your solution.
Sounds like you may have a bulb going bad or developing a high resistance in the filament or socket.
My lights are all screwed up.
If my headlights are on, and I depress the brake pedal my left rear amber turn signal light illuminates and my right rear brake light does not come on. This does not happen if my headlights are off, my brake lights work fine.
If my headlights are off and my right turn signal is on, when I depress the brake pedal my left front turn signal flashes also, but at a slower rate. So both of my front turn signals flash. This does not happen with my headlights on.
So what could cause my lights to act so screwy with my headlights on/off and brake pedal in/out? Some of you are probably thinking this sounds familiar, because I had this problem last summer and it went away but now it's back for good it seems.
Sounds like the car is possessed!
I read your post a couple of times to find a common link and i know why your going crazy.
Is this problem know constant and consistant?
It would appear that you have a voltage crossover somewhere, say through a shorted switch, socket or perhaps a corroded plug.
One thought may be a short in the steering column between the headlight/parking switch and the signal light switch. Had that one before, still trying to untangle the two hemispheres of my brain from that.
Another thought is that these cars have battery saver mode which probably means a module somewhere. Somehow after a time limit, all lighting loses battery supply or ground to disable them. I have not really gone into any the schemas for this feature and i have not had anyone come to me with this problem yet.
Remembering that you have an air bag and not to touch or play or probe any bright yellow connectors you might try to disable/unplug some systems like say the plug on your brake pedal or perhaps the headlight switch plug to see if your signals behave properly. I hate airbags, from the servicing aspects.
I think someone here had ordered a service book , maybe oldsman?, If i had access to a schematic, it may be possible to find a source for the systems crossing over.
Check any bulbs that have dual filaments in which one may be shorted, feeding source voltage where it does not belong.
If you feel energetic, you may try removing bulbs and leaving them out until some sanity returns to the controls. For instance, Each headlamp assembly has its own plug so the front can be disabled real quick.
The above are ideas off the top of my head in no particular order, just thinking out loud.
Does the problem happen if your headlights are on automatic?, ie. the headlamp/parklight switch off. Throw a rag or something over the sensor and get the auto s to kick in.
You could try unplugging the brake bulbs and see what happens. For that matter, unplug low beams and see what happens, then the high beams etc. etc. The signal bulbs up front have a dual filament shared with with the DRLs.
Can you get a free code scan to see if you have any body control codes?
Have you ever had a dealer look at this problem? Did they have any idea? would it happen for them?
If you could unplug the flasher unit i mentioned earlier, it would be interesting to know if your brake lights functioned normally with lights off and on.
I lot of ideas and suggestions but some times it takes a stream of them to help you focus and keep you from running around in circles.
Try to think of simple reasons first before you go head deep. Like my old boss liked to say, "give someone enough rope and they will end up hanging themselves"
Yep, this problem is constant now.
Does the problem happen if your headlights are on automatic?
The problem happens either way, auto or manual.
Can you get a free code scan to see if you have any body control codes?
Autozone will scan it for me for free, but would an electrical problem like this show up in the OBD?
Have you ever had a dealer look at this problem? Did they have any idea? would it happen for them?
I got the notorious "could not duplicate". However, at that time it was more intermittent, now it is constant.
Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to try and pull some fuses and check my battery connection. I'll check the bulbs too.
I have an extended warranty (Warranty Gold), but unfortunately I think their underwriter went bankrupt and they aren't paying claims. It'll probably be out of pocket unless I can get WG to reimburse me.
Every, and I mean every 4 cylinder Honda I have been in vibrates at stoplights with the car in gear.
You would be happier with a V6 Accord I think.
Jgriff had his problem and there are countless others.
The VVT, lower 1st gear and lower final drive gives the CTS the punch off the line that the Intrigue didn't have.
But if you have to pay 35K to get it how you want then there are other options.
I think 3trigs wants to stay under 25K. So the small Acura is closer to that range, but I am not buying a 4 cylinder.
Unless it is a Sabaru WRX STi with a smoother running boxer 4.
3trigs : Accord is a good car, but it's nothing special. That's my main issue with it (as well as the rear end).
Speaking of handling and refinement (I guess lack thereof in this case), I read that the next Stang will still have a solid beam rear suspension except for the Cobra model.
So total is less than 300K in 5 years. 3.5 introduced in the 99 model year so best guess is about 150K 3.5 engines.
had a laundry list of problems over the years - similar to what everyone else has.
just traded for honda accord - got $4200 in trade for Olds (65k miles)
PS - advertised the intrigue for 3 weeks in a row in the local paper; week 1 ($6500 OBO); week 2 ($5800 OBO); week 3 ($5500 OBO) - got a total of 5 call over the treee weeks and only one showed to look at it. paper reaches 100,000 +
OTOH, a 2000 Camry CE with the same equipment but only the 4 cyl comes in at $9150 and a V-6 LE at $10,160. A 4 cyl Accord DX comes in at $8300 and a 6 cyl LX at $11K.
So it would appear that the Intrigue is in the same ballpark, depreciation-wise, with its domestic competitors and that they all suffer in comparison to the competing imports.
If one is buying with resale in mind, buying American is a mistake.
Maybe one day I'll wake up and realize this. Of course, I keep my cars for 6-7 years, so maybe it doesn't matter as much.