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Comments
My kids leave the middle modular seat in the 2nd row with the back flipped down as an arm rest/drink holder. They climb into the backseat over this opening, they have never complained. They are ages 13, 10, and 8.
I have been in the back seat several times for various reasons, and I find it very easy. From either side door, just flip the back of the modular seat forward, and then tumble it forward. This requires only flipping 2 separate levers and takes about 5 seconds. Then you have easy access to the back seat for just about anyone.
BTW, when I bought the van I was hoping to get the 2nd row captains chairs, now I wouldn't trade the 8 pass seating for anything. It is much more flexible and useful in my opinion, and I have previously owned a van that had captains in the second row. The versatility of the 8 pass seating setup makes the GM vans a best buy of any and all minivans in my opinion. The rear seat can fold flat to the floor, and I can load up with most anything, and I still have seating for my family of 5.
Get the 8 pass seating you will not be disappointed.
We had the same config in the Lumina Van, although it was just two seats in the very rear.
So when we went for the Venture in 2000, the eight seat was a no cost option.
The flexibility of being able to remove the five seats or flip forward on a individual basis in my opinion beats the captain chair set up.
The middle row seats at the doors flip forward quite easily as per the prvious posting.
Our last van had captain's chairs in the second row, and to be honest, I wouldn't trade for anything - with three children the van fills up quickly.
One interesting note for parents with young children who have this configuration: If you use the tether and the isofix attachment (instead of the seatbelt) you can raise the whole seat forward to let folks out of the third row rather than having to disconnect the car seat.
-Dan L.
'01 Montana (w/ Montanavision!)
DD
Putting the seat back down and then having to flip the entire seat forward and the reverse it all was too much of a chore for our smaller children.
2 & 3) Have the computer read.
4) Are you using OEM wipers?
5) Bummer, someone's gonna have to take that apart and look. Do you have a door slammer in the house?
6) Paint bubbling on the front bumper? Painter sneezed at the factory?
Your problems all seem to be up front. What are the three impacts in an accident?
1) Vehicle hitting an object.
2) You hitting the inside of your vehicle.
3) Your organs hitting the inside of you.
I always thought there was a 4th impact,
4) All of the parts in a vehicle hitting the inside of the vehicle. Sort of a violent sudden impact jarring and stressing every part of the vehicle (something like your organs hitting the inside of you), it couldn't help computers, wiring, bearings, window motors or the paint on the front bumper.
I have seen brand new cars at dealers that were damaged, repaired and sold as new more than once. Your problems are all up front, there may be another issue here.
Just an observation
I don't think the door window problem is associated with door slamming. This is my wife's van and starting about 6 months ago the window would stop about half way up. The window is pitching forward while it's going up. If you pull back on the front edge it goes up. I puuled the door panel off and nothing looked broken but everything is assembled on one big assembly (window, speakers, etc). I bet GM will want to replace the entire assembly rather than fixing the problem.
The transmission will sometimes start sounding like a bad waterpump or P/S pump bearing after I come off a highway. After that the tranny shifts REALLY hard. Doesn't do it all the time, though.
The last problem is the keyless remote. It stopped working one day. New batteries and using the reset procedures to synch the remotes to the receiver didn't do the trick. If I knew where the receiver was I might swap it out with a junkyard unit. The rest of the locking system works fine. Anyone know where the receiver is located?
Other than these things we love our 99 Ext Montana with 76K miles on it. BTW, GM rebuilt the engine at 36K under warranty for a start-up knock that was still there after the rebuild.
I was wondering if anyone out there knows of a good place to get body parts for these vans. Since the other guys insurance is paying, I would like to do some of the work, and keep the change. Thanks.
Has anyone seen this before? I wonder if the sensor is going bad.
Thanks,
Matt
They dianosed it as a bad transmission pump. Shaft and bearings of pump then proceded to take out many of the moving parts of the tranny, to the tune of an $1800 complete rebuild.
Transmission shop says that GM is using a less robust pump than in years past, and is seeing more of these type failures. He showed me the internal damage once it was disassembled, and it wasn't pretty.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Mikey
FYI - the sensor is located in front of the radiator and is small metal with wires coming out of it and a metal strap and single bolt attachment point. It looks sort of like a old condenser (if that doesn't make me feel old, describing a points-style ignition part). The manual shows how you can test it, you measure the Ohm resistance and at certain temps it gives the resistance. I don't have this in front of me to give you the data however. Obviously if your is like mine and shows sub-20deg F temps on a 80deg. day it will probably be far enough off that you will be able to tell. Also check the connections for corrosion. Sounds like you'll need a new one. ONlly other option was if that if the sensor was to spec, was to repace the DIC/Trip computer head.
DD
Fortunately it had recovered by the car wash people, but it appears the the plastic bumper has two holes and a metal insert goes in and and the plate screws into those. It was just a push fit to put it back.
Has any body else had this problem or any other solution.
Tomek
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
I have also compared the TC MPG to my manual method and came back with the computer giving consistantly .7 higher. If it was a "amount of fuel to fill" error, eventually if you did it constantly they would cancel themselves out, right? Overall its a neat feature.
Wife was near work and she called the motorpool guys she knows and they came with gas for her. I was hoping the towtruck idiots wouldn't take advantage of her perdicament.
I reminded her to use the fuel gauge, not the "range" - as that is an estimate! And I'm the one who usually is pushing the envelope on running out of fuel! We're tanking up a bit more conservatively now :~)
ps. I have a '98 Olds and I think they are great vehicles. It has been hardest to convince my friends I've not lost my mind buying one instead of some SUV, but I don't care what they think really.
GM did take a few features away though like the third row 50/50 seat does not slide anymore. The middle captain seats are harder to climb around when getting into the back seat. The cup holders were moved to the dash and now block access to the switches and spillage may cause damage. The radio antenna on the front fender stinks. The grill on the new van is cheaper than the old van.
Overall we are pretty happy with the new van and the "new smell" is nice while it lasts. I hope the reliability is better on this van and our old one was just a lemon. I did buy the 5yr/100k mi warranty through Warranty Gold yesterday just incase we experience some of the same problems like the intake manifold gasket leak.
We looked at other GM vehicles, but the Bonneville is too small with 2 kids and 3 dogs. The Tahoes are smaller on the inside than the Montanas and much more expensive to buy and keep fuel in them. And the Suburbans our way too expensive.
The MSRP sure went up from '99 to '02. The $3000 rebate helped bring the price back in line. We looked for the Oldsmobile Sil. but you can't find them around here.
The DVD in the van is our first DVD player and all the kids movies are on VCR tapes. Has anyone tried buying a power converter and using a standard 110V VCR with the A/V jacks in the van? If so, what wattage power converter did you use?
Thanks,
Matt
Also has anyone ever had a problem with the automatic lights not coming on? This has happened a couple of times to me. One time all the dash lights went off including the clock/radio while the headlights were on.Just another mystery- any clues?
you should be concerned about your purchase in my opinion. If you have a 90 day return policy or lemon law in your state, I'd return it unless they offer some dang good warrenty on that vehicle. Not only do you probably have transmission trouble, but it sounds like there are eletronic issues as well. The eletronic control system is quite complicated and although most of it handled by a computer, trying to figure out what sensor or switch is bad could take a typical tech quite a while.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'd hound the dealer to fix this stuff and no charge you a dime. They sold you a vehicle with troubles and they need to fix it.
I don't know about loss of power but check fuel quality, air filter, knock sensor, vacuume leak, etc.
The electronics - original equipment batteries are said to be junk and some dripped acid on the wiring harness just below the battery box. The service manual also will give techs a step by step diagnoisis of systems if they bother to follow it. The electric door section is about 30 pages in itself, with all the interlocks and whatnot.
Good luck,
DD
On another note I had them rotate the tires and they said the brakes needed new pads and the drums or whatever turned. They offered to do this for 200 something. Not that I don't trust them but how often do brakes usually need to be done? I'm going to have a local brake place take a look. If it is true that they need replacing already (at 20,000 MI) Is there anything that could be causing this early wearing down on the brakes by a manufacturing defect? Just wondering.
RE: brakes
Well, hard to say if you really need brake work or not. If you take them at their word, its not unreasonable to wear that fast. The van is pretty heavy and with an automatic trans takes a lot of brakes to stop. My wheels get covered in brake dust fairly quickly from commuting in traffic - which shows you how fast its wearing the pads. It depends on the driver and where you are.
Regarding if you actually need it or not, its hard to say. Some people will say anything below 1/2 way worn needs replacing, and that is the safer bet if you don't take the vehicle in for service regularly. But, since its typically only partially worn, its sort of a judgement call in some respects (unless they are actually measuring) and one way to look at is that its a good way to increase the cash-flow for the shop! Maybe they have a boat payment coming up at the end of the month? Turning the rotors is probably not really needed at 20k but you never know unless you look at it and all the techs are taught to turn them everytime. I seriously doubt your back brakes need anything, as they wear slower than the front. Much slower, I'd bet you get like 60k miles or more out of the back.
You could have them measure how thick the remaining pad is on the worst one (they wear differently sometimes) and then ask for the parts when they finish the work to confirm. I do my own so I don't know about the cost but $200 seems a bit high for less than 1 hour of work, but not outrageous.
Overall, people here are happy with their vans and the transmission has actually been a strong point over other makes with chronic tranny failures, so consider that and let us know how you fare in the future.
DD
98 Olds Silo GLS
Really I'll probably toss the Generals and get 4 new michelins I think it'll ride and handle better.
Replaced tires and front pads; added just under 2 gallons of Dexcool/H2O to the cooling system; changed oil & filter every 4-5k miles.
My wife's hoping for another 50k of trouble-free driving.
Try a Toyota V6 like in the camery/highlander if you want to talk about engine sludge and engine rebuilds.
I got my van used and while it does have the coolant problem, it has otherwise been very solid and is very reliable, comfortable, etc. If the Honda's are still overpriced when this one dies, I'd get another one.
My findings, in a nutshell, on minivans:
1. All the manufacturers have people who love 'em unconditionally, and people who say "I'll never buy another _______ product as long as I live!!!"
2. Honda & Toyota are awesome vehicles, but extremely overpriced.
3. Nissans (of which I'm a longtime fan) seem small.
4. Fords & Chryslers seem to have more instances of major, high-dollar, strand-you-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-type problems.
5. Venture seems to be a no-nonsense, functional vehicle without too much of the strange gadgets & silly, useless high-tech stuff. (Just saw on edmund's home page that lincoln navigator has power running boards........how ridiculous is THAT?!?!)
With 3 small kids, my pathfinder is ok but getting cramped. Another year or so & it'll be way too small--a van will be ideal.
The gas mileage on these seems to be around 20-ish (city/highway avg), is that right? (in past experience, epa mileage ratings are often way off base from "real world") 20 + is pretty good, if so. I've driven a couple & engine seems to have fairly decent power to get that kind of mpg. Engine/trans seem to have a decent reputation.
Does anyone do their own oil changes? Can you do one on this van quick & clean, or, like so many cars built the last 10 years or so, is it a big messy headache, where the filter is accessible only to those who are contortionists with little bitty hands? How bout air & fuel filters? Plugs & plug wires? (I've had cars where this kind of routine maint. could be completed in about an hour's time--and cars where it was pretty much an all day project!) Just curious, in popping the venture's hood, it honestly looks a little daunting. I like to do my own routine maint., not only because I'm cheap, but because of a few instances of incredible incompetence I've encountered with auto repair "professionals" over the years!
Lastly, what's this "coolant loss problem" being described? That's a little scary. Where's the coolant going, & what do you do to fix it?
I hope to get my van in the next couple months (or maybe tomorrow, who knows...) & keep up with this edmunds discussion. Hopefully I can provide some occasional insights, or if not, I can at least keep everybody really confused!
sorry for the long post!
Thanks, jeb
The owners will be along shortly to give you their responses - I seem to recall that the triplets get even better mpg than that.
Steve
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Have a 98 Venture with nearly 50,000 miles. I have no major problems except piston slap at 25k. That was repaired under warrantee. Front brakes lasted about 25k, rear should be good for about 75k. Driven mostly in city traffic and get about 19.6 mpg. It gets near 30 on highway. Interior holding up very well. No rattles. Do my own oil changes every 3000. It is no problem with the right oil filter wrench. Spark plugs are supposed to be good for 100k but are nearly impossible to get at back 4. Not worried about replacing them at the moment.
No complaints about the performance.
I doubt the cooling seepage problem can't be fixed with a new gasket and some RTV, but I'm holding out until it gets worse, I just stick a gallon of h20 in the back just in case. Other vans have worse problems.
Decide if you want 4 capt chairs or bench. chairs like I have are nice and make it easy to get to the back 3rd row, and you probably won't load 3 abreast in the middle often.
I also got the extended. if you're going to drive a van, what's the use of having a shorter one? they drive about the same.
I get 22-23+mpg and I commute in heavy traffic in it running the AC. Get REAR AC if you even think you have hot weather and might carry people in the back, otherwise they will suffer.
I would not say toyota is awesum, its expensive and has its shortcomings, including less room, terrible soft handling and a motor that sludges up. I like the way Olds tuned the van, try one. Major difference between that and the pontiac I drove, but the tires were also different and that makes a big difference.
Oil changes are easy, but the filter is above a metal engine cradle frame brace - however its not very hard to deal with and you can get your arm in there and the filter out no problem. putting a new belt on took all of 5 min. air filter box is not super easy but once you look at its design and make sure the lower tabs are engaged you'll be fine. Other stuff, like the alternator, will involve removing more stuff and possibly tipping the motor forward. All minivans are not easy to service, as you noticed, but the 3.4 is a compact motor thanks ot the much-malighned pushrod design.
I doubt you'll need plug wires on it for quite a while, they have coil packs so wires are short and ignition is a no-brainer. Some poeple up north have had some corrosion on the wire contacts at the coil, but just clean it up.
oh yea, some GM batteries were utter junk and leaked acid all over the place. Try to look at the wiring harness below the battery and see if its been patched. the acid on a few ate the wiring harness and repairs had to be made, and some people have electrical problems stemming from inadequate repairs of that problem. and the electrical systems on these is very complex compared to my '95 dodge. you don't want to get electrical problems if you can help it.
some like mine had alternators replaced before I got it at 60k
Good luck -
Bought our WB Venture in late April 2001, now it has about 10,500 miles as it's weekend and daytrip use only, plus it's our 3rd vehicle. No problems so far, on trips to BC Canada on I-5 while setting the cruise to 63 MPH, I've avgeraged about 28 MPG. My 1st choice when looking was the Olds because it looked the sharpest, but it didn't offer seating for 8 nor integrated child seats. A few questions here if anyone has the answers:
1. How do you access the neg. terminal on the battery in case I want to jump start?
2. When it's time to replace the orig. Firestone FR 680 tires, what should I use? From what I've read, it seems they aren't ideal though I have no complaints.
3. Saw this in an old msg. from someone else but never answered. Any ideas to hook up a tv tuner to the VCP/video monitor? Any pocket tv's out there that will work?
Thanks,
MV man
Seattle, WA
2. I got mine used with sears michelins on it and am very impressed with handling and wear, but they are probably about one of the most expensive tires you can put on it.
3.?
DD
Experience with '99 Montana:
1. General tires worn out around 53000 miles. Replaced them with Futura's from Pep Boys. They are made by Cooper, 80k mi tire, $280 for the set installed. I went to a 225-70-R15. The van rode much better with the larger tire. I almost asked the dealer to swap tires when I bought the '02
2. Front brake pads wore out around 65000 mi. Rear pads still had several miles to go. Also had xmsn oil & filter changed at same time.
3. Replaced plug wires at around 68000 mi. because two of them were rusted bad at the coil end of the wires. We live in NC, don't know why they rusted, but engine was steam cleaned around 25000 mi. after a repair. I put the front tires on a set of ramps and was barely able to reach the back 3 plug wires. Had to reach along exhaust pipe coming from manifold. Long skinny arms were a plus.
4. Had intake manifold gasket replaced around 65000 mi. Noticed it running down side of block around 24000 mi. Extended warranty covered it.
5. Gas mileage was great, usually got around 25 mpg. Large tank was nice, could drive from NC to Jacksonville, FL on one tank.
6. Leather interior with captain seats great for messy 4 yr & 6 yr old. Easy to clean up. The '02 has same seating, but also has Montana Vision. Trips to town have never been so quiet!
7. 3.4L engine powerful and responsive. Much better than the '02 Grand Caravan rental that the dealer gave me when our '99 was in the shop. The visibility out of the Grand Caravan was horrible also. But the Grand Caravan was very quiet inside, tough to tell if the engine was running.
8. Air pump in back also nice feature, handy for pumping up tires. Also used it to pump up spare tire as they tend to be flat when you need them.
9. Trade in for '99 was not too good. Had the van for 3 yrs and it had 74000 mi. It was fully loaded and I managed to get the dealer up from $11000 to $12500. They are trying to sell it for $14000.
10. The '02 has power doors on both sides and it is great. No more slamming the middle door on the drivers side into the drivers door.
11. The built in garage door opener on the '02 has much better range than the '99 that used our opener inside the compartment.
I did purchase another 100,000 mi extended warranty knowing the problems that could happen and the cost to fix them. Also with all the electronics on the vehicles now days, there is more to go wrong.
Happy trails!
Found that out when I opened it when the other doors were locked and it set off the alarm.
I locked and unlocked it repeatedly with no effect on the liftgate lock. Any ideas?
Mikey
Steve
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What concerns me is that my gas mileage is terrible (in my opinion). Sticker said 19/26. If I do all highway at between 55-75, the best I get is 23. All local, stop and go, I get 15. My average right now is about 18 (DIC indicates 18.7).
Is it normal to get this low mileage in the early days of ownership? Use the AC a decent amount, but really just recently.
Slow around here on the holiday! Everyone else, feel free to jump im :-)
Steve
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SUVs, Vans and Aftermarket & Accessories Message Boards
I know you're not supposed to, but in the past with other vehicles for jump starting, I've had to connect - to - and + to +, otherwise following the instructions never worked for me.
As to mpg efficiency I believe the max. curve for efficiency is around 55-60 mph anything below or above that affects it tremendously. Using the CC also helps. Stop and go city driving is always a big drop-off.
unsnap the fusebox from the fender support brace. Pull aside. Unbolt and remove the fender brace. Use side terminal special wrench to remove battery wires. remove battery.
gas milage - You may have a bad thermostat "stuck open" keeping the engine cool and in "warmup" mode and burning a lot more gas. Or the temp sender could be bad, doing the same thing. You can have that checked.
Also, try easing into the throttle from stops, don't "stab" it.
DD