Hi,I`ve got a question. I did not find the yellow wire witch I`am suppose to cut to get rid of the same problem with the ignition on my Oldsmobil Achieva 1995.I`ve found only two wires-black and white. Do You have an idea what shall I do?? thank YOU
I am considering a used Grand Am at this time. I like the 'body cladding' for the ding protection. Too many cars do not have adequate protection in that area and the price will come later! I recently had some minor dings removed on a Camry. The cost averages around $100 per door in my area(paintless removal) according to my repair man and I am not sure what the limit is before the price goes higher.
By the way, my very frugal father has been happy with his newer GT Ram Air V6 for several years, so that has inspired me to look at these cars. Sounds like I should buy his GT sometime, since it has had no problems and has been treated well. I just have to talk him into it! If there is a large aftermarket for the 3.4 V6 that will certaily influence my decision.
Please if you do anything do not buy that car for your daughter. I have a 2002 grand am and I don't know if I just bought a lemon or what. I have had to fork out around $3000.00 to fix this car and is still sitting in the drive way broke down.
If this is a daily driver then I would just stick with name brand resistor plugs. AC or Champion plugs will perform as good as the much more expensive Bosch plugs.
If this is a high performance car that is being raced then you may see the benifits of the Bosch plugs.
Just purchased a 2000 Grand Am Se and it came with only one ignition/door key...........How can I determine if the car is equipped with keyless/remote entry system??
Problem started about a month ago. It happened every few days while driving, speed seems no to matter as it stalled while stopped once. When the car stalls the speedometer goes from zero all the way up and back. The theft system light flashes sporadically and in no real pattern but about 2 blinks per second. Also various other lights are blinking and gauges are going goofy. One time when this happening, a relay on the passenger side of the car near the right side leg area kept tripping back and forth. I am ultimately able to coast down the highway and pull over wait a minute or so and the car starts and accelerates just fine. When I go and crank the engine over after the stall has occurred the starter will try and turn the engine over with no luck. It would be the same type of trying to start if the engine was not getting gas or spark, it just cranks and cranks with no inclination it is trying to start.
Any others having the same issues with solutions would help.
Is there a newer engine that will fit my 92 Grand Am? I have to rebuild the sohc anyway so I might as well rebuild a better one.
Is there a forum that I can go to for cross referencing parts from other cars. I know Hollender has a book,(big bucks), but I have went to free web sights in the past but can't remember where they were. getting old I guess
I HAVE A 2002 GRAND AM 63000 MILES. YESTERDAY WHEN DRIVING IT CUT OUT AS THOUGH THERE WAS WATER IN THE GAS OR FUEL FILTER WAS CLOGGED. CHECKED AND CHANGED BOTH. NOW CAR WILL CRANK AS THOUGH TO START BUT WILL NOT. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
I was just wondering if you ever got an answer as to what was happening with your grand am. I recently began having the same problem with my 2003. Can you let me know what your dealer said?
Hello, I too have a 1996 grand am with similar issues. Nothing has worked in the dash for a few months now and the dome light stopped for a bit yesyerday for a while resulting in complete loss of power, couldnt even remove the key from ignition. After a bit it started and went down the highway, thank god cause I was a long way from home, can anyone help? thanx e schear
:sick: My 2003 Grand Am SE2(Top of the Line)now has a BLINKING security light in the Dash. When i bought this Grand Am in 2002,AND LET ME ADD THIS IS THE 3RD GRAND AM I PURCHASED. This Grand Am was the "Cats Meow" fully loaded nothing Left out. WELL IT LEFT ME OUT IN THE PARKING LOT OF THE GRO STORE ! I had it towed to the Pontiac Dealer ONLY TO FIND OUT IT WOULD COST ME 550.00 TO HAVE THE IGNITION SWITCH REPLACED. But she said the includes having it key to you keys she said. My other Grand Am's did not have any problems. This is why I bought this one in 2002 I really though this was a good product only to find after years and 63,000 miles it will not start. There are other problems but this takes the cake. THIS IS AND WILL BE THE LAST GM VEHICLE I BUY. ARE THERE ANY RECALLS OR DOES GM WANT EVERY ONE WHO HAS THIS PROBLEM TO SPEND 550.00 TO CORRECT THERE MISTAKE ?
If you read your owners manual you might have been able to get it to reset and start, but perhaps you did and it didn't work. This passlock problem has been discussed many times here and in the Alero forum. I don't remember it costing that much to repair on my 99, I think it was about $375.00. Don't know why your keys would have anything to do with it, the lock cylinder doesn't have to be replaced, only the Hall effect sensor on the ignition switch typically. No recalls that I'm aware of for this, but there's most likely TSB's out about it.
Hello all. I've just spent the better part of 3 hours reading through this topic to see if anyone else has experienced what I currently am with my car.
In December, my husband and I bought an 02 grand am se. It's got 180k miles and we bought it used from a dealer, only warranty is 6 month/6k miles with a $100 deductable. We haven't really had any problems with it except for a few "minor" things like the display on the radio/clock doesn't work and you can only see it when the sunlight hits it just right or the turn indicator won't flash but clicks sometimes. During those times, my husband has to click the hazards on and off a few times and then the turn indicators will begin working.
However, we had this huge cold snap come through (Pittsburg, KS) and there's all this snow that we're not used to having and the temperatures have been below freezing. Anywho, my husband works 3rd shift and was on the highway at 11 pm going to work when the car suddenly died while driving down the road. He coasted it over to the side of the road and kept trying to get it to start. Most of the time it wouldn't, though sometimes it would start and he could drive for a couple of miles before it would die again.
It acts like it's out of gas: sputters, stalls, then dies. At first (this has been happening for the better part of a month now) it would crank over but not start. Now, it won't even turn over after it dies.
No lights came on and no codes popped up on the diagnostics from Auto Zone. The first time he had a major problem with it, he came home from work at 8 in the morning and took our oldest daughter to school. He went in to talk to them at the school and when he came back out it wouldn't start. Same thing, crank but not start. I called the dealership because of their warranty and spoke with the mechanic who was going to send a tow truck to pick it up. He informed us it would be several weeks before he could get to it. My husband eventually got the car started (after close to two hours waiting on the tow truck driver) and brought it home. We called the mechanic back and he said to bring it in so he could look at it. Got it there and he wanted us to leave the car for about a week until he could look at it. My husband about had to scrape me off the ceiling.
It went a couple of days before it happened again. That time it was rather short in comparison. The mechanic still wasn't able to look at it. We went to Auto Zone. They hooked it up to their machine again and no codes came back. The worker told us that he'd just experienced the same thing with his car. Water got in the gas whether because of a leak or just watered down gas and then in the freezing temperatures it froze, then when the gas tank was under a quarter of a tank, the fuel pump would suck up a piece of ice, clogging it causing the car to act like it's out of gas. We needed to wait for the ice to melt and then it would be alright, which was why we could let the car sit and then it would eventually start. O-kay... never in my life have I heard of that before and I've come acrossed some pretty weird things with cars.
He suggested keeping the car on a full tank to avoid this issue. Later it started happening even with full tanks of gas. It was then suggested that we treat the fuel to remove the water completely. We bought the highest gas we could which had ethanol, got the fuel treatment, and fuel injector cleaner. Didn't help.
Back to Auto Zone because the mechanic still couldn't see us. This time, it was a bad 02 sensor. Alrighty, which one? Keep in mind that nothing shows up on the diagnostics at all and absolutely no lights show up on the car: no check engine light or anything.
We hunt all over the internet to try to find out where an 02 censor is, how to know which one it is, what all we'll need to get and how much it will cost. We're just getting ready to get both 02 censors even though we don't really know if that's the problem or even which one could be bad, when the car totally went ballistic. He's once again on his way to work at 11 pm and he doesn't even make it back home until around 2:30 am. This time, the check engine light came on.
When the car died, he had to let it sit for about 20 minutes, then it would start and he could drive it maybe 10 mph for about 2 or 3 miles before it died and he had to sit for another 20 minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat for several hours until he made it home. At the end of that round, it got to where if he slowed down or let off the throttle at all it would die, so he had to gun it (it maxed at 35 mp in a 65 mph zone) just to get it home. The check engine light stayed on the whole time.
The next morning he got ready to go to Auto Zone. The check engine light was back off. He had no problems with the car getting it to Auto Zone. However, this time when they hooked it up to their diagnostic it coded misfire on two or more cylinders. They suggested changing the spark plugs and cables. Ok, I don't know who had this car before us, but you'd think the dealership would have done routine maintenance and at least a minor tune up on it before selling it to us, but those spark plugs were n a s t y.
Didn't work. The mechanic talks to us again and says that it could be because of running the enthanol gas that our car may not be configured to take it and that if the gas were the problem, Auto Zone would be liable for the damages if any caused by recommending it to us. He said to run the car as far out of gas as possible and go back to the cheap-o stuff, but that he could finally see the car today but it would need to stay in the shop for about a week.
My husband ran it completely out of gas, where it died and wouldn't start then poured 5 gallons that he had in a gas can into it to get to the station and fill up with the cheap stuff. It's still doing it.
Now the mechanic says that he'll need to keep the car for several weeks until he can get to it, so needless to say it's in my driveway right now.
I've seen on other forums that it's the ignition module, it's the fuel pump, the fuel injectors, the 02 censor, the crank shaft, and then one of my husband's co-workers said that he went through the same thing with his car: he said that he got the exact same treatment with everyone telling him exactly what we've been told and that his problem was the coil pack.
Has anyone else gone through this problem at all and how on earth did you fix it? I hunted and there isn't even a Chilton's book for this model. We're totally stumped and tired of this car breaking down on us more than our last p.o.s.
Well, from the first part of your post I was going to say it's the classic symptoms of either a bad fuel pump or very clogged fuel filter, but reading on I'm not so sure now. Your first mistake was buying a car with 180K on it, especially this model. Your probably just throwing money at it with what your doing. I suggest biting the bullet and taking it to Pontiac and at least having them diagnose it for you. Those guys at Autozone, etc, can put code scanners on it and read diagnostic codes but unless your knowledgeable about what they're telling you you're just chasing your tail.
well, we didn't really have a choice in the type of car we got, we can only afford so much and can only use certain car lots (like the kind that don't do credit checks)
as to the diagnostics from auto zone or the mechanics that have seen it, no codes show up at all and the only code that ever did was the misfire readings.... it sounds like no one, not even pontiac knows what's wrong with a grand am when something goes wrong with it... I agree with you, my first thought was something with the fuel filter, pump, or injectors then thought to check the gas too... after everything I've heard from all these other people it could be something in the ignition module ... I just have no clue where to even look, and even though I'm female, I'm not clueless when it comes to cars, I used to do all of my own maintenance personally, including tune ups and oil changes. So I'm not completely inept but even certified mechanics are stumped by this...
thank you for responding though, I appreciate all help
I haven't had my GA for a while, but as I recall I had CE light and code for 02 sensor and in reality it was Cat converter that had gone bad and was the fix
My son has a Grand Am SE1 V6 and just found out he needs to replace the "defective" intake manifold gasket, a $700 repair. The mechanic said this is a very common failure and the defective gasket fails prematurely due to exposure to Dex-Cool coolant. We understand GM has changed the replacement gasket to correct the defect. The TSB for this issue is 030601010B and was issued in October 2003. Does anyone know if GM has a silent recall for this problem or if GM is reimbursing consumers who have had this problem? :mad:
I have the above car, it has 126680 miles on it. It started having problems about 2-3 weeks ago. The car kept wanting to stall out and the RPMs were fluctuating, meaning the engine was really trying to keep it from stalling out, when that car was idling. I replaced the idle air control sensor and that fixed the stalling out problem but the car still doesn't run right. The car does not want to start, it takes about 2 times to start it with the key, and I have a remote start in it and that takes about 5-10 seconds to start and it seems to choke on, same happens with the key. The engine does sputter, slightly when I idle and the RPMs go up about a line (small lines) or two occasionally. When I am driving at higher speeds (50-60mph) it takes a little more gas to get it to gear down and when I let off the gas it takes a little while for it to gear up. Also, when the car shifts out of overdrive, it seems that its forcing itself to gear up and it slightly jerks the car when it does.
My boyfriend thinks the throttle position sensor needs to be replaced, my friend, Marvin, thinks its something else, maybe a transmission electrical relay problem, the engine is getting too much gas, etc. I have noticed that the car is using more gas than normal but the RPMs are a little messed up due to this problem so that might explain the extra gas usage. Worst case scenario its the fuel pump but the problem doesn't seem to be that. We replaced the spark plugs and the boots and the fuel filter and that nothing for the problem.
Any help with this would be great!!! Thanks Kat :sick: :confuse:
After some time, looks like im back in this forum again. First thanks for everyones help in telling me my ignition switch was going bad. Got that fixed before the winter. Looks like I have a new problem today.
Every time it gets really cold where I live, when I turn left, my left front tire makes a grinding kind of sound. Usually to get rid of it I start my car up and warm it up and it goes away. Today was just like any normal day, started the car, warmed it up and all is well. I took my sister to school and didnt realize that they just placed speedbumps and I cruised over the first one pretty fast and my front end hit the ground pretty hard. I noticed the second one in time and went slow over it. Everything seemed fine. Car still runs smooth, trans isnt acting funny. Looked under the car in case I scraped something badly to cause leaks, none. But as soon as I made a left turn, a heavy grinding sound appeared by the left front tire. This time it was louder than the original. Its only on left turns. Right turns are quiet. Again, everything drives smoothly, shifts smoothly, brakes fine. Just a nasty noise turning left. It doesnt bother me, just would like to know what could be wrong and get it fix when I get money saved up and from tax returns.
Car Info: 99 Grand Am SE, 2.4 Liter twin cam, 101602 miles.
Again thanks for you all your guys and girls in helping this "not so great with cars" person.
took it to a shop where my buddy works at. They inspected and found that my tire rod is ripped and i need new strut mounts. Got the rod fixed since that was important. Mechanic said the struts are good enough to last til the summer and then recommends to get them replaced. Thanks for your inputs.
Did anyone have their hub axle bearing assemblies replaced? The symptom is a loud rumble in the front as the bearing starts to go bad. Looks like the whole assembly gets changed not just the bearing and if one side is bad the other is not far behind. After doing some research it looks like this part is common on many GMs and usually fails by 100K. I am mainly interested in what a repair shop or dealer charged for this. Thanks, Mike
when driving over bumps i hear a grinding noise from under car just wondering if it could be my struts or shocks or well god only knows if you have an answer or suggestion i would be more then pleased to hear it thank you much in advance
i own a 2003 grand am and it makes funny clicking noises that seem to come from heater vents it sounds like the turn signals does any one have any suggestions as to what it may be?
I had a similiar problem that sounded like my turning signals were on. It started off small like *click click* every once in a while and it didnt bother me. Then after about a month or so it was nothing but a constant *click click click....* as if I had my turning signals on in the middle of traffice when I actually never had them on. If its chronic then i believe it haves to do somehting with a switch. If you go to the dealer its going to cost about $300 because they give you a whole new mutli-switch assembly in the steering column. I know I wasnt of much help, but Im just telling you what happened to me and what sounds liek the same issue. Hope sommone with awesome car knowledge helps you
you actually aren't far from right that sounds exactly like my problem you are a bigger help than you think thanks a whole lot I'm actually going to the shop tomorrow hopefully they can help I will have to let you know what they say thank you
I have a 94 grand am with 115000 on a quad 4 2.3L. Number 3 cylinder is missing out, I have had the ignition module and coil packs tested, replaced the coil holder or tower, the plugs and boots. I am getting fire to the plug and a signal to the injector. I have even replace the injector. Ran a compression test and it is within range. Any ideas as what else I can do?
I am very close to buying a '97 Grand Am GT. The seller was very agreeable to discounting her asking price about $600 without blinking an eye. This worried me. The car overall looks very good, but has a couple of areas of cancerous rust; one on the right front fender at the wheel well, and the one that really bugs me, on the passenger side roof about 4" back from the windshield. After reading about the water leaks in another forum, my questions are; is water leaking the norm, or the exception, and has anyone else seen this roof rust as a manifestation of a windshield water leak? Any info appreciated. After my experiences with my Malibu Maxx, I wonder if I should even look at another GM car.
A reporter is hoping to talk with current Pontiac owners who are long-time Pontiac enthusiasts. Please reply to ctalati@edmunds.com no later than Thursday, May 10, 2007 with your daytime contact info and a few words about your experience.
I noticed that you said that the car is having horrible gas mileage? I have a small tip!! If you want to you should try to check ur tire pressure and air filter. I have a 2004 grand am se and i added a performance k&n filter in it and it now has excellent gas mileage.So you should try too give it a shot.
I have a few suggestions to increase your gas mileage. First off get the K&N filter, its expensive but improves mileage and will never need to be replaced. Second, put in bosch platinum +4 spark plugs and consider new wires. Finally, next time you change your oil, go for fully synthetic oil, it bumped my mileage up quite a bit. Just a few tips, I've got my mileage up from about 20 to almost 30 mpg, with the 3.4v6.
I have a 2000 grand am with 127,000 mi. on it. I have had it for 5 years and have not had to put any money in to it for repairs. It runs great, body is excellent, as well as interior. I keep the oil changed every 4000, and try to stick to the same "brand" of gas. I am very satisfied with this car and would not hesitate to buy another.
The 3400 notoriously hates Bosch 4 tip plugs. Much better off going with NGK's or even the Delcos. Go over to the Grand Am GT forums or the Grand Am Owners group forums and search for all the complaints about the 4 tip Bosch plugs breaking off inside.
Hi I am having the same exact problem with my Pontiac Grand Am. I just called the Pontiac dealer and they gave a quote of $550. Did you find other alternatives or did you go with dealers quote?? Did they tell you what the exact problem is?? My car has stopped on me twice and I had it towed to 2 different body shops. My light is continuing to come on that is why I called the dealer. I had a new key made and NO luck
reset the security computer just like suggested and now after paying $100 to tow the car home it starts right up. Second time this happened. I am also pretty P***** off. I have had gm cars all my life and other than my firebird and its trick key have had no trouble until now. I have sent a letter to gm and as an ase certified mechanic I would have loved to have been warned about this rather than spending all of my time off trying to troubleshoot some problem that was not there. believe you me if they answer me Im going to ask them for a tech letter to be issued to owners explaining the problem and the fix. Thanks all I was about to pull the gas tank next. cc :confuse:
Hi everyone - I have a 2004 Grand Am GT and I was wondering if there is a Haynes repair manual out for it. The most recent one I saw was the 1997-2003 manual. Thanks! Julie
I have a 2000 Grand Am sunroof that was probably forced open while buried in the snow. It wouldn't close completely so I removed the red plastic retainer and closed it mechanically with an allen wrench. It won't open with the button, but if I put it in the half open/closed position the switch and motor work in both directions just fine. Is there some kind of alignment procedure I have to go through to put the electrical system back in sync with the physical position of the sunroof?
Thanks for the great tip, 67bluecamaro! I put a K&N filter on my 04 Grand Am GT this past weekend and it made a noticeable difference in pick-up. It really flies! Julie
My 97 Grand Am GT has a coolant leak. We have to put coolant or water now in every 40 miles or so, a mechanic said it is a gasket that we have to remove the top of the engine block off to fix, when we fill the resevoir the water is rusty looking, is this an indication that it is the head gasket? The water comes out when we stop (a lot) but it is always dripping, it drips on the belt/pulleys
i had the samething happen to my 2001 grand am. it was overheating and the coolant tank was always empty. the local car place said the fans didn't come on and it was the computer not turning them on , so i had it replaced and flashed. it over heated the next day. after all that and $450 SPENT ON SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T FIX IT. i had the cap on the tank presure tested, it was bad. it made the water overflow out of the tank. check the cap.....
If they said they had to remove the top of the engine, they probably mean the intake manifold. Depending on what engine you have, many of the 60 degree V6's are susceptible to a lower intake manifold gasket leak. I personally had this happen under warranty, and it was replaced. Involves taking the top of motor apart. Indication is if you look down the sides of the motor and see coolant leaking from the "valley" (area between the cylinder heads) down the engine block, then it's probably the LIM gasket. Something to check out maybe.
i have an 99 olds alero with the exact same symptoms you have, including the diagnostic codes. i am sure the problem has nothing to do with the evap systems, but most likely a bad ground or relay. i am trying to figure it out.
I had the samething happen to me this week. Would over heat I added more coolant everything was good for a few hours and would over heat. The problem was simpel it just needed a new cap,
Comments
thank YOU
By the way, my very frugal father has been happy with his newer GT Ram Air V6 for several years, so that has inspired me to look at these cars. Sounds like I should buy his GT sometime, since it has had no problems and has been treated well. I just have to talk him into it! If there is a large aftermarket for the 3.4 V6 that will certaily influence my decision.
:sick: :mad:
If this is a high performance car that is being raced then you may see the benifits of the Bosch plugs.
Just my opinion
Any others having the same issues with solutions would help.
Thanks
Is there a forum that I can go to for cross referencing parts from other cars. I know Hollender has a book,(big bucks), but I have went to free web sights in the past but can't remember where they were. getting old I guess
I don't remember it costing that much to repair on my 99, I think it was about $375.00. Don't know why your keys would have anything to do with it, the lock cylinder doesn't have to be replaced, only the Hall effect sensor on the ignition switch typically.
No recalls that I'm aware of for this, but there's most likely TSB's out about it.
In December, my husband and I bought an 02 grand am se. It's got 180k miles and we bought it used from a dealer, only warranty is 6 month/6k miles with a $100 deductable. We haven't really had any problems with it except for a few "minor" things like the display on the radio/clock doesn't work and you can only see it when the sunlight hits it just right or the turn indicator won't flash but clicks sometimes. During those times, my husband has to click the hazards on and off a few times and then the turn indicators will begin working.
However, we had this huge cold snap come through (Pittsburg, KS) and there's all this snow that we're not used to having and the temperatures have been below freezing. Anywho, my husband works 3rd shift and was on the highway at 11 pm going to work when the car suddenly died while driving down the road. He coasted it over to the side of the road and kept trying to get it to start. Most of the time it wouldn't, though sometimes it would start and he could drive for a couple of miles before it would die again.
It acts like it's out of gas: sputters, stalls, then dies. At first (this has been happening for the better part of a month now) it would crank over but not start. Now, it won't even turn over after it dies.
No lights came on and no codes popped up on the diagnostics from Auto Zone. The first time he had a major problem with it, he came home from work at 8 in the morning and took our oldest daughter to school. He went in to talk to them at the school and when he came back out it wouldn't start. Same thing, crank but not start. I called the dealership because of their warranty and spoke with the mechanic who was going to send a tow truck to pick it up. He informed us it would be several weeks before he could get to it. My husband eventually got the car started (after close to two hours waiting on the tow truck driver) and brought it home. We called the mechanic back and he said to bring it in so he could look at it. Got it there and he wanted us to leave the car for about a week until he could look at it. My husband about had to scrape me off the ceiling.
It went a couple of days before it happened again. That time it was rather short in comparison. The mechanic still wasn't able to look at it. We went to Auto Zone. They hooked it up to their machine again and no codes came back. The worker told us that he'd just experienced the same thing with his car. Water got in the gas whether because of a leak or just watered down gas and then in the freezing temperatures it froze, then when the gas tank was under a quarter of a tank, the fuel pump would suck up a piece of ice, clogging it causing the car to act like it's out of gas. We needed to wait for the ice to melt and then it would be alright, which was why we could let the car sit and then it would eventually start. O-kay... never in my life have I heard of that before and I've come acrossed some pretty weird things with cars.
He suggested keeping the car on a full tank to avoid this issue. Later it started happening even with full tanks of gas. It was then suggested that we treat the fuel to remove the water completely. We bought the highest gas we could which had ethanol, got the fuel treatment, and fuel injector cleaner. Didn't help.
Back to Auto Zone because the mechanic still couldn't see us. This time, it was a bad 02 sensor. Alrighty, which one? Keep in mind that nothing shows up on the diagnostics at all and absolutely no lights show up on the car: no check engine light or anything.
We hunt all over the internet to try to find out where an 02 censor is, how to know which one it is, what all we'll need to get and how much it will cost. We're just getting ready to get both 02 censors even though we don't really know if that's the problem or even which one could be bad, when the car totally went ballistic. He's once again on his way to work at 11 pm and he doesn't even make it back home until around 2:30 am. This time, the check engine light came on.
When the car died, he had to let it sit for about 20 minutes, then it would start and he could drive it maybe 10 mph for about 2 or 3 miles before it died and he had to sit for another 20 minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat for several hours until he made it home. At the end of that round, it got to where if he slowed down or let off the throttle at all it would die, so he had to gun it (it maxed at 35 mp in a 65 mph zone) just to get it home. The check engine light stayed on the whole time.
The next morning he got ready to go to Auto Zone. The check engine light was back off. He had no problems with the car getting it to Auto Zone. However, this time when they hooked it up to their diagnostic it coded misfire on two or more cylinders. They suggested changing the spark plugs and cables. Ok, I don't know who had this car before us, but you'd think the dealership would have done routine maintenance and at least a minor tune up on it before selling it to us, but those spark plugs were n a s t y.
Didn't work. The mechanic talks to us again and says that it could be because of running the enthanol gas that our car may not be configured to take it and that if the gas were the problem, Auto Zone would be liable for the damages if any caused by recommending it to us. He said to run the car as far out of gas as possible and go back to the cheap-o stuff, but that he could finally see the car today but it would need to stay in the shop for about a week.
My husband ran it completely out of gas, where it died and wouldn't start then poured 5 gallons that he had in a gas can into it to get to the station and fill up with the cheap stuff. It's still doing it.
Now the mechanic says that he'll need to keep the car for several weeks until he can get to it, so needless to say it's in my driveway right now.
I've seen on other forums that it's the ignition module, it's the fuel pump, the fuel injectors, the 02 censor, the crank shaft, and then one of my husband's co-workers said that he went through the same thing with his car: he said that he got the exact same treatment with everyone telling him exactly what we've been told and that his problem was the coil pack.
Has anyone else gone through this problem at all and how on earth did you fix it? I hunted and there isn't even a Chilton's book for this model. We're totally stumped and tired of this car breaking down on us more than our last p.o.s.
Your first mistake was buying a car with 180K on it, especially this model.
Your probably just throwing money at it with what your doing.
I suggest biting the bullet and taking it to Pontiac and at least having them diagnose it for you. Those guys at Autozone, etc, can put code scanners on it and read diagnostic codes but unless your knowledgeable about what they're telling you you're just chasing your tail.
as to the diagnostics from auto zone or the mechanics that have seen it, no codes show up at all and the only code that ever did was the misfire readings.... it sounds like no one, not even pontiac knows what's wrong with a grand am when something goes wrong with it... I agree with you, my first thought was something with the fuel filter, pump, or injectors then thought to check the gas too... after everything I've heard from all these other people it could be something in the ignition module ... I just have no clue where to even look, and even though I'm female, I'm not clueless when it comes to cars, I used to do all of my own maintenance personally, including tune ups and oil changes. So I'm not completely inept but even certified mechanics are stumped by this...
thank you for responding though, I appreciate all help
My boyfriend thinks the throttle position sensor needs to be replaced, my friend, Marvin, thinks its something else, maybe a transmission electrical relay problem, the engine is getting too much gas, etc. I have noticed that the car is using more gas than normal but the RPMs are a little messed up due to this problem so that might explain the extra gas usage. Worst case scenario its the fuel pump but the problem doesn't seem to be that. We replaced the spark plugs and the boots and the fuel filter and that nothing for the problem.
Any help with this would be great!!!
Thanks
Kat :sick: :confuse:
Every time it gets really cold where I live, when I turn left, my left front tire makes a grinding kind of sound. Usually to get rid of it I start my car up and warm it up and it goes away. Today was just like any normal day, started the car, warmed it up and all is well. I took my sister to school and didnt realize that they just placed speedbumps and I cruised over the first one pretty fast and my front end hit the ground pretty hard. I noticed the second one in time and went slow over it. Everything seemed fine. Car still runs smooth, trans isnt acting funny. Looked under the car in case I scraped something badly to cause leaks, none. But as soon as I made a left turn, a heavy grinding sound appeared by the left front tire. This time it was louder than the original. Its only on left turns. Right turns are quiet. Again, everything drives smoothly, shifts smoothly, brakes fine. Just a nasty noise turning left. It doesnt bother me, just would like to know what could be wrong and get it fix when I get money saved up and from tax returns.
Car Info: 99 Grand Am SE, 2.4 Liter twin cam, 101602 miles.
Again thanks for you all your guys and girls in helping this "not so great with cars" person.
Thanks for your inputs.
Oh and its total cost was like $658
Thanks,
Mike
I know I wasnt of much help, but Im just telling you what happened to me and what sounds liek the same issue. Hope sommone with awesome car knowledge helps you
I am having the same exact problem with my Pontiac Grand Am. I just called the Pontiac dealer and they gave a quote of $550. Did you find other alternatives or did you go with dealers quote?? Did they tell you what the exact problem is?? My car has stopped on me twice and I had it towed to 2 different body shops. My light is continuing to come on that is why I called the dealer. I had a new key made and NO luck
I am also writing a letter to GM
Julie
Julie
i have an 99 olds alero with the exact same symptoms you have, including the diagnostic codes. i am sure the problem has nothing to do with the evap systems, but most likely a bad ground or relay. i am trying to figure it out.
have you determined the problem?