90's pontiac grand ams

[CamaroAdam73]

Are hands down, the WORST mechanically constructed cars i've ever worked on. It's not rocket science why pontiac went out of business, or why they are at fault for people losing faith in "American made" cars.

I've replaced, literally, EVERY SINGLE ****ING LINE ON THAT PIECE OF sh*t!

Yeah this is a rant.

First the fuel line ruptured, in 3 places. Had to replace 4+ feet with rubber fuel injection hose because replacing the entire line is a feat of engineering, mostly because the line runs through the ****ing frame.

Then, i set out to fix the brake leak in the rear line, go figure it leaks almost in the same spot where one of the leaks in the fuel line was. Well that took forever because the line kept falling apart, finally got it, just to find out the FRONT BREAK LINE IS ****ING LEAKING TOO!!!! and it has an extra layer of shielding which only serves one purpose, acts as a ramp for the leaking fluid so you can't just replace one part of the line, you have to replace the entire ****ing thing.

Gets even better, thank god the front driver wheel doesn't need bleed, cause the bleed is stripped, and rounded off. And the master cylinder is bad, because the back brakes won't even ****ing bleed.

Like billy maze said, BUT WAIT THERES MORE! Power steering leaks at an alarming, awesome rate. Right where the line goes into the rack, it leaks at that fitting. . So i used a piece of rubber hose, JBweld and two high pressure clamps to slow the leak for now, until i feel like pulling the wheel back off to **** with it again.

But thats not all this package deal includes! Theres a vibration coming from the right front wheel at 50-55 MPH, goes away under or after that though, so i'm assuming its the tire because the rest of the suspension setup looks fine, tierods are ok too.

Also the car blew a head gasket awhile back, and my dad fixed it, the motor seems to run pretty good, minor valve tap when you first fire it up.

Guess how many miles this car has?? under 80 thousand.

I think whoever was put in charge of the design of this car, needs to be court ordered to drive a 96 grand am for the rest of his life.

 

[Brick442]

Same here. I briefly had a late 90s or early 2000s (can't remember the year) Grand Am. I say briefly because it got a engine knock at about 60000 miles.

I remember the auto trans was clunky, the interior was plastiky (and felt very cheap) and overall the car felt like a glorified go-kart. The cloth seat material reminded me of cordoroy pants.

The ABS never worked right, the warning light had come on at about 30k and the Pontiac dealers had no idea how to fix it. The brakes worked fine under normal driving conditions, but pulling into a parking space and lightly hitting the brakes to stop would usually end up being an adventure--usually the pedal pulsed quick and the car ended up in the curb or shrubs.

 

[R/T kota]

Just about any wrong wheel drive car can be a pita to work on.
Regardless of the mileage, you are dealing with a 14 year old car. Did this car sit for a long time? Parked on the grass a lot? Previous owner beat the living sh*t out of it?
I know a lot of people who own these cars with little complaints?
You should have seen all the sh*t I went through with leaking fuel and brake lines on my regal after being stored for 5 years.

 

[SScamino]

I must be lucky! my 95 just turned 140000 last night on the way home from a trip! never has the car had any type of trouble at all, I have a GT with the 3.1 pretty sporty for what it is! I love that car, sorry yours isn't as great! They are kind of hit and miss from what Ive heard.

 

[CamaroAdam73]

Well, like i said, less than 80k, when my mom bought it, had less than 62k, but with a blown headgasket. and that was because the cooling system failed and the previous owner didn't know, and how do i know hes not lying? because he's a priest, literally. So i don't this man of the lord was pounding on his grand am to deliver the word of the lord.

And i've heard the GT's where built better? and i cant remember which motor this has, but its one of the V6's. And like i said, as for the drivetrain, it runs great. Trans is smooth, its just all the subsystems are falling apart, and i agree about the interior, cheap.

 

[2fit661ca]

Just about any wrong wheel drive car can be a pita to work on.
Regardless of the mileage, you are dealing with a 14 year old car. Did this car sit for a long time? Parked on the grass a lot? Previous owner beat the living sh*t out of it?
I know a lot of people who own these cars with little complaints?
You should have seen all the sh*t I went through with leaking fuel and brake lines on my regal after being stored for 5 years.

x2 on the 14 years and sitting. about 2 monhs ago, i bought my 91 lesabre from a friend and it had been sitting for over a year. i had to replace all of the lines under the car, fuel and brake. and grand ams are pieces of sh*t... the are very poorly designed and are far from reliable after a few years of use... but most of your complaints seemed to be just usual wear and tear for a car of that age; and brake line, fuel line, and power steering lines are essentially the same on every car, si that's hardly pontiacs fault...

if you want a cheap reliable disposible car, buy a 3.8L v6 buick.

 

[CamaroAdam73]

LOL. funny you'd say that, my dad ran a 91 century until the floor rotted so bad the rear axle ripped lose. Point being, that motor still ran like a charm when it happened, because buick makes good ****ing cars.

And yeah, the car DID sit, but it sat in a driveway. Personally with 82k there's no excuse for this car, it's a poorly designed piece of sh*t car. Let me put it this way, i replaced the brake lines on my 88 Monte carlo SS with stainless ones only because i felt like it, they didn't need it and the factory lines where still in fine condition. This cars a 96 and they rotted apart.

Update, fixed the power steering line, now the power steering pump went bad. Whats funny? i expected this to happen lol.

 

[R/T kota]

And yeah, the car DID sit, but it sat in a driveway. Personally with 82k there's no excuse for this car, .

This car has 85 k on it and sat on concrete for 5 years. This is what happened when we tried to fire it up.

Thats from both the delivery and return line.
After we fixed that up, took it for a drive and the right front brake line popped.

It can happen to any car.

 

[IhaveNoPantsOn]

And yeah, the car DID sit, but it sat in a driveway. Personally with 82k there's no excuse for this car, it's a poorly designed piece of sh*t car. Let me put it this way, i replaced the brake lines on my 88 Monte carlo SS with stainless ones only because i felt like it, they didn't need it and the factory lines where still in fine condition. This cars a 96 and they rotted apart.

I don't think it has anything to do with mileage, or the car sitting for a long time, necessarily. I can't even remember how many times I've replaced the same 2 foot section of brake line on late 90's to early 00's Century's, Regals, Malibu's...etc, at the shop I work at. Most of them are under 75k miles, and all are daily driven by older people. I think it just comes down to crappier materials. All the brake and fuel lines on my 87 GP are original and look fine, also. GM probably just found a cheaper source for the tubing, and didn't know (or care) what the long-term results would be.

 

[dogsht]

I have a 96 Grand Am. The mid late 90s Grand Ams were thought to be good looking little cars and lots of them were sold. They handled well drove nice and had great zip. Unfortunately as a whole the mechanic is correct they had lots of poorly designed parts. Brake systems & fuel line etc among the most common as well as some cheaply made and ill designed front suspension parts. To top it off many had the Olds Twin Cam formerly known as Quad 4 engine. This was a radical design twin overhead cam 4 valve motor that made real good power naturally aspirated and could last a long time despite not having proper crank counter weights which left it rough but quick & free revving.

The biggest problem with the engine was that the water pumps did not last and when they failed the car would quickly overheat and warp the head. The problem compounded at this point as they were difficult to work on and parts were expensive. None of the mechanic shops around here want to work on them. If you decide to replace the engine the back yard mechanic runs into another problem, the engine needs to come out the bottom so changing it generally requires a shop with a lift instead of a simple and common engine hoist. Read shop rates make motor swaps cost prohibitive on older cheap cars with miles on them. Another thing that compounded this was no radiator cap. Lots of non mechanical people did not know to check the fluid level of the overflow reservoir so when they got low they could not see that they need water and ran them with insufficient coolant. Also GM tried the dexacool thing with these and you had people that accidentally mixed them. Last the engine often sufford from electrical problems and the weird misunderstood system was expensive to replace.

All that said if you can watch not overheating them. (As in no you cannot make it home or to the next exit call for tow.) Figure on replacing a water pump every 75,000. They can be a good little engine. Mine has 185,000 uses no oil and still runs hard. Its on its 3rd water pump and yes I hate the brakes system its been costly and have had the fuel pump & lines replaced and the front suspension parts which need replaced again. Kind of a mixed bag. I don't recommend anyone buy one but have sort of a love hate relationship with mine.