1999 Chevrolet Venture LS Extended from North America - Comments

I have a 99 Chevy Venture with similar problems to those mentioned. Immediate problem is moisture in the headlights. My local Firestone wants $1,000 to replace both headlights which seems excessive. I found the actual parts online for $75.00 - $120.00. The van has about 148,000 miles on it. I would be grateful for any advice. Please e-mail me at piercedrew@sbcglobal.net. Thank you!

Wow is all I can say! I thought I was getting a great deal. And I really regret this. I am going to sell the van for parts. It was too good to be true.

I bought a 2000 Chevy Venture in Jan. of 06 at 103,000 miles on it. Now it's at 148,000 and it's still running good.

I haven't had any engine problems with it yet, but the air bag light does stay on.

My back left brake light always goes out for some reason. I notice a lot of them in my area have the same bulb out.

My gas gage has the same problem like every Venture but it's not a big deal.

The driver side wheel bearing needed to be replaced.

Now I have a loud clunking noise when I turn right. I found out it was the left lower control arm. The bushing is popped out so it's metal hitting metal. I got an estimate for 300 bucks to get it fixed, but I found the part for 50 and my brother is going to fix it.

Other than that, I take care of the oil changes and give the vehicle treatments. I guess some people just have bad luck. I took the van on tour with my band with 5 guys and a trailer, and drove over 2000 miles!

I am on my second Chevy Venture in 2 years. I bought a 2000 in June 08 and it was obviously poorly maintained by the previous owner. The engine was fantastic, no leaks, no knocks, and had lots of pep to it. The van had high mileage too, 250000km.

The check engine light was on for 4 reasons, the camshaft position sensor, the bank 1 oxygen sensor, the EGR valve, and the pressure control solenoid in the transmission. I could have fixed these four things and all would have been good. I replaced the transmission cooler lines on it as well because they were rotten, may have been too late though as the transmission ran low on fluid and started whining... I take the blame for that.

I sold the van for what I paid for it in November intending to find one is less rough shape. Last week I picked up a 99 Venture with near 200,000kms on it. It has NOTHING wrong with it, seems all the issues were taken care of before I bought it. I love the rig, it's spacious, practical, efficient for the size, and comfortable. It's not as if I spent a lot of money on either of them in the first place, but I really can't complain about the Venture.

I own a 1998 Venture bought used. I have all the problems indicated in the previous posts. All of them. Now my head gaskets need replaced. Estimate is $1,800. If coolant is found in the oil, I'm told the engine is toast. I find it hard to believe GM let these known gasket problems go on for years. Total garbage and bad engineering!.

Be aware this 3.4 EFI engine is used in many different models including cars. Anything over 70,000 miles and it starts to fail, one uncommon expensive repair after another, non-stop.

I will not be buying anymore GM products even though I have been a GM customer for decades. No wonder they're on the edge of bankruptcy.

They can start to restructure by firing the complete senior engineering staff. Shame on anyone associated with the design of this vehicle.

We bought a new '99 Chevy Venture. At 100,040 miles the transmission would shift HARD. We found if we turned the car off for 5 minutes, it worked fine. Another 100 miles and it would have the same HARD shifting. We put up with this until 180,000 miles, and the mechanic sent the transmission to GM for a rebuilt replacement. This transmission did the same thing after 2,000 miles. Another rebuilt from GM, same thing!

Dealer replaced sensors, adjusted engine shifting timing, didn't help! We drove for 2 hours to see if transmission would act up, it did and we drove into Chevy dealer parking area, car still running. Car was checked out and they replaced sensors and timing on engine. Didn't help! Anyone with this same problem, please contact us at dsmmf@sti.net.

I own a 99 Chevy Venture. We bought it used in 07. I love the room for the kids and gas mileage on long hauls. We to have had problems with the windows, brakes, gas gage, EGR valve, low coolant, head lights are too dim, replacing often, brake lights going out often, water pump replaced once, shifts hard, and the list goes on.

I really liked the van when we first got it, but it has had its problems. Yesterday we went to the store. During the drive there, everything was fine, no problems, on the way back in the middle of rush hour traffic, the oil light came on, temperature light came on, it quit and would not start back, so we had it towed home and don't know if we are going fix it, or just cut our losses and try something different!

I bought our 2001 Venture new. It has 125000 miles on it and is the nicest riding vehicle we've ever had. I did have to replace the intake gaskets because of the orange antifreeze. I flushed the system and switched to the older green coolant. I still had a driveway drip, but adding a bottle of liquid aluminum cooling system sealer did the trick.

The transmission has been flawless. I had the condition of 'nothing' when you turn the key but found a slightly loose starter motor cable. Six clicks from a ratchet wrench and it never did it again.

Our wipers stay in the up position lately after turning them off. If I had lubed the linkage system, it probably wouldn't have happened. In the last year, the gas gage stopped reading accurately. There is a fuel treatment from the dealer that will free up the float, but I just reset the trip odometer and buy gas every 350 miles or so.

It has been my experience that most problems with any machine is due to neglect. People expect cars to be problem free just because they change the oil regularly. Cars are the most complex machines we own. Take care of them and they will take care of you.

'99 Venture 110,000 miles On random occasions car will not start. After sitting for 10 min to an hour, car will start. Has never stopped while running. Two different mechanics have put on analyzer, not when stalled, no problems detected. Changed cooling fluid, water pump, no help. Changed temp fan switch. any suggestions would be appreciated. willy1929@yahoo.com.

I have a 2001 Venture we bought new. We have had countless problems. (I am on the Internet today to try to fix a high idle problem we have had fixed 5 times.) Now my daughter drives it, but it is such a piece of junk I am not sure I want her to take it to college in the fall.

This was my wife's vehicle until she bought a new car two years ago. You can guess it was not a GM. She bought a Honda Accord and has not had a single problem. I have had similar problems with other GM cars I have bought. Our family was loyal to GM (we bought 5 in the last 15 years) and they failed repeatedly to stand behind their cars. We are done with GM. It is a scandal that we have spent tens of billions of taxpayer money to try to save this god-awful company.

I had a problem with moisture in the head lights. I tried the most expensive bulbs I could find. I found very little difference from the cheapest bulbs due to foggy lenses. I then bought fog lights for $80. All issues with visibility were solved.

Here's a tip if your headlight ever burns out. Quite often the bulb will still light up, on high beams. I swear that tip has saved me from getting pulled over on my way to work, a few times.

Uh yeah, the bulb has two filaments in it. The high beam filament is used less and thus usually outlives the low beam.

Using your high beams after the low beams burn out may save you from getting pulled over, but will not endear you to oncoming drivers.

I just drilled a couple holes in the bottom of my headlights - problem fixed.

As for the brake lights on my Chevy Venture; there is a fix on ebay.