1. The harmonic balancer on the engine went twice. This was a $US200 bill for each occurrence. No one I have ever talked with had this problem on any of the GM 3.8 liter engines.
2. The original air conditioning compress burned out at about 120,000 kilometers . A $600 replacement was faulty and lasted only a few months. The second replacement, under warranty lasted another six months. The repair shop had gone out of business; ergo no chance of a third warranty replacment. I replaced the second one with a used compressor from a wrecker at $25. Once re-charged, this one worked fine as long as I owned the car.
3. The winter salt started to win the battle and a few rust spots appeared on the lower doors and under the trunk.
It is important to keep the brakes as close to factory specifications as practical. Brake parts such as calipers, pads and shoes were very inexpensive and can be changed with minimum effort.
A fine car with lots of power, style, comfort and room.
Handling is fine. Especially keeping the tires up the factory specified 35 pounds. A lot of shops seem to standardize on 32.
I've experienced the harmonic balancer failure twice with the GM 3800 engine. First was my '89 Delta 88 then my '88 Delta 88. It's quite annoying as it causes the engine the make a racket and the bolt is hard to remove.
The harmonic balancer center portion is just press fitted into the outer ring. Take the balancer out and have the center brazed (not welded) to the outer ring. It will never give you problems again..
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