1986 Pontiac Firebird from North America - Comments

My dad bought this car brand new and I have had it since 1996. Absolutely nothing went wrong with this car for the first 10 years besides routine maintenance. One minor problem is the headlights tend to need replacing quite often since they are vulnerable to rocks.

Alternator had to be replaced at about 200,000kms.

Paint started to rust then peel at about 320,000kms.

Door hinges became weak, especially noticeable in the winter time around 360,000kms.

Engine tends to flutter and rev itself for a couple minutes while idling. This started around 395,000kms and nobody has been able to identify this problem.

This car is currently at 401,000kms and still running pretty well.

I cannot imagine a more well-made car than the '86 Firebird. This car has really made it over 15 years with very minor repair costs. Only now, at approaching 400,000kms, is it starting to show signs of breaking down. I definitely wish newer GM cars were made like this one.

I have a 1986 Pontiac Firebird and I am very happy with it. I had no major problems with just normal problems. For a small V6 the car is pretty fast and will accelerate really fast. The only problem is that the car gets hot real fast. Overall I think that this is the best car I ever had.

I also have a 1986 Pontiac Firebird, 2.8L V6 Fuel Injected, which is my first car. So far we have just had to replace the fuel pump and the fan relay, not bad for a car that has been sitting for over seven years. Even after getting the fan running properly, however, the car still gets hot rather quickly and takes a long time to cool down. We checked the temperature of the water in the radiator and it was barely warm when the car was at 220 degrees. There is this buildup of white gunk in the radiator, which may contribute to the problem. The thermostat does not appear to be working properly either. So now we are going to replace the radiator, the water pump, and the thermostat. Everything on the car other than the cooling system works perfectly. The man before me who had it invested a pile of money in it, but never could get it to run properly.

I had that fluttering problem and had it checked out and found out that it had something to do with the electrical system.