I think it would be easier to tell you what didn't go wrong with it.
The car went through 3 transmissions, 2 radiators, 1 starter, and 2 heater cores.
It constantly leaked oil, coolant, tranny fluid, power steering fluid, and occasionally gas.
The brakes were pathetic and went out completely twice.
The electrical system was useless, sporadically leaving me with no signals, headlights, wipers, or radio, but then magically beginning to work again.
The Delco radio was a piece of junk. The sound would fade in and out for no reason.
The car went through wheel bearings like crazy. It rode really rough because of this.
Two of four power windows worked.
The tilt wheel would constantly loosen, causing the wheel to wiggle all over the place and making it hard to drive.
It dropped a valve and we got rid of it.
The car could do about 120, but if you tried to push it over 80, the temperature would shoot up and the car would seriously overheat.
For the year range it came from, it had a surprisingly sturdy construction.
The 2.5L 4 is certainly the least-balanced of the motors in the 1989 Grand Am line. A while ago I owned an 1988 Grand Am with this motor, and it was serious garbage. Since then I've picked up a 1989 Grand Am with the 2.3 Liter DOHC 16V Quad motor, and it is a big improvement, and has required very little work except for plugs and oxygen sensors.
I currently own a 89 grand am withe the 2.5L tech 4 engine. My piston rings fried due to the heater core blowing. Since the I have searched for a replacement and thought of upgrading to the quad 4. I check many scrap yards all of them had a good working tech 4 but not a quad 4. The also all told me that I was crazy to put the quad 4 into that car as it was the most horrible engine that GM ever made. Since then I have put another tech 4 in and am pleased with it. So overall I think you must of got the 1 out of 1,000,000 defective models or a seriously abused one as every mechanic and even the GM dealer say the Tech 4 is the way to go.
Well I currently own a 1989 grand am and it works like a racing car. when my brother took the car without my permisssion he made a hole in the oil pan and car overheated and died so I had to put a new motor in, but this motor the quad 4 is the best engine you could ever get in a car of that year it overcomes most cars in the freeway try a race with camaro 8 cylinders and youll see what I'm trying to say.
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