Mass air flow sensor not working.
Throttle position sensor not working.
Oxygen sensor not working.
Heater core leaking.
Head gasket leaking.
Radiator replaced three times.
Radiator leaking from plastic tank.
Thermostat housing leaking.
Radiator fan stopped working.
Coolant temperature sensor was faulty.
Problems with the torque converter.
Catalytic converter clogged.
Gasoline smells of oil.
Black smoke from exhaust.
Ignition switch replaced.
Coil pack replaced twice.
Ignition module replaced.
Alternator replaced twice.
Starter replaced once.
Battery replaced three times.
Water pump bearing seized.
Power steering lines blew.
Front passenger brake line blew.
Rear defrost not working.
Front brake calipers seized.
Wheel cylinders leaking brake fluid.
Anti-lock brake system stopped working.
ABS light comes on frequently.
Speed sensor faulty.
Stabilizer links broke.
Cruise control stopped working.
Windshield washer pump stopped working.
Muffler developed large holes.
Power window regulators bent/broke.
Power windows work when they want to.
Wipers work when they want to.
Power door locks stopped working.
Passenger seat adjuster not working.
Hood cable snapped.
Gas cover cable snapped.
Trunk is constantly filling with water.
Horn stopped working.
Cassette player will not eject tapes.
Cassette player works when it wants to.
Oil light comes on from time to time.
Service engine soon light burnt out.
Motor mounts have worn out.
Front windshield replaced.
Rust on the usual Grand Am locations.
Factory paint chips off frequently.
Believe it or not, I have indeed encountered all of these problems mentioned above in the four years that I have owned this car.
Parts for this car are generally affordable and easy to locate, but I would not say that this car is very reliable.
This 3.3L engine has a lot of power when it's running well and the handling is decent. I have seen these engines with over 400,000 kilometers on them and they are still running well.
The seats in this car are extremely comfortable as they are not too stiff.
I will never buy another General Motors or North American vehicle again and I would strongly discourage others from making the mistake that I have.
Well, sounds like you weren't very nice to this car. I believe that the trouble is that the car is not new. You've got a car with over 200'000 km, buit 12 years ago and you're complainging that it breaks down. I have the exact same car. 174000 km. A bit of rust above the rear fenders and on the trunk. I have replaced the water pump and had troubles with the power windows. other than that this car is PERFECT. For a twelve year old car I think it's doing OK! Don't you? Oh, and you do realize you have to service, and maintain your car regularly right? Just checking!
Rob in Canada.
I bought a used 1992 Grand Am from a friend who worked as a service manager in a large dealership. He said that he had driven the car for 6 months and had no problems. The car has a 2.3 Quad 4 engine and 112k miles and had been purchased new by a school teacher. I test drove the car and it seemed to be OK, just a little slower than I had hoped.
Shortly after taking possession, the Idler tension pulley busted. I got the car home and replaced it. Then it started puffing black smoke (mostly while idling) and running rough.
I connected to my scan tool and found no notable problems.
I replaced the spark plugs, the distributor cap and the coils and the car got worse. It only ran OK at wide open throttle, so I replaced the the oxygen sensor. This seemed to help a lot for a about a month. Then it slowly starting repeating it's old habits.
In addition the automatic door locks would lock you out of the car if you were not careful. They would randomly lock the doors, but, never unlock the doors. Then the Headlights started going off and on and the engine would just die at the worse times. A few weeks later the engine started missing abruptly and I checked all the previous mention items and all were OK. So I did a compression check and found the #1 cylinder had "0" compression. Now it looks like I have a dropped valve or a cracked head/bad head gasket. None the less, I believe it it is time to cut my losses and sale the thing for junk.
This is certainly my last experience with a Quad 4 engine. Hope this helps someone else make the same decision before they waste a pile of money.
I have found that the majority of "small issues" with these cars can be fixed or helped significantly with the replacement of 2 items...1. replace the ECM... these go bad and will throw out symptoms of several hundred dollars of repairs... as far as the head gaskets... more times than not it is the intake gasket... a much simpler fix... and cheaper...you can replace all the little stuff on these cars until the cows come home, but generally if you replace these 2 items... you will be covered... minus any wear and tear items..
I got this car through a trade with a v8 cadillac and boy am I glad. the cars only had a problem with the drivers window, it fell off the track and I was able to fix it easily, the one thing I'm not sure on is theres a vacumme leak which makes it idle wierd, when I was thinking about buying the car I saw a guy with the same car and motor and I asked him if they were OK he said i'll buy the car if you don't, the car was orriginally 900$ but I got him down to 600$ but then I traded the cadillac, gms got pretty good stuff. of course theres always problems but that's life.
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