1997 Pontiac Grand Am SE from North America - Comments

Rotors where warped when I bought the car - replaced, haven't had any problems.

When my car would get to 3000RPM, my alternator would make a high pitch squeaking noise - replaced myself with a duralast gold, works great, under 100 bucks, 2 hour job.

Had a bad cell in the battery - replaced with another AC delco, 70 bucks.

Water pump had bad seals, couldn't fix myself, 550 bucks to replace.

Had the engine wiring harness replaced, safety recall, 4 months into having that replaced, after driving my car for no more than 20 minutes, turning it off, and starting it up, it does not start. I had to sit there for over an hour, then it started up fine, had the wiring harness replaced again, the car worked fine for 4 months, same problem. It seems that something gets too hot in the ignition and I have to wait for it to cool down before the car will start. I turn the key up, all the cab lights go on, but that's it, no noise, no nothing, a very annoying problem. Anyone else having this problem?? The battery is fine, starter is fine, and the alternator is fine, I can't figure out what the problem is.

Handles well in snow etc, but stopping in snow or on ice is annoying. ABS my ass, the brakes lock up and I slide.

Quick, can outrun almost any V6.

Passanger side seems a bit cramped, but who cares, I'm driving it :)

Ya the ABS is a joke, mine kicks in when I'm coasting at 5mph up to a stop and I ride the brakes. Other than that, I got the 4-cylinder twin cam engine, that's about the only reason I picked this car up.

I have had a similar starter problem with my 1996 pontiac grand am 2.4L. My problem was the anti-theft starter lockout installed at the dealer needed to be grounded properly. This anti-theft starter lockout mechanism uses a small chip that is usually located somewhere below the steering wheel. The chip is easily removed at night at the dealer, then an extremely hard to remove chip is inserted when the car is sold. When the chip is removed the starter will not function and thus lowers the dealers insurance rates. The device will also not let the starter function if the device ground does not make good contact. sometimes shaking the steering wheel helped. Hope this helps.