1993 Pontiac Sunbird from North America - Comments

Head gasket blew at 135000 repl. water pump, timming belt, all upper gaskets, when I was having the head and valves redone, really cheap I think $150 for valve job, and all seals, looks lke new. having problems with the engine running hot tho, have repl. the thermostat several times. flushed the radiator also, still seems to run hot.I've heard that maybe I shouldn't have the trans serviced with such high mileage, any advise from anyone on this?

I think maybe we got lucky with this car, I'm very satisfied with the car. the 2.0 doesn't have a lot of power needless to say, but. all in all it gets the job done.

About the overheating problem---did you have your intake gasket checked or replaced? I once owned a 1993 Chrysler Concorde that seemed to run hot constantly. It turned out the intake gasket was blown. But the head gasket was OK.

You should have your cooling system pressure checked to be sure there are no leaks.

As for having your transmission serviced it depends on the car. I got my 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera with 99,000 miles on it 8 years ago. It now has 170,000 miles on it.

And the transmission has never been serviced since I had it.

And it shifts great.

However,4 years ago that car had been losing coolant slowly.

I was on the highway and it overheated. It was then it blew both head gaskets and the intake gasket.

My mechanic replaced the gaskets. He checked the condition of the head (s).There were no cracks in them;it has cast iron heads. He fixed that car and I have had no problems with overheating ever since. (all this happened at 140,000 miles.) It was not hurt, either.I change the oil every 3,000 miles and it uses NO oil between changes!

I suggest you check your radiator cap. It may seem like a small thing, but it can cause problems if it is worn. See if the gasket on the cap is loose or looks worn. If it is it will cause the cooling system to lose pressure.

Good luck.I'm sure you can fix the problem once you find the culprit. In the meantime I suggest you visit www.allexperts.com.There are mechanics on this website that answer your car repair questions on any make /model of cars from a Pontiac to a Toyota. Ask your question and they will e-mail your answer within 3 days. In my experience I got a response the next day. This is a free service also. I highly recommend it. Hope this helps.