Where to start, lots has gone wrong with this car over the last 8 years. I replaced the water pump a month after I bought it. Without going to the car and getting my 6" thick stack of receipts from the many visits to shops, I can't recall when everything broke, but following is a list of what I recall having replaced and or fixed.
The fuel pump, alternator, starter, struts at 84,000,driver side window track, grommet in the gear box, all 4 rotors, rear brake callipers, 2 new batteries, idle air control, 2 drive belts, timing belt (after it broke), and it took the mechanic over 8 hours to get it timed correctly. He tried to get me to take it back twice, but it sounded awful. He finally got it timed correctly, and I paid 2 hours. labor. Will never take the car or any car back to that mechanic. The oil pump drive o-ring started leaking around 70,000 miles. Replacing it correctly meant lots of labor cost. Therefore mickey moused it by cutting the gasket sliding it around, and using lots of gorilla glue. No oil leaks since. It needs a bearing replaced in the one of the pulley things for the drive belt, doing that tomorrow. It also has a high engine idle problem that I can't figure out, which is how I got to this site. At a cold start it idles around 22-2500rpms until the engine warms up (about 10-15 minutes). Replaced the idle air control as mentioned early, but it did no good. The air conditioner is showing low pressure on the scan tool, and doesn't cool. A luxury I won't be fixing.
I love driving this car. It has great power, lots of room, good handling, and is fun to drive. Although if I could have predicted how much money I would have to dump into the car I never would have bought it. I feel stuck now, and hope once I fix this idle problem nothing else will go wrong for awhile. I did have a nice 2 year stretch with no problems, and hope that will happen again.
The car is fun to drive, fast and handles great.
Very roomy, and comfortable.
Expensive to work on, lots of labor costs.
Not very durable.
I wouldn't recommend this car to anyone who doesn't have the extra cash required to keep the thing running.
I consider the car more for someone who wants a nice fun car to drive on a Sunday. This isn't much of a commuter car, do to it's lack of durability.
I estimate that I have put over 8000.00 into the car over the last 8 years. Not a good value, obviously.
My 1992 Grand Prix has the exact same problem. Mine idles at 6000RPM upon start up and stays at 3000RPM permanently. Needless to say I am not popular where I live as I go to work at 330AM.But hey who Cares? It beats Car Payments.
I am a previous owner of a 92' Grand Prix SE. The car looked great, leather interior, moonroof etc... But, the 3.4 is a money pit. It ran like a raped date when it was up to snuff, but it spent more time in the shop then on the road. Great car, bad engine. If you are buying a used grand prix then stick with a 3.1 or 2.8.
Very good possibility regarding high idle on these cars/engines is bad intake gasket which is allowing cool to cold air to be sucked into engine thus the air/fuel mix is extremely rich burns hard hence the high idle. Check for this, if so replace and idle should drop.
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