Several things had to be repaired at 50000 miles at a cost of $2500.00, rotors, struts, brake lining. The van is now in our garage not running needing a new head gasket. It cost $700.00 to have a mechanic find this out only to tell us that the head gasket was manufactured with a defect. Grooves in metal at top of head gasket. Seal will never sit on top properly. Have always had trouble with this until it blew. The tragedy of this is that GM will not stand by its products and do the right thing. For this reason, the American public is turning its back on All GM products and buying from its foreign competition. You better get your act together and take care of the people who supported you all of these years.
IF this were a problem that pertained to ALL Montanas, then yes, GM would probably recall those vans. It just sounds like you got a bad model. My folks '03 Montana has the same mileage and has never had one problem.
Hi there I was reading your things about what happened to your van. I have things to add along the similar lines. We purchased a used 2002 Montana. We loved the color and how it road and the features. We bought a used 2002 from a car dealer only to have our world come to a halt two days later when our van was over heating and loosing coolant really bad. We were to be leaving for vacation that afternoon. We needed a second key and had to go to our local dealer to have a special key made at the tune of $50.00 because of the computer chip and so while we were waiting we had the service department look at it. Forty-five minutes later we got the horrible news. The head gasket was bad and that it would cost $2,000.00 to fix and at that point was not drivable. We were also told that it would take 3-4 days to fix. We also didn't have all of the paper work final, so we decided to add the extended warrenty. We did not get to take it on vacation! We got it fixed and it seemed to run fine up until about a week ago. The service engine light came on. There were two things happening at this point, I was almost out of gas and we thought maybe the service place didn't put something back together right when replacing the head gasket. We took it back to the same place again. They told us that the catalytic converter and a gas silanoid would need to be replaced. The catalytic converter would not cost a thing as it was covered under the GM warranty, but the other part would cost $300-$500. I wanted a second oppion so we took it to our local service guy and he told us that if you run these newer cars really low on gas or if you don't get the gas cap on right that the service engine light will come on because the oxygen sensors go crazy because the mixture isn't right of gas/air. At this point we have not had either fixed other than making sure we are not low on gas and that cap gets on tight. We have at this point only owned our van since 7/11/2006 (about 8 weeks) and have already had major things. I hope that it is done, because my pocket book can't take much more. I love the look of the van, but wish I would have done more research on that style before buying it.
I also purchased a used Montana recently and with 99700 km on the odometer the engine started to overheat and loose coolant.
The local dealer diagnosed (and fixed) a leaking right side cylinder head gasket and a leaking intake gasket.
Apparently this is a well known problem within the GM circle (according to the mechanic that did the repairs),however when I contacted GM customer services and requested assistance it was denied, resulting in a $1300.00 repair bill.
There are a number of class action law suits on the go for exactly these symptoms, looks like GM may have a problem!
We purchased a 2002 Montana EXT AWD with 87,000 km in May 2006. Nothing but problems since we have had it. Wheel bearings, CV boot kit, control arm bushings and the latest transmission rebuilt. We have spent roughly $4000.00 in 6 months on repairs. The mechanic also said the engine is making a noise now. All this and monthly payments... We also have a 2000 Chev Venture that's had all the same problems and more. It seems unbelievable!!
I have a 2002 Chev Venture Van with 200,000 km on it. So far I only had a few minor repairs. Just the other day, I was driving along and the passenger side air bag deployed for no reason. I called GM. They said they never heard of this. It is now sitting at the local GM dealership. Initially GM said they would help cover the cost, but then got back to me and said I was on my own. It is around $1500 to get this replaced. I was just wondering if anyone could lend any advice.
We bought our '02 Montana used and against all prior experience and instinct bought the used extended warranty. Best decision I ever made as the van very quickly developed a case of lemon-itis. To date we've fixed the windshield wiper issue, bearings, drive shaft and various other ailments in systems such as the ABS, all wheel drive, automatic door slide system, rear hatch power motor for the windshield wiper.
It was only after the warranty ran out that we discovered the head gasket was blown and had a cracked rear head.
After congratulating myself on having purchased and saved money with the used car warranty that I realized I was stupid in buying one of GM's worst lemons of the 21st century. If you're thinking Montana I have one simple word for you: Don't. I wish I had checked the net first and won't make that mistake ever again. Costly error but easily remedied by selling it back to another dealer when I traded it in for an import.
Re head gasket: I was told that the head gasket will go if you put another vendors anti freeze in the rad. g.m. only wants you to use gm parts.
Regarding the issue of head gasket verses only using GM anti-freeze...can't be true. I work for a small company and all we run are GM products. So far out of 10-mini vans we've purchased, most of them have this head gasket issue... they are all serviced by a local GM dealer; so tell me, is it true? It might be that the anti-freeze GM uses is too aggressive...
We purchased a 2002 montana with just over fifty thousand miles on it in 2005. Two weeks after the purchase the head gasket went and had to be replaced. Since then the gas gauge has went, the fuel pump as well which cost over 700.00 to repair. We have had one hub and wheel replaced 8 months ago with either the other going bad now or the one that was repaired going bad. My drivers side window goes down, but not up. The heat and air condition output is almost non existent. You don't feel it coming thru the vents, the back windshield wiper blade doesn't work at all. And to top it all off we were told the transmission is bad and will cost about 2500.00 to repair as the transmission is one of the most expensive out there and these vans have issues with transmissions kicking into overdrive. Lo and behold this morning the van won't start at all less than two weeks since the fuel pump repair. One thing is for sure, I would never recommend anyone buying this van, nor will we ever own one again. It is like a "money pit" for vehicles. Buyers beware don't buy one and you will save yourselves a lot of money and headache!
On the subject of the Montana and no heat or air coming from the vents; look in the glove box you will find a door inside. The door is an air filter that needs to be replaced. It is a cheap fix for heat and air.
DO NOT EVER CONSIDER ONE OF THESE VEHICLES... I purchased on 02 new and got the extended warranty, thank goodness.
This new vehicle has left us stranded 3 time when we first got it; it would just randomly stall, and then not start. We went through 2 fuel sending units, only after being told twice that there was no issue to be found.
I bought the AWD model, bad decision. All 4 wheel hub sensors have been replaced. The symptom is usually an AWD /TC error message followed by a disabling of the ABS system. The last time it occurred, we took it to the GM dealer, and they cleared the errors, and said they could not replicate the error. We drove about 5 kms, and the error happened again.
When we first bought the van from the dealer, the battery was dead. I am not sure how they boosted it, but apparently the 2 computers were not talking to each other, which lead to very poor performance.
The transmission has been replaced at 50,000 kms, and now my check engine light is on.. And the good news is that we just finally finished paying this lemon off.
I am tired of the domestic auto dealers building disposable cars, no wonder they are all going broke. If you are looking at a Montana, or a bike, choose the bike, it will actually get you where you need to go.
In regards to all the negative Montana comments - I have an '02 with 107,000Kms, have had it since 23,000kms.
The van is RELIABLE.
Biggest complaint: Bad wiring causes fuses to blow related to tail and dashboard lights for no apparent reason. Idiot GM mechanics have no idea how to fix. Also the design of the wipers is retarded, clean out the ice and snow before you turn them on or you will be paying for motors over and over!
No other problems. AT ALL.
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