2000 Pontiac Grand Prix: engine overheating

Filed Sep 24, 2012 · Engine · 156,000 miles · OH · fire

Car was driving perfectly fine. Parked my car at the back of the bally's parking lot. Thought I smelled something funny. Waited 3 minutes then saw some white smoke coming out of both sides of hood of car. I thought white smoke meant overheated (which has never happened to car) I popped the hood and the there were flames coming out of the engine. Called 911. Police and fire came and put it out with fire extinguisher. I will need to get car towed somewhere, however it can be examined for root cause.

Filed Mar 25, 2008 · Engine · 100,370 miles · NJ

2000 pontiac grand prix 3.8l v6 december 10, 2007 observed low coolant during routine oil/filter change. Filled coolant reservoir and performed oil/filter change. December 12 callaremi, 385 rt. 46 east hackettstown nj 0784 pontiac: took car for repair of coolant leak. Dealer failed to diagnose issue and was told the car was fine. March 15th 2008, low coolant light indicator came on. Proceeded to performed routine oil/filter change and added coolant. March 21st 2008, experienced rough start and ticking noise. The noise was constant during cold start and remained after engine reached operating temperature. March 24th 2008, took car back to callaremi for service of engine ticking noise. Was told noise was due to a # 3 cylinder intake lifer collapsed and bent push rod. I proceeded to argue that failure to service car according to tsb 03-06-01-016 'loss of coolant, milky colored oil caused either excessive wear of the lifter or created hydroloc condition'. Tsb clearly indicates problems with intake gaskets and recommends replacement if coolant loss is not found to be caused by an external link (I.e. Probable cause internal coolant leak). Repairs for single lifter/rod/rocker arm was $1010.00.

Filed Nov 30, 2005 · Engine · 52,000 miles · NY

Shortly after I bought my used 2000 pontiac grand prix with 52,000 mi. In may 2004, I noticed it was going through an unusually large amount of engine coolant and oil. I took it to 2 different shops after having my low coolant light continuously come on between oil changes. Both shops told me that it needed a new intake manifold gasket, which was around $700 to repair due to there being so much labor involved. (and said if I didn't get it fixed, it could lead to my engine overheating and blowing up!) by the time we realized what the problem was, my warranty had also ran out. I got it fixed once the problem was identified in nov. 2004, when the car had 61,000 miles. After doing some research online a few months later, found that this seems to be quite a common problem in pontiac's around that year, once they get to around 50,000 miles. Or so (which my car was at when purchased) I don't feel that a 4 year old car with mileage that low should already have such an expensive problem that needs to be fixed, it seems to me that it is a manufacturing problem, they put in faulty, temporary intake manifold gaskets in their cars and they should pay to replace them.

Filed Jan 4, 2004 · Engine · 45,000 miles · KS

Engine cooling-smell of engine coolant-two visits ago my car was taken to dealer to fix the recall for coolant leak problem-upper manifold. Month or two later I returned to the dealer for a routine oil change, and to correct a "service engine soon light." dealer informed me that my car "needed new thermostat." thought this was a normal condition-but even after recall fixed my car "smelled like engine coolant!" my car has never missed a required service--I "over-service" my car! The needed service completed by dealer replacing thermostat, bad temperature sensor, and required routine oil change. After picking up the car from the dealer-my car overheated-blowing smoke out of the hood. It smelled like coolant, I thought car was going to burn up! I had to have car towed to dealer-where dealer informed me-they spilled coolant-and that the coolant spilled was smoking!--I think there is a huge problem with the cooling system with this series engine. I feel that gm is covering up a larger problem with the 3800 series engine-I am afraid that this condition will cause more damage-I feel that gm does not want to admit there is a large problem, and simply fix my car! -rather the dealer states "there is nothing wrong." I like my car, and just want it fixed right. I am afraid the damage has been done--it is one oil change out of the original warranty-I feel that I am stuck with a lemon.--ebrock

Filed Dec 10, 2003 · Engine · 61,001 miles · PA

Coolant loss from heads and,orintake.

Filed Nov 5, 2003 · Engine, Locks · IL

Main complaint: gm is aware that their gm hydra-matic 4t65-e transmission has a defective part, yet they leave it to consumers to cover the cost of handling the problem. Specifically, my 2000 grand prix gt (with only 64,000 miles on it) started upshifting hard a few days ago from 1st to 2nd gear and I hear metallic grinding noises from underneath the car when shifting from 1st to 2nd while the car is still warming up. Having performed all of the necessary maintenance over the years, I am angered to learn that I will have to fork over approximately $600 to repair a manufacturer's defect on a car that I am still paying for. I've read of other people having to pay significantly more to fix this problem on their cars. Recently, gm repaired a coolant leak at no cost to consumers because it was deemed a defect. I had already experienced "low engine coolant" warnings from my car and was relieved to receive the recall letter offering to fix the problem for free. Of course, that repair took 15 minutes - gm didn't mind picking up the cost for that defect. My current problem will require several hours of transaxle work and gm has conveniently stuck me with the cost of this work. I also wonder why consumers are not being alerted to this problem. Some people may not notice or may choose to ignore the symptoms that I noticed until the other day until they have a catastrophic problem and have to pay thousands to repair their transaxle. It seems irresponsible to me that gm only issued this information as a service bulletin to mechanics. Other minor complaints: my car intermittently had trouble starting around 45000 miles. Two mechanics checked it and found nothing wrong. My kid brother found a loose wire coming from the battery and quickly fixed the problem. Currently, I have lost levels 1-3 of 5 for my heating/cooling fan, my windshield wiper fluid pump has stopped working and the lock on my trunk is inoperable. I'm not careless - these materials should have lasted much longer.

Filed Feb 5, 2003 · Engine · 52,000 miles · OH

I own a 2000 pontiac grand prix, it suffered a coolant leak in the upper manifold section. After some research locally and from personal family experience. I believe some pontiac v6 suffers from either defective gaskets and or faulty assembly that cause a leak to develop after 2-3 years of useage which is unacceptable for a new car purchase and pontiac offering no service bulletins/recalls on this issue. Our family has suffered 4 such failures including 2- grandprix's (1999 & 2000 models) , grand am (1997), sunfire (1997) among numerous other failures in my general location. I would ask your agency to look further into this potential problem and reckify the situation