Updates At Bottom Of Page

Since the issues for this car have been piling up, I decided to make myself a maintenance list, so I know what I need to replace.  Below is the list, and everything that is in bold has been fixed.  This list also does not cover common maintenance, only what would need replaced if something else had caused the problem.

To Do / Maintenance  List:
- Supercharger Idler Pully & Belt (Feb. '08)
- LIM Gaskets (plus replacement of pushrods) (Feb. '08)
- Coolant & Engine Flush
- Sunroof
- Headliner
- Headlights
- Front, Rear, Lower Door Trim, Hood, & Trunk Lid Need Repainted
- Fix All 4 Door Leaks & Trunk Leak
- Replace Door Channels
- Dent In Front Bumper (Dec. '08)
- Rear Shocks (Sept. '08)
- Oil Presure Sender
- Misfire - Cylinder #1 - Was A Bad Spark Plug Wire (Jan. '09)
- Power Window & Power Lock Problem (Dec. '08)
- Transmission Flush (Dec. '08) - Due to major slipping
- Replace Transmission Fluid & Filter (Dec. '08) - Due to major slipping
- Fix Hole In Rear Floor By Battery (Caused By Previous Battery Leaking)
- Wheel Bearings
- Driver Side Tie Rod
- Faulty Driver Seatbelt Latch
- Faulty Front DC Outlet

This page is where I talk about some of the problems I have had with this car, and the progress I make to repair the problems. Now, I know 2000+ GM's have had some quality control issues, but I never realized how bad it actually is. Now, I don't know if it's just because I have bad luck, but it seems after I get one thing fixed, something else breaks (plus on top of the previous owner not taking great car of the car). Now, it is a love / hate relationship with this car: I love the style, options, and power, but I can't stand the fact that the list of issues never seems to end. Don't get me wrong, I'm not selling this car because of that, I've got too much planned for it in the future (IF, I can keep money from having to go to repairs).

First off, I'll start with the very first problem I had with the car right after I got it. I consider this just complete bad luck, but as I've said on page 2, I bought this car because my LeSabre was getting older, and the day that the pulley went on it, made me go forward with the purchase of this Bonneville. Well, as my luck would have it, I was coming back from work, on the third day of owning the car, when I noticed it died. Well, I smelled smoke, but decided to try and start it back up since I was in the middle of traffic. I slowly pedal back to my apartment, and as soon as I get out of the car and look under the hood, this is what I see:

The supercharger idler pulley went out on me, 3 FREAKING DAYS after owning the car, and not even a week after the tensioner pulley went on my LeSabre. Now, I just consider that complete bad luck, 2 pulleys, in 2 different cars, not even a week apart. Well, it took me a couple of days – because I could only work on it after work, and by then it was dark, and 13 degrees outside – and I managed to replace the idler pulley and the belt.

Second, anyone that owns a GM (especially a 3800) after 1996, knows about the dreaded DEX-COOL coolant, and how it gunks up and eats through the lower intake gaskets (since this engine is supercharged, I don't have to worry about the upper intake manifold). Well, I was no different:

Look at all that yummy coolant leaking out from my engine (at least it went on the outside, and not inside the cylinders). Well, in March, after hearing some very loud ticking (possible bad lifters), I decided to start tearing down into the engine, to clean this mess up, and replace every necessary part. Here are pictures of the tear down (look at that gunk on the injectors):

Now, I didn't do this alone, my brother helped me out (I don't know that much about the internals of an engine). He took everything apart, as I cleaned everything that came out. Interesting story here, after he got down into the engine, and cleaned a few things, he tested the lifters. Every lifter was still good; but, 10 out of the 12 pushrods were bad. My brother said it looked as if the rockers had been tightened down too much, causing the ends of the pushrods to rub away. Well, after searching all over town, and not finding one single auto store that had pushrods in stock, I had to order them online. After they arrived, my brother and I put everything back together, and the car started and ran without problems. Also, as a note, I replaced the lower intake gaskets from the nylons to the GM aluminum gaskets -- because I haven't done a complete coolant flush yet, I know there is still some DEX-COOL hanging around, and this is to protect the gaskets, plus with them being aluminum, it will be a very long time before I have to replace them.  Here are a couple shots showing the engine all cleaned up:

Something I'm very upset about, which I could have used during this summer, was my sunroof breaking on me. I used it ONCE before it decided to quit, and that one time was just to test it. I know these things break very easily, and often, but come on, I had the car for 2 weeks, and it went on me. Now, it's not like it doesn't completely move, just the passenger side doesn't move, and then it makes a grinding noise as it tries. Kind of sounds like maybe a broken gear, as shown in the pictures below:

And with that, the headliner for the sunroof cover is hanging:

I'm working on a solution to the broken sunroof, I have spare parts that I might be able to use to fix it, just need to find the time do do it.

And, that's not all, I have also have some of the problems many other owners of Bonneville's have, such as the intermediary shaft problem (makes clunking noises), and the pitted and hazed headlights, along with the so-called 'road rash' on the lower rear door panels:

I also have the leaky doors. The bad one was the front passenger door. I did tear it apart and fix the seal (the other doors don't seem to be a problem, yet):

Notice the picture on the right. Apparently a note was made there about the window regulator, on 9-17-07. If I'm lucky, this might mean this door's window regulator may have been fixed on that date, so I may not have to worry about that problem. Now, since I haven't torn into the other doors yet, I don't know if the window regulators have been replaced in those doors or not (and I can't guarantee that the passenger door had it replaced, but I'm hoping).

Here are some minor things that I've found with the car (these are less quality control problems, and more lack of care by the previous owner). I have a few scratches; the rear bumper looks as if it was backed into something, a dent / scratch on the rear passenger door that looks like a seatbelt was closed in it (that door rattles too, sounds like it needs reseated), what looks like melted rubber on the door trim (both sides), and a massive dent in the lower front bumper:

Plus tons of chips in the front bumper and plenty of swirl marks in the paint.

To add the list of issues this car has, in September of 2008, when I was loading my car up with stuff from my apartment (was moving out), I noticed the rear of the car was sagging slightly. When I turned it on, I started to hear the pump for the leveling system kick on, but not turn off – the rear of the car would just keep rising. After looking around the car a bit, I saw that the driver's side shock was blown. All I needed, especially when I didn't have any money. So, I talked to my brother, and he ordered me a set of new AC Delco shocks ( I still owe him the money), and when they arrived, we spent about an hour that night replacing the shocks. The first picture is of the blown shock, and the other 2 pictures are of the AC Delco shocks:

And to top things off, just recently, I've had problems with the electronics in the doors. It started with the rear driver's door, both the power lock and power window quit. Then over a week's time, it moved to the rear passenger door, and then a few days after that, it moved to the front passenger door. The only door that still works is the driver's door. So, I'm figuring it has to be a wiring problem. I just need time to look into it. It did suck on those hotter days, I had no way to vent the heat in the car (3 windows and a sunroof not working), and with black paint, and dark leather seats, it got hot in there (I'm not a big user of the A/C in town).

I guess it sounds kind of like I'm whining – maybe I am – but anyone would be upset with these amount of problems, and I haven't even owned the car for a year. Also, the extended warranty is crap – doesn't cover any of the problems I've had / am having. The only thing I know it will cover (once it goes bad), are the wheel bearings. So, I'm kind of using this page to document the repair process, that's what this page is mainly about.

Maybe in the future I can finally have a page documenting my performance and styling processes, but I'll get to that once these repairs slow down.

-- UPDATES BELOW --

Well, with the way my luck has been going lately, I'm not surprised with the next couple of things that just recently happened on the Bonneville. This thing is going faster than I can keep up with.

The first of new issues, the other day (Tuesday, December 9, 2008), I went out to my car to grab a couple of things from the trunk. It had been raining pretty badly the last couple of days. Well, I notice that my carpet is soaked, and it wasn't from opening the trunk lid. I inspected everything, trying to find the leak, as I know the trunks are prone to leaking in these cars; I take a look in my spare tire well, remove everything, and I see this:

Freaking pools of water in the spare tire well. I cleaned it up, but I know with a trunk leak, this is going to keep happening. Once the weather improves a little (it quits raining), I'm going to try and hunt down and fix the leak.

Also, later that night, I headed out of town, well, it wasn't long before I noticed this:

My oil gauge is pegged out. Well, I received no warnings from the computer, so my guess is, the Oil Pressure Sender just went bad on me. This isn't a real major issue, just another of those little annoyances I have to deal with. Kind of nice to know my oil pressure, especially with an oil leak. But I'll have to wait til I get money to get a new unit, and some time to replace it.

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Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – Stock
Page 3 – Interior
Page 4 – Audio System
Page 5 – Modifications
Page 6 – Location Shoots
Page 7 – Initial Problems
Page 8 – Videos