Ok so most of you know of the issues Im having with my Blazer. My girlfriends 99 Pontiac Grand Prix is giving us issues now too. But for a 13 year old car, what should I expect? 3 struts are in bad need of replacing. The battery (I think) is on its way out. We were out running errands yesterday, and I went to start it and it acted like the battery was dead. So I retryed it and it turned over once and stopped. I let go and tried it a third time, the same thing. Finally, on the fourth attempt, it turned over like it had a brand new battery and started and ran perfect. Its also leaking coolant from the tstat housing I think because i can see it pooling right under it on the block but none on the ground. Also, when you drive it around, it stays cool but if you park it and idle it, it gets really warm. Not hot, but close. The coolant level is right at it should be. Its got a 3.1V6. Are these engines junk? The car only has 126,000 miles on it.

 

One of my passions is the W-Body.

As for the battery, 99 times out of 100 the culprit is the nut that holds the positive battery cable to the stud on the passenger fenderwell. It's usually loose or corroded. And it also could be the starter, I've had that style do the same thing to me before.

I'd also be willing to bet the cooling system has an air lock in it from the leak, the leak could be from the thermostat housing or the throttle body coolant line or gasket.

 

Why would the positive lead to the fenderwell? Wouldnt that be the ground? Everything else works like its supposed to. All the electrical that is.

 

The positive cable goes from the battery to a jumper post on the fenderwell and then to the starter...You can see it on the left there.

 

Right. But wouldnt the other electronics mess up? I went out this afternoon and tried to start it. It acts like the the starter has a loose wire. I tried the windows and they worked. Headlights came on. The radio plays like normal. All of these at the same time. I then tried to start it a second time and it fired right up. Would that nut being loose on the stub mess with just the starter or would it mess with the other electronics?

 

It's about resistance. The accessories don't use as many amps as the starter so they can work fine and the starter have difficulty working.

 

Ahh ok. Ill have to check it out tomorrow because my gf has the car at work right now. Im about to buy another 99 Pontiac GP for $350. Its not in bad shape at all. She says itll start and drive. She says that a mechanic told her that the headgasket is going out on it. So its gonna be a parts car to my gfs. Its same color and everything.

 

The 3.1 V-6s are great engines but are prone to head gasket & cracked heads. I drove a 1st gen Lumina to 258,000 & had the heads off once around 120,000 & at 258,000 they went again. So I just junked it. With that many miles I didn't want to spend any money on it. But in hind sight I sometimes wish I would of fixed it. It was a great car & it ran good other than those issues.

 

That little puddle of coolant your seeing is leaking out of your lower intake manifold gaskets, which is also why your temp. is creeping around, and I would be willing to bet your starter solenoid is bad causing your no start issue.

 

Ahh. Yea, I had a 90 Lumina APV that had a brand new crate 3.1 that had 12,000 on it when I got it for $200. It would over heat on me and someone said that it was the lower intake gaskets on it as well. Tomorrow, Im gonna pull her car into the garage and check it out because Im noticing some oil puddles as well on her car and she said the other day that she checked the oil and it was below the add mark so we topped it off. How hard would it be to replace the intake gasket? Im broke so replacing it myself is gonna be the only option.