jmccoy

I bought a 96 Lumina in April of 2005. It had 20K miles on it..... a few tiny dings on the outside but perfect on the inside and everything worked well.... ran perfectly.... smooth and quite as a mouse. In the last year I've only put 5k miles on it.... had to replace the alternator, developed some loud lifter noise (only for the first 5 mins or so after I first start it) .... rear brakes have started grinding (again, only the first few mins when first starting).... and the engine has started to sound slightly throaty when accelerating. I'm wondering if the 20k miles were original. The tires are all the same brand (BFGoodrich Touring T/A) and have the kind of wear on them that you would expect from 20k miles or so. Does anybody know what tires came on this car, originally?

bigkane01

I'm not sure what kinda of tires came on them originally. But I will let you know that the lifter noise you're hearing comes from them all. My dad has had 2 Lumina's with the 3100 V6 and I just purchased a 1996 with 69,000 original miles and this thing makes a nice racket the first few minutes after starting. So don't worry for about another 200,000.

jeffcoslacker

I don't think you can say for sure, they change as different tires become available or if one is in short supply they'll switch to something else. Mine had Bridgestone Potenza RE92's on it when new. 1997 LS.

The 3.1s all sound like a can fulla rocks when you start 'em. Especially in the colder weather.

__________________
You made three mistakes. First, you took the job. Second, you came light. A four man crew for me? F**king insulting. But the worst mistake you made...

...empty gun rack.

maxwedge

Had piston slap in my 97 3.1 from day one till 175k, never used oil or affected performance.

jeffcoslacker

Yeah, me too, it's always been that way, never gets any worse or any better, except for temperature effects on oil flow at startup.

I don't pay any attention to it. I do let it idle for a couple of minutes before driving away in cold weather, but that's just habit, I've always felt you should do that...with any car.

Had a co-worker who lived right on the highway on ramp, and he'd always just jump in the car, late for work and hit the highway going 75 within a minute and a half of starting the car.

One particularly bitter cold day about 2 miles from the house he blew EVERYTHING outta the gearbox, shafts, gear clusters and all. The case had metal fatigue and apparently couldn't handle the extreme temp changes along with forcing glacial thickness gear oil around at those speeds.

Everything that came out of it was heat scorched blue and black. That was a Nissan Sentra with about 65,000 miles on it, way to early to have a disaster like that.

It was one of those wonderful "I told you so" moments, as he and I used to go 'round and 'round at work about the benefits of letting a car warm up before driving it hard.

He always had the assertion "as soon as the idle drops, it's ready for anything" and "maybe if you quit driving domestics, you wouldn't have to baby your cars"

Some never learn. He bought a Civic SI (to replace the Sentra), and asked me about break-in period. I told him how I choose to do it, varying speeds on the highway, working up to higher speeds and harder acceleration over the first 1500 miles or so.

The salesman (THAT's who you want to listen to, right?) told him no "just drive it normal for the first 100 miles, then drive it like you stole it.", which he did.

Last I heard at 38,000 miles it was using a quart of oil every 1200 miles, and he wanted Honda to fix it, but they say it's not within criteria for 'excessive consumtion".

__________________
You made three mistakes. First, you took the job. Second, you came light. A four man crew for me? F**king insulting. But the worst mistake you made...

...empty gun rack.