New owner.....

Hello to all Intrigue owners.

Last week I purchased a 1998 Intrigue GL with only 60k miles on it and in exceptioanlly good condition. I live in Toronto, Canada and the car doesn't have a spec of rust on it. I had my mechanic check it out and he was amazed at how well the car was maintained, everything looks and feels new!

So why am I writing? Well, there is short grind, sometimes faint clunck which seem to emanate from the front end of the car or under the engine as soon as I start driving.

This "sound" goes away completely, i.e. during turns, braking, etc. until I park the car, turn it off and come back and start driving again.

My mechanic didn't hear the "sound" thus could not comment on what it might be. The used car dealer which just happened to be the biggest GM dealer in Toronto, insists that this normal for an 8 yr old car :shakehead

If anyone of you, Intrigue owners experienced this and know what it might be please drop me a line.

I'm also interested in hearing from 98 Intrigue GL owners about their cars and experiences and what to expect in a way future maintenance.

Thanks in advance to all replies.

well i cant comment on the sound either, mine does something a little bit similar, when i back up sometimes i will hear a faint grinding or groaning sound and sometimes my traction control will kick in for no apparent reason, and like you said it goes away and never comes back again...I cant explain it.

Maintenance-wise the 3.8 is a darn good engine, and the only major flaw it has is the upper intake manifold, which is prone to failure, and most mechanics will diagnose it as a failed head gasket and replace that instead, costing you a lot of money for something that you dont need.

If you enjoy reading, there is more information than you could ever want at this link:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/kb.php?mode=article&k=38

I know your Intrigue isnt a Bonneville, but its exactly the same engine, so all the info mentioned there applies to you just the same, even if you dont work on your own car it helps to be educated, so when your driving along and your car all of a sudden overheats and then wont start because its hydrolocked...youll know to immediately drain the oil and find someone to fix your upper intake, as well as the lower gaskets:grinyes: instead of paying out the butt to fix a head gasket, and still having a 3500lb paperweight.

Thanks for the reply LittleHoov.

I'm very familiar with 3.8 engine after owning a Buick LeSabre for a while.
BTW, how would you compare the 3.8 to the newer 3.5 installed in the 2000 Intrigue?

Thanks for the reply LittleHoov.

I'm very familiar with 3.8 engine after owning a Buick LeSabre for a while.
BTW, how would you compare the 3.8 to the newer 3.5 installed in the 2000 Intrigue?

Reliability-wise they are both rock solid engines as far as im concerned, I havent had any serious problems with mine at all, and several other members here can back me up with the same feelings.

fuel-economy wise theyre also about the same, depends some on the gearing you have as well, but both usually get in the low 20s with a city/highway mix, and on road trips both are capable of 30+mpg..in fact i know of an Aurora owner with the 3.5 who has the aggressive gearing that got over 40 mpg on one particular trip, but he was cruising about 55-60 for an extremely long ways.

Now down to my personal favorite, performance, as far as im concerned the 3800 has much more driveability to it, its got quite a bit of low-end torque, and a very flat torque curve all the way through the rpms, making it powerful more at low rpms than high, so when youre just cruising around you have the power where you need it and dont have to put it to the floor to move at a moderate pace...

The 3.5 is a wonderfully designed engine, an GM really really shouldve pushed it a heck of a lot more than they did, if this engine had any real aftermarket with modifiable PCMs and engine internals, you would see some incredible machines out there..but with that said, the 3.5 is not the low-down torquester the 3800 is, not by a long shot, and in the idle-3000rpm range it really almost feels doggy at times, but when you romp on it, the power is there and its a very fast revving engine even in stock form despite all the detuning GM has undoubtedly done to it.

Having also owned a Series II in the past, when im just trying to drive like a normal person I miss the Series II, but when im really pushing the car, I like the 3.5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/rjolly87/powercurve.gif

This is a dyno chart I found a while back that actually compares the two engines head to head. The LX5 (3.5 V6) is the bold line. The 3800 L36 is the thinner graph.

You can see that the 3800 outpulls the 3.5 through the entire lower portion of the rpm range, but that the 3.5 starts to outpull it at higher rpms, I would also describe the 3.5 as somewhat "jumpy" in its power disbursement, because it goes from feeling underpowered to feeling very strong so quickly.

Also notice that when it hits the rev limiter at 6500rpms, the 3.5 still hasnt peaked out in horsepower, its simply plateaued, or still making more very slowly...that tells me this engine has a lot more in it and that GM hasnt allowed anyone to ever take advantage of it...I mean when the 3800 is hovering around the 6k rpm mark, you get the feeling of "please for the love of God shift already!!" but when the 3.5 shifts at 6500 you really feel like it had more left to give and shifted too soon.


Also remember the max HP of the 3.8 does vary in its various applications, the H-bodies are all rated at a max of 205, the W-bodies are all 200 with the exception of the Intrigue which is only rated at 195, intake/exhaust setups are the only thing I can attribute to these differences.

Sorry for this horrendously long post btw, but when someone asks my opinion its always a mistake, because I like to explain myself in detail instead of just saying " I like the 3.5 better than the 3.8"

My 2002 Intrigue makes a sound similar to what you describe. It's from the front and can hear it when the car first starts rolling. I've always attributed it to the ABS doing a self-check or initialization during the beginning of a drive cycle. It also sounds like the tires are scrubbing a little when I first start the car and turn and back out of a parking space? Not sure what that is - maybe it is the tires?

The sound that you might be hearing could be a bad (dry) intermediate steering shaft, which is a common problem. If you sit still and turn your wheel back and forth, do you feel a slight looseness followed by a clunk?

Actually, I tried that a couple of times but heard nothing.

My 2002 Intrigue makes a sound similar to what you describe. It's from the front and can hear it when the car first starts rolling. I've always attributed it to the ABS doing a self-check or initialization during the beginning of a drive cycle. It also sounds like the tires are scrubbing a little when I first start the car and turn and back out of a parking space? Not sure what that is - maybe it is the tires?

How long have you had the car and when did you first noticed that sound?