Possible 2000 SLE purchase

[Hungrycat7]

Hey guys. . . New to this part of the site. I have owned a 2000 Grand Am Gt for seven years now and I love it. Unfortunately the car is nearing the end of it's life and it is time for a replacement. I am looking at a 2000 Bonneville SLE. It is fully loaded and has only 30,000 miles on it. I was wondering if I could get some advice from you Bonneville experts. What should I look out for? Are these good cars or just good looking? I have heard both good and bad things about the 3.8.

[ogauge4me]

Common issues are water leakage in the trunk, hood herpes, clunking steering shaft and bad window regulators.

[Jrs3800]

Originally Posted by Hungrycat7

Hey guys. . . New to this part of the site. I have owned a 2000 Grand Am Gt for seven years now and I love it. Unfortunately the car is nearing the end of it's life and it is time for a replacement. I am looking at a 2000 Bonneville SLE. It is fully loaded and has only 30,000 miles on it. I was wondering if I could get some advice from you Bonneville experts. What should I look out for? Are these good cars or just good looking? I have heard both good and bad things about the 3.8.

There are a series of common issues..

First things first.. Thats a low mileage car.. I'd be tempted to buy it... I recently Bought this 03 Bonneville SLE...


Right off the bat I went in to the motor and replaced the Lower intake gaskets with the GM aluminum gaskets..


I also used the APN Sleeved upper intake with the reduced diameter EGR stove Pipe..


The usual water leaks are the weather shields behind the door panel... We usually just pull the door panels and reseal the weather shield to the door... What happens the the sealant and weather shield will come away from the door causing an interior leak..


Window Regulators in these cars do fail like many other GM products over the years using the cable drive window actuator... Replacement is not that hard and the price for a replacement unit is not that bad either..

With age the air shocks on the back tend to leak air and the system will have ha hard time keeping the back end level.. With any weight in the trunk you'll hear the pump run here and there if the rubber bladder on the shock is tired.. Most of the time we simply replace them with Monroe Max Air Shocks..

For the Trans a common problem is P1811( IIRC on that code ) Maximum Adapt Long shift.. Usually this will be a Pressure Control Solenoid( PCS or in some cases EPC- Electronic Pressure Control ) that can go bad, in some of these cases the PCM will command full line pressure which may cause tranny whine.. If full line pressure is commanded all of the time with harsh shifts this is bad for the trans and will harm or cook it in short order..

There are also issues with the 4th Clutch Hub stripping the teeth off the hub causing a no overdrive condition or loss of overdrive.. Being at 30,000 miles I do not see this as a problem yet..

These cars can take all the mods the W bodies can as well.. There are Exhaust, PCM, Intake and many other upgrades that can be performed on these cars as well... All depends on what you want..

As of right now, the 03 SLE has a PLOG( Performance Exhaust Manifold )... Has a Ported lower intake port matched to the heads.. K&N drop in filter, I do not think I will get an intake kit for it, I will simply gut the air box.. The next mod will be a Hogan H body Downpipe and some PCM tuning...

Who is to say we can't have a little fun with a large 4 door sports sedan...LOL