First Time Grand Am Buyer has Serious Questions about Car.

[First_GrandAm]

I recently purchased a 1990 Grand Am. It is not a 2.3L Quad 4 engine but I would like to know what kinds of problems I can expect. I understand that they would be limited by keeping up engine repair i.e. oil changes, radiator flushes, fluid top offs etc. I just want know if I bought a decent car or one that's going to cost an arm and a leg to fix. I want to know if it's going to break down every other week or if it will run like a horse.

[EKling]

What kind of engine do you have? Would be a little more help. I never owned a pre 92 so I don't know there problems but I know a headgasket problem was known for almost all GA's.

[4kQuad]

I had a 2.3 DOHC Quad for just over 3 years. during that time the motor it's self never gave me a problem. Well I did leave the raditor cap off once and over heat the motor, so I had to have it rebuilt. But that was my fault.

You will find that people are devided about Quads. They are funny little motors and a lot of people don't want to work on them.

In the 1990 version, the only real problems to watch for is head gasket or a cracked head. After that they run. The motor was designed by people who wanted to put them in race cars. Selling them to the public was not part of the plan at that time. So the PI circut stated running Quads. So they were built to go fast and run hard for extended periods of time from the get go.

There is no air polution crap on the quad (well the 02 sensor)so no EGR valve or PCV valve to cause problems. There is no Dist-cap or spark plug wires, so novacum advance to worry about or bad spark plug wires loosing spark to the plugs.

Other than changing oil and air filter a full tune up on a quad is just changing the spark plugs. Umm...yep that's it. So up keep is cheep ( i think ) compared to other motors. Yes if it has problems, they cost a lot to have fixed, but then so does any motor.

I would buy another car with the Quad in it. But then maybe you can tell I like them.

Save your money for heater cores and water pumps...but they seem to go out a lot on any of the GA's. Don't worry to much about the motor.

Also watch the power curve on that thing, once you get to 4 and 5 grand the power will come on faster than you may expect.

[Brad97GS]

If it's not a Quad 4, then it must be a 2.5L Tech IV. I would check out that section for some 2.5L-specific things. :)