Love my 96 Grand AM

[jlaws]

I bought 1996 Grand Am SE. It's gold colored with a 3.1 V6 engine. I picked it up for $850. It has high mileage at 140K but the body and interior is mint. It runs great so far, almost as if the engine was recently replaced or something. I bought it as a "winter beater" to deal with the sometimes harsh Northeast winter weather. But I've started to fall in love with it ! Some of the money that was for mod on my main car, has gone to the Grand Am! I've devoted alot of time making it as mint as possible. It is a fun little car!! I plan to upgrade the brakes and wheels to size 16. Does anyone know of had how much comfort is lost going from stock 195/65/15 tires to 205/55/16 ? or maybe 205/60/16 ?
I am new to this forum but I've been on other car forum so I know one of the pet peeves is not using the "search" function.
So I will use that as much as possible. I've already found ways to fix the common water leaks ;)


Oh by the way here is a pic of my other car, fully loaded Lexus LS430 :cool:
I only drive it 20% of the time :P

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by jlaws
[B]I plan to upgrade the brakes and wheels to size 16. Does anyone know of had how much comfort is lost going from stock 195/65/15 tires to 205/55/16 ? or maybe 205/60/16 ?


First off, nice Lexus! :) Welcome to the forums! I think if I also had the Lexus I'd be driving it 80% of the time, not the other way a around! :lol:

But yes the 3100 is a very good engine. The only real "problem" with the 3100 and 3400 engines is the lower intake manifold gaskets, which are prone to failure and relatively expensive to fix (parts and labour to replace the LIM gaskets are well in excess of what the entire engine is worth). Other than that, if it is the original engine, and it has 140k miles on it, I'm not surprised in the least that it still runs like new. :)

As for tyre sizes I'd say the increase from the stock 15s to 16s wouldn't give up much in terms of comfort. I have 17" wheels/tyres (215/45R17) on my car in the summer and the 15" stock size in winter and I can definitely notice the difference in ride (but the handling benefit, to me well outweighs it). Going to 16" wouldn't do much, particularly since it was a stock size (16" was std on SE Sport an GT models for those years) and they engineered the ride thinking of that. Personally I'd go to a 17 or 18" set for both appearance and handling, if I were you but if you really don't want to sacrifice ride 16 would be fine. Plus you got that Lexus there, so I guess it isn't really important to get the GA performing all that well! :P

The first size you mentioned (205/55R16) is best to keep the proper overall diameter/circumference and therefore keep the speedo in check pretty much 100%. 205/55 is considered a [relatively] high sidewall still, so I don't think you'd need to up it to 60. It'll look better and ride virtually the same with the 55R16 on there.

Edit: Oh yes, and as for brakes, you may want to consider a rear disc brake conversion (there are a couple kits out there but it isn't very popular a mod), and/or a larger front brake conversion, if you aren't satisfied with the braking on the car. The truth is, up until 1999 and later cars (the 5th gen), Grand Ams were using a braking system designed for cars in the 1980s, with a few minor changes. Relatively very small rotors up front and drums at the back--ugh. You'll get accustomed to replacing front pads pretty quick (usually like every 2 years) even with non-agressive braking. IMO, definitely not what they should have had on a mid 90s automobile. If I had the money myself I would have done the rear disc conversion already.

Funny enough most people aren't really concerned with the braking performance, but if you drive any modern-day car with 4 discs and appropriately sized brakes (as will be the case with your Lexus) I'm thinking you'll agree the braking system on 3rd and 4th gen (92-95 and 96-98) Grand Ams is fairly inadequate.

[jayhawk]

:welcome:

[GtOfDeath]

:welcome:

[nice96gt]

:welcome: :drool: nice Lexus

[Grandam02chick]

Welcome to the Club!!! YAY another Bostonian!!!!!congrats on the new toy!!

[Big Joe]

:welcome:

[PontiacGT]

Yes sir very nice car you have there.

[jlaws]

Thank you all for welcoming me aboard and the very informative info "MantaGreen97"
The Grand Am has been my little hobby. It's been a while since I've had a car in which I can get my hands dirty. I've been driving somewhat "boring" luxury cars for about 6 years. My previous car was a 98 Cadillac STS, the king of fwd vehicles. My most fun was my Jet black 92 GMC Typhoon which I still miss. I had that beast suv running in the mid 12's thru 1/4 mile. I got alot of faces that looked like this :eek: :???: when I blew off the green light like a Porshe 911 turbo!!
Being a professional part time auto detailer, I spent a coupe of days restoring the paint , cleaning the interior and engine. I ran into the previous owner and he was blown away at how the car looked. :D It truly was a diamond in the rough and I saw it .

[XoticGA]

:wave:

[Pimped Am GT]

:welcome: sounds like a nice ride for $850 o and ps nice lexus wanna trade lol j.p i love my ga and im glad you like yours too