6th Gen ('00-'05): Misfire
Second Owner. Black. Good Condition. Well Maintained. Low Mileage.
The plan had been to keep it after rebuilding the transmission by a good shop.
Put new tires and brakes on last year too.
Then the pup grew to 76lbs and the plan changed to sell it (KBB etc implied maybe $2000)
Then the problem happened .
---
Long story short... it appears that the head gasket leaks enough to allow some water into the combustion chamber.
Twenty years ago I'd have dug into it, pulled the head and tried to fix it myself.
I've read that this is a fairly common problem with the 3.4L six cylinder engines but I'm not sure it's worth doing.
1) Doing it at all on a 14yo car.
2) Doing it by paying competent mechanic rates to do it for me vs a less than $2000 sale value.
---
So I'm here to ask folks who mess with these cars all the time what you think about it...
and/or if maybe someone is here and near the NC Triad who might want to make a deal for it "as is".
Thanks
The plan had been to keep it after rebuilding the transmission by a good shop.
Put new tires and brakes on last year too.
Then the pup grew to 76lbs and the plan changed to sell it (KBB etc implied maybe $2000)
Then the problem happened .
---
Long story short... it appears that the head gasket leaks enough to allow some water into the combustion chamber.
Twenty years ago I'd have dug into it, pulled the head and tried to fix it myself.
I've read that this is a fairly common problem with the 3.4L six cylinder engines but I'm not sure it's worth doing.
1) Doing it at all on a 14yo car.
2) Doing it by paying competent mechanic rates to do it for me vs a less than $2000 sale value.
---
So I'm here to ask folks who mess with these cars all the time what you think about it...
and/or if maybe someone is here and near the NC Triad who might want to make a deal for it "as is".
Thanks
Last edited by TriadNC-03; Nov 8, 2017 at 08:44 AM.
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,605
From: Mentor, Ohio
The 3400 is much like the 3100. I changed head gaskets on my '94 Grand Am when it had 180K miles and 15 years old. The car ran great except for the issue where the head gasket blew. After I finished the gasket repair, I sold it when it was 19 years old with 215K miles. Gaskets, fluids, and a couple other need to do repairs at the time and I was about $300+ and did it all myself.
After I did it, was happy as heck, well worth it. As for your car, depends on the condition of the car.
After I did it, was happy as heck, well worth it. As for your car, depends on the condition of the car.









