My first Grand Prix

Hi everyone! I just bought my first Pontiac Grand Prix SE today. Its a 98 3.8 V6 4 door. It has 115000 miles on it. It runs great! I have a couple of questions as to what maintence to do it. It had an oil change but I noticed the Trans fluid was redish but turing brown. It shifts nice and smooth. Is it okay to change the trans fluid? Are there any other tasks that I should do to the car? I think i am going to replace the struts to give it a better ride down the road. Is that hard? fewww!

PS. Got it for $1500.00. Goood deal?

Heck ya, that's a good price. I would recommend a trans fluid and filter change, DO NOT have anyone flush the tranny.

The hardest part of struts is getting the new springs mounted on.

Thats a real good deal!

Congrats on the purchase! Youre gonna love it!

I doub that the tranny fluid/filter have ever been changed, so yes, i would go ahead and do that.

Never done struts before, so im not sure of the difficulty.

And PS- Welcome to the forums!

welcome to the board, Ryan. IIRC, the 3800 you have is the L36, which is the GT mill. You have a good strong engine there.

Suspension is not hard at all. You just need to practice EXTREME caution when compressing/decompressing the springs. The hardest part, IMO, is having enough [butt] to break/apply torque to the mounting nuts/bolts. Aside from the torque, the alignment is about the hardest thing to do, and you dont really hafta to do that yourself.

Welcome aboard, be sure to use the search button on this site, use HercMan's website, and keep it clean. Bobby can be a bit rabid at times. If you're looking for performance: either 2fast4u, or Rook are your best bets for boosted while Chico is the ultimate for N/A applications. HercMan is the local maintenance guru, but pretty much everyone here has a bunch of knowledge, experience, and willingness that, as far as our cars go, there is nothing that cant get done. Appearance-wise: I would recommend you talking to either 2muchspl or chitownhitta.

Richard your such a beast.

Welcome to the site man!

Richards going to scare the newbs off. haha.


Transmission:
drop the pan, drain whatever fluid comes out (8 quarts ish), replace the filter, and refill. If you want to get fancy you can use the new dexron-VI fluid.

Might wanna check the condition of the coolant, too.

I'm not too shabby myself!

I got mine for $3200 originally, man has the price went up since then! Changing struts won't be too bad. I haven't done it, but they're practically disconnected on my car right now. I could remove the top mount bolt and they'd fall out.

If you're looking for handling, definately conside the GMPP handling kit, consisting of sway bars, strut braces, and trailing arms. For around $220 you can have a night/day difference in handling. It's on my todo list, right after a powertuner and pulley drop... If I ever get this stupid wiring done.

WOW! Thank you all so much for the response. I am going to have it done this weekend. There is a oil change place that does, oil changes, trans changes, coolent flushes. What kind of gas should I use? The person who had it before me, always used premium gas (93 octance). Any thoughts?

You can run any grade of gas in it. It's rated from the factory for 87.

Whenever you talk to whoever you get to work on the car, make sure they just drop the tranny pan, replace the filter/fluid and that's it. Flushing it is a cheap/lazy way of putting new fluid in and can cause problems by knocking debris loose in the lines. I'd even ask to watch them and make sure they did it right... if I wasn't doing it myself.

He's starting to scare me off.

Save yourself the money (especially with today's gas prices) and get 87 grade. The 93 won't do anything for you. Higher octance is for cars with higher timing levels so the spark doesn't go off too early creating Knock Retard. You'd be better off putting your money towards a fuel injector cleaning, new fuel filter, etc.

Welcome aboard, and congrats on the GP! Two other things to recommend, given the mileage: Pick up a set of aluminum lower intake gaskets (much better than plastic ones) and an upgraded Upper Intake from ZZP. That will take care of two potential weak spots in an otherwise very reliable engine. New injector O-rings are a good idea as well..

Also prevents a 'deisel'-like detonation from occuring. Remember gas laws from high school chemistry? As your cylinder is going up, causing the volume to decrease and pressure increasing, the temperature is also going to go up. Once you pass up the 'auto-ignition' point of the gas mixture, its going to explode, while your cylinder is still going up!

That and what drew said is basically why you don't need anything higher than 87 or 89.

how am I scaring ppl off? did I scare you? If so, my Dad-Dad voice is coming through the keyboard. The voice is inherent, I guess. Anywho, I would also recommend the fuel filter. I just gained something like 5 MPG with just the filter. Plugs, wires, coolant flush, blinker fluid change, tire rotate/balance, air filter (Fender Well Intake is what most ppl here are goin with), brake fluid flush, A/C recharge. With that, you should be golden for another year.

cant believe they all called me scary, the nerve of them goobers...

We're just picking on you. In good fun.

This is a great place! Everyone has so much knowledge! So this weekend, I will be changine the oil, changin the trans fluid, and doing a coolent flush. I am looking for new struts. What should I get to make the care ride nice? I have seen the monroe ones but I have one my 94 crown vic, and they suck! Any thoughts on the at one? Oh, I got the car washed, now my head lights got a little fogged up and my passenger side corner light has some water in it. Looks like i will to look into it. Thanks to everyone again. Richard C., just so you know, it takes alot to scare me! I deal with high school kids all day long! AKA-teacher

Does this guy scare you?

A lot of us like KYBs It's a good idea to replace springs and strut mounts while you're at it, just so you don't have to take the car apart twice..

I know that the owner before me, just replaced the water pump. Now, when I get the coolent flushed, what coolent do I ask for? The car says use DexCool only. The coolent is really dirty.

I use dexcool, but I've heard others (HercMan, mayhaps?) use other types. How long ago was the water pump replaced? Within the year? If so, nm about the coolant flush.

I personally hate Dexcool, it has tendencies to sludge and make orange gunk in the lines and has been known to cause gasket failure. If it were me, I'd have the system thoroughly flushed and green put in. That's what I did with my car.

i lot of guys run the green stuff.

I use peak

Peak Global Lifetime. Wally World or Even overpriced Walgreens had it when I was there. My mechanics were going to put back in DexCool, they said only use that. But I was like, I did some research, GP.net, and I am going with something else. They said ok, and put in the new stuff. My mechanics always tell me stuff like that I guess because they have the tendency to think WARRANTY in their head. So if you have done research on anything you change on the car, don't let mechanics push you into using what GM has specified if you know you can use something better.