Pontiac Montana

Hello,
I am new here. I have a 1998 pontiac montana and have had it for about 4 years i think. I have loved my van, I have had someone back into me and leave no damage. My hubby has backed into a tree leaving no damage. We have hauled many things thinking we had a truck lol. We have went on vacations with no troubles. Made it home with no troubles. We have had things happen though. Our back windshield wiper does make a noise when used. We were told the motor is going. We have had the drivers side window controls go as well as the window. We fixed that with a new motor and controls. Just recently my clock/radio station has went out. Not sure what that is. Right now it is not being driven because four days ago it overheated on me. The overheat light came on, let it cool down to get it home. My hubby and I changed the thermostat and flushed the radiator. For some reason if anyone here can help. It does not overheat but the temp. does get up high and them come down about half way. I think it needs a system flush for a clog hubby thinks it a sensor. This being the first major thing gone wrong I have been very happy with my van.
If anyone can help with the overheat issue please help.
 
Carmine said:
I have all of you beat. At around 32K miles I had to replace the "General" tires GM put on this vehicle due to cupped tire wear causing vibrations. I rotated the tires about every 5k miles. Bought real nice Goodyear tires w/80K tread wear. After the too short 36K GM warranty I had to have the Headgaskets replaced and fortunately had the extended warranty and had to pay only my $200 deductible. Lucky me. At about 45k miles my a/c condensor needed to be replaced due to corrosion. Once again being lucky I had to pay my $200 ded again. Now at about 50K miles the rear a/c system line is leaking due to "Corrosion". Called Pontiac and asked why this was not considered since corrosion appears to be an issue w/ the a/c system the first time and I was told that if it was leaking during the past repair then they would not have been able to recharge the system. NO Duh! What do I know? Maybe they should have a Standard Operating Procedure and check the complete system. Although I still like my 2002 Montana. I guess I'm a glutent. Oh yea, almost forgot the drivers mirror actuator had to be replaced. I still want to Buy American!!!!!
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Chuck- I have a 2001 montana. I, too have a "cracked" condensor. The dealer has told me it is a known problem with the design, but there is no recall. The part is 662.00 from the dealer. I found new aftermarket for 224.00. The repair shop that's going to put it in (not dealer!!) says he has replced at least 100!!He says they should be recalled. That there are 4 bolts that hold it on and it is ithe lower left each time that has too much play and cracks the condensor, leaking the freon. When he installs them, he doesn;t do that bolt. You probably didn't have corrosion.
 
Paint issues

I just detailed my 2002 and noticed rust bubbles at the top edge of hood near wipers. Also lots of rust below the plastic cladding on the side doors. Seems this is quite common. Has Pontiac acknowledged any problems with corrosion and are they doing anything?
Thanks. Gary
 
1999 montana radiator

brwneyedgrl374 said:
Hello,
I am new here. I have a 1998 pontiac montana and have had it for about 4 years i think. I have loved my van, I have had someone back into me and leave no damage. My hubby has backed into a tree leaving no damage. We have hauled many things thinking we had a truck lol. We have went on vacations with no troubles. Made it home with no troubles. We have had things happen though. Our back windshield wiper does make a noise when used. We were told the motor is going. We have had the drivers side window controls go as well as the window. We fixed that with a new motor and controls. Just recently my clock/radio station has went out. Not sure what that is. Right now it is not being driven because four days ago it overheated on me. The overheat light came on, let it cool down to get it home. My hubby and I changed the thermostat and flushed the radiator. For some reason if anyone here can help. It does not overheat but the temp. does get up high and them come down about half way. I think it needs a system flush for a clog hubby thinks it a sensor. This being the first major thing gone wrong I have been very happy with my van.
If anyone can help with the overheat issue please help.
Click to expand...

I have my '99 montana in the shop right now and they say the radiator was clogged and needed to be replaced (total $650!). It has 87,000 miles on it and I am the original owner. Mine was doing the same as yours. Temp guage up and down until finally the car seemed to lose some of its power. Parked it and called a tow truck. Unfortunately it wasn't covered under my extended warranty because it failed due to lack of maintenance (not regularly flushing the system)
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Love my montana!

I have had some of the same problems mentioned in this forum, however I purchased an extended warranty before the original was up and have not had to lay out too much money thus far. I would recommend that any car shopper consider purchasing a warranty, just shop around. I got mine from American Guardian through an internet company and paid $1100 for a 100,000 mile/ 10 yr warranty, no deductible. I have had good experiences with this company.

Anyway, I love my montana! I have looked around at the newer models and keep comparing it to my montana. I love the comfort and the look of this minivan. I have the extended model which is an added plus for all of our gear when we go on vacation with our 3 kids. The power sliding door is a plus which I objected to at first for fear of it hurting someone. But it didn't and I wouldn't be without it now. I do have trouble with it staying closed sometimes when I shut it, but if you pull on it as it is about to close it is ok. I'm sure the contacts need to be cleaned.

But overall I have had the normal problems you can expect with any car. During the initial 3 year warranty I had almost no claims. after that everything has been covered by my extended warranty. So I will never buy another car without the extended warranty. It was a good investment in the long run!!
 
Biglurp said:
I just detailed my 2002 and noticed rust bubbles at the top edge of hood near wipers. Also lots of rust below the plastic cladding on the side doors. Seems this is quite common. Has Pontiac acknowledged any problems with corrosion and are they doing anything?
Thanks. Gary
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I thought the hoods were aluminum?? I'm sure I remember reading where mine was on my 2002 Montana. I have seen several in my area with large hunks of paint blistering off of the hood with zero rust. The looked like a peeling sunburn. If so, maybe yours was replaced with an aftermarket at some point??

And the extended warranty company should not have cited lack of regular maintenance as a reason the radiator plugged. Your manual says something about 150,000 miles without replacing the coolant!! That is another reason why extended warranties are worthless. Put the extra cash towards a Honda or Toyota and forego a warranty.

Honda stands behind there products even out of warranty. I know that from experience. And I read an article about a Honda van owner that had a transmission fail at 160,000 miles and Honda gave him a new one!!!!
 
Biglurp said:
I just detailed my 2002 and noticed rust bubbles at the top edge of hood near wipers. Also lots of rust below the plastic cladding on the side doors. Seems this is quite common. Has Pontiac acknowledged any problems with corrosion and are they doing anything?
Thanks. Gary
Click to expand...

I noticed bubbles around the edges of my hood too.A body guy said that he has repaired a few of them.The hood Is aluminum.I went to a pontiac dealer and was told that since my '03 has 53000 mi. It Is out of the regular warantee.It would be covered up to 100,000 mi. against rust through.Since the hood Is aluminum,I don't think It will rust through.Just my thoughts.
 
I am taking the van in for a brake problem (scraping noise in the right front), but also noticed that the wheels squeal when just driving around. Oddly enough, the sound stops when the brakes are applied. Doest this also have to do with the brakes or is it something different?
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JaMu0108 said:
I am taking the van in for a brake problem (scraping noise in the right front), but also noticed that the wheels squeal when just driving around. Oddly enough, the sound stops when the brakes are applied. Doest this also have to do with the brakes or is it something different?
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TAKE IT IN ASAP! The scraping noise might be telling you the brake pad is worn down to the bare metal and it probably will require you to replace the rotor also and the other squealing noise that goes away is an indication the the other pads are really low and needing to be changed as well...expect maybe a front, rear brake job and new rotor.

Jay
 
Got it taken care of! front brakes, pads and rotors and all is well...
 
Montana No Start

Unregistered said:
Has anyone had a problem with the van starting after driving with the a/c. If you wait 30-40, it will start. Before the wait time, it just turns over with no start.
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CAn't wait for your problem to show up in my 2002 Montana. Currently, it will INTERMITENTLY not CRANK over. I found by wiggling the 10amp fuse, it seems to fix the problem. Yes. I replaced the fuse, cleaned the contacts... Maybe the problem isn't related to the fuse - just a coincident that it starts? Took it to the Dealer - they find nothing wrong. Took it to a mechanic - found nothing wrong. Anyone else have this problem?
(all the lights come on, you can here a click behind the glove box when it doesn't crank over)
Thanks.
 
I ran my montana out of gas today and after putting fuel in can not get it restarted. I thought that maybe it tripped the fuel cut off switch or blew a fuse but to no avail. Can anyone off any suggestions?
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New Montana owner

I just bought a used 98 Transport Montana with 109k miles on Friday. I'm the second owner. The van is for my wife. The previous owner said she replaced the head at 70k miles. Other than that, no major problem at all. Also I don't find the paint problems mentioned within this 6 pages thread. The only issue I've now is the power slide door. It doesn't close and keep on kick back open. The door actually can't close completely. The rear lock can't engage. Did anyone experience the same problem?
 
1998 Pontiac Transport Rear Windshield wiper buzzing....HELP please!

Hi, we bought this vehicle a week ago, it runs great, it's got 97, 000 miles on it, the vehicle sure has alot of oomph. We love it so far... However, the rear widshiel wiper motor is buzzing and won't do anything, hubby's pretty sure it's the gears, what i'm wondering is if i bought a remanufactured motor would the gears be in it? Rather than buying the whole thing @ the scrap yard for 115 bucks or a new one for over 200. Also, hubby noticed that the service engine soon light is on...any ideas? Thanks so much for any input on the matter.
 
I have a 2000 Montana since new. Have had the coolant leaking into the engine issue. Have paint peeling on the hood, and bubbling and the very common Montana rust holes behind the wheels (I see them on almost every one). I do most of my own maintenance, but what I can't do I take to a mechanic (not dealership) now that it's out of warranty. Overall it's held up for 10 years, but I only have 122k kilometers on it...so maybe not so well if you consider mileage.

I no longer "need" a minivan, but if I did I'd probably consider Honda or Toyota.
 
2000 Pontiac Montana

I bought a 2000 Montana back in December, although it's 11 years old I had It inspected by two different repair shops. Overall it runs good, I have traveled over 7000 miles in it and currently, I have three issues that I need to address: (1) The headlight on the passenger side has water in it... (2) I need to replace the EGR valve (3) I need a new thermostat. My problem is the labor, not the price of the parts. For the van to be as old as it is and have as many miles that it had on it when I bought it, it runs well. It appeared to have one owner prior to. Whoever had it took good care of it. I hate that everything that I need taken care of is a monster to get to.
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BlessedandHighlyFavored said:
I bought a 2000 Montana back in December, although it's 11 years old I had It inspected by two different repair shops. Overall it runs good, I have traveled over 7000 miles in it and currently, I have three issues that I need to address: (1) The headlight on the passenger side has water in it... (2) I need to replace the EGR valve (3) I need a new thermostat. My problem is the labor, not the price of the parts. For the van to be as old as it is and have as many miles that it had on it when I bought it, it runs well. It appeared to have one owner prior to. Whoever had it took good care of it. I hate that everything that I need taken care of is a monster to get to.
Click to expand...

As for the headlight look on amazon for a aftermarket replacement headlamp maybe cost you ~$20 and the egr valve i have heard you can clean them but dont have any experience with them,and yes the thermostat is a labor issue.
 
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