Hey everyone. My name is Josh, and I thought I'd better join up on a forum about GM'*, as I just picked up a 2005 Pontiac Bonneville GXP.

I did research ahead of time, and generally just assumed the Northstar platform was pretty solid, so I'm not all that worried about my car, it seems pretty solid so far. There are of course a few issues.

This one has two problems I know of, it leaks oil, and that is getting onto the exhaust and wafting into the cabin whenever I come to a stop, and the LED'* have started to go on the dash, it'* not too bad, the "D" drive indicator light is out, and one on the radio, so I'm not that bothered by that much, it'* not too intrusive.

Exterior, some loose trim in the rear wheel well on the driver side, and hail damage, with a scuff or two from who knows what here and there. (Didn't know about the trunk leak, still have to check that).

So, in the coming days here I might ask about the oil stuff, so far as I've seen the most common cause seems to be some oil lines, hopefully that'* what it is. Everything else seems dandy at the moment.

When I bought the car, the average fuel economy was around 15.8 L/100k (15 MPG). Since I've been driving it (mostly in the city, but later at night) it'* now sitting around 11.4 L/100k (20 MPG) So, that sounds pretty average, and based on that I figure the engine must be in fairly good shape. The instant fuel economy readings on level ground at about 80 kph (50 mph) reach 7.5 L/100k (30 MPG). It is incredibly hard to drive this car economically... the sound of that V8 is intoxicating. I haven't been this thrilled with a vehicle since my old Mustang GT, and this Bonneville offers so much more than what the fourth-generation Mustang'* did.

I look forward to being here and talking Pontiac'*, here'* a few pictures of it:







I hadn't washed it yet... I've done so now and will update with new pics when it'* not 12 AM! As you can see, the exterior has seen some action... hail sucks. But the price was right, and I'm convinced the power-train is solid... or so I hope. Earlier when I started it this evening it was a little rough for a few moments, but I've seen behaviour like that from a lot of vehicles.

I knew about the oil problem before I bought it, my dad advised against the purchase, but a couple years ago I rebuilt a Subaru 2.5 engine from the crank out after a head gasket blew and cracked the block, so I'm not really afraid of having to spend some time in and under it if need be.

I might have put my intro in the wrong area... if it'* more suitable somewhere else.. like "show off your ride", I wouldn't mind if it'* moved! Unless I start getting into the oil problem more, but I'm not really going to address that for a while, unless when I check the oil later today I find out I don't have any left :P

I love that color!!! She sure is purrrty.

I fixed the image links so the the pics would show up in the post. put this [img] in front of the link and [/img] at the end of the link.

I'll move this to the Introduction for New Members section for better visibility...
https://www.gmforum.com/introductions-new-members-106/

welcome to the site

Welcome to the forum Josh.

Welcome!

Welcome to the forum! Nice lookin' Bonneville!

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have the attitude of a gearhead, we like that! If you have any questions just post them in the appropriate area, and please share your projects, we love pictures!

Thank you everyone, and thanks for the post move. I didn't realize at first that there was a more appropriate place for intro'*!

My images appear to be broken though?

At any rate, thanks again for the welcome. I would say I'm a gear head. I still live in the good old days when gas was cheap and engines were big, lol.

My first car was a 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse, I loved that thing, but it'* 1.8L engine with all its problems probably put out 90HP... I need more than that now, and this GXP is mental, I don't care what the economy is like, nothing beats a car that has a V8. I'm a total V8 fanatic.

I can't seem to stop driving it! Thankfully it'* not as bad on gas as I feared... I mean, it'* still not fantastic, but it'* doing all right. My overall average is around 11.3L/100k (21 MPG) now, and on the highway it'* still able to do about 9L/100k (26MPG) Which is somewhat important to me because I plan to do a lot of highway driving over summer.

I have some dash pics, no new car pics, I got it all dirty again after having driven the other day and driving by some street sweepers! I do have a question about oil pressure, I'll show the picture here first...


I don't like that the oil pressure gauge is in KPA, I'd rather have PSI, but oh well. As you can see, that'* where it sits at idle after it'* all warmed up. During driving it is in the 5/8 area, it'* hard to tell what kpa that is when the scale is so strange. I'd just like to know if that'* all normal. It never exceeds the 3/4 mark so far as I've noticed, but is in it while cruising.


This shows what my current fuel economy is like... it'* all metric here. I figure 368.2k (228mi) is pretty good for just around half a tank, it'll definitely go farther than my parents Sebring on a tank, but will cost more, even with regular octane.

I'll get some new exterior pics of it all nice in shiny in the next couple days here I guess. The oil leak isn't too bad, the smell gets into the cabin sometimes, mostly it'* not too bad, just every now and then. I will continue to monitor and then crawl underneath and take a look at some point

if the first line is 137.5=20psi, 275=40. so warm at idle is around 30. seems good to me.