I made my screen name before I actually bought one, but I just picked up an '04 Bonneville SLE on Monday. Black with tan interior. 73,000 miles... Pretty decked, but no 12-disc, memory seats or HUD (if they were even options on SLE'*).

Quick question: The engine seems to run kinda rough when you first start it. Not sure how these 3800'* are supposed to idle, but you can feel a noticable engine vibration or semi-erratic idle when you first start it (almost like it wants to stall, but never does). Tach never jumps when this happens, so I can't really say what it feels like. But it doesn't seem to idle well after start-up. Motor/trans mount? UIM/LIM... ? Kinda stumped on this one. No SES light, and the dealer didn't "feel" it yesterday when I pointed it out.

Quick question #2: It seems like I have to hit the brakes kind of hard to get it to stop "quick". Don't know what it is, but it doesn't seem to stop all that great. Pads up front seem okay. Not sure about the back. Peddle is fine, no real pulsation or noise when you brake, it just flat out doesn't seem to have good brakes unless you hit them pretty hard. Maybe I'm just not used to the car yet, but it still seems a little abnormal

Any suggestions?

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Have a helper give you assistance to watch the motor mount while they put it in and out fo gear with their foot on the pedal. Otherwise, I'd suggest a tune up including removal and cleaning of the throttle body and all sensors.

Glad to hear you got the car.

I too, would start by installing a new set of plugs and wires, and make sure that you aren't using any coolant.

A leaky UIM or LIM could definitely cause a rough idle at startup due to coolant seepage and pooling while the car sit

I agree with the above as a good place to start.

Are your brakes soft, or mushy feeling? The only complaint that I have with mine is that with the ceramic pads in the rain or wet snow, they take longer to warm up and grab than in dry weather.

Just for reference, the first thing I'd do is change the oil and send off a sample for analysis or change it and do the analysis the next change. If you have an intake gasket problem, it will most likely show up in the analysis. It did on my GP and my mother'* Century.
A good set of AC Delco plugs and wires certainly won't hurt.

If someone replaced the brakes with cheap lifetime warrenty pads, that could be the problem. I have driven cars with those and they don't seem to be that great more like a chunk of metal than anything really, but they last a long time and that is what people want.

#1. I would clean the EGR valve

#2. Could be the pads were not properly seated. Remember, when replacing pads whether they were cheap or not, the most important thing you can do to ensure good performance is to seat them. To seat them you really need to stand on em right after install. Carefully go out on the road and get up to about 30mph and then stand on them.....do this several times. This beds them. If you see smoke rolling off the pads do not worry You done good!

Thanks for all the replies. I've had the car a little over a week now and I'm really starting to regret buying it because all the problems I'm having aren't giving me a good general idea of what'* causing them (no SES lights, etc). The engine seems to like stalling about every other day on average. When you shift from Drive to Reverse on any given day after driving the car for a while, the engine stalls out unless you give it gas right after you shift it into reverse. It does it when it feels like it, but more frequently than not. It makes it difficult for me to take it in for warranty work because you never know when the problem will show itself again. Brakes are still shitty. I'll probably check into that this weekend though. Trans fluid isn't pink either, so I'm going to have that drained and re-filled on Friday if I can get out of class early. Sometimes when you shift from Reverse to Drive and give it gas, the transmission "SLAMS" like it needed an extra second to fully engage. DId it today and scared the **** out of me. I didn't floor it after I shifted it from from Reverse to Drive or anything, I just didn't think it needed that long to engage. Hopefully when I change the trans fluid it will engage faster). Anybody in Southeast MI around here that knows about these Bonne'*? Any other advice on the stalling problem would be helpful to, because I'm in the dark on that one.