Just made a private offer of $1400 for this SSEi
 

Just placed a private offer of $1400 for this SSEi. I suspect it will cost about $400 to move it from California to Phoenix (My F350 is still up north, I have no tow vehicle).

I don't fully trust the ad. We don't see 80k 3.8 fail from leaking LIM gaskets. maybe the gasket replacement was poorly done, causing damage to the engine. I suspect it will need a transmission rebuild. It doesn't not have the nicer SSEi seats, nor are the seats heated. Finally, when people mention KBB, that is a huge flag. Hustler comes to mind. And 9k KBB value..... NOT.

Might be a fun project car- I think $1400 + $400 movement is too much, but these Bonnys are becoming harder to find with clean body's.

Pontiac : Bonneville SSEi in Pontiac | eBay Motors

$1,400 would be a steal. Even if you decide not to fix it, you could part it out for many times that price. If you plan on fixing it, you probably need to count on a short block plus a transmission rebuild.

Good luck.

I'd be asking for current pictures, also pictures of the oil pan off the car... appears the pictures of the car were from back in the day the car was running

If selling is unwilling to provide current pictures... BIG RED FLAG

Yea, the bottom end of that engine is toast. Yank that beeyotch out and try to at least find a short block. Everything should swap over just fine.

I don't see any close ups of the gas door area. This is a common area to rot out.

you can tell it was garage kept, the headlights and taillights still look new, so do the wheels.

I don't think the pictures are of current state of car

I looked pretty closely at the ad, and I can't imagine there is any deception here. The tags on the car are from 9/12, as mentioned in the ad, and if the coolant was never serviced, I can see how LIM gaskets failed after 10 years of Dex Cool.

Plus, according to the auto check, the car has been in Upland Ca most of its life. The mileage was at 80,323 at last count, 4/12, which means it has taken 500 miles in the last year, which sounds about right for a bottom end failure right after a LIM failure.

I say it is what it his, and should be fun with the Series 3 longblock going in to it.

Not related, but to prevent confusion, I believe we tested the theory that Dex had nothing to do with gasket failure. It was the plastic gasket themselves that failed.

how would you test that, out of curiosity?

Very cool

Thanks for the comments. Mike mentioned to look at the gas cap area for "bubbling" under the paint. Super easy tell tale location. Another place I look at for the Bonny is where the fuel line bolts into the fuel filter. Bonnys never ever exposed to water will have zero rust at that connection. Another place to look is the front of hood for peeling paint. I did not see any in the pics, but detail in pics is limited. The only way I will purchase this is if it has zero weather related corrosion. As of this time the seller has not replied to my offer.

It went for $2500..

I do recall seeing the thread, although I don't know how credible any of the information was. The facts of the matter are:

The old versions of the gaskets were not reinforced making them weaker than the new version.

The "old" dex-cool was not as stable as the new reformulated dex-cool, and in some cases did not last the full 5 years before becoming overly acidic causing extra wear on the gaskets.

Some people don't change their coolant every 5 years even.

Combine all of this together and you have a recipe for disaster.

BillBoost did an excellent write up on his observations from doing thousands (well, maybe dozens) of gasket changes, and his conclusion was the issue was not related to Dexcool.

Wow, you guys are a tough crowd.
Stumbled across this thread while waiting for it to get delivered. Maybe I'm gullible, but I believed the listing to be truthful. By far not the first car I bought sight unseen, but this car seemed like a no-brainer to me.

The car showed up yesterday, super clean & the seller was maybe the most cooperative I've ever dealt with. The KBB comes up well over 8 grand for me.

Not sure why you guys think a 80k Bonneville driven by someone's mom would probably need a transmission build, but if your wrong, I'd say this car was a steal. Even if your right I think it was still a fair deal. And I paid way more than $400 to get it here.

Congrats on your purchase.

Looks like you may have 3500+ (2400, plus 200 license, 900 shipping) into a super clean Bonneville with a blown engine that you could not test drive. That's a risk. Maybe a good risk, but a risk none the less. Rebuilt engine 1500, labor 800, and no way I am pulling the engine without rebuilding the trans. Another 1k. You are now at $6300. And that is without a test drive. If you do the work yourself you can take the labor and knock the price down to $5500.

Of course buying a car with a blown engine needs a "tough crowd". 3.8Ls don't blow at 80k, so the one needs to be super cautious. At $5500, might be a great deal. Just more risk than I am going to take.

Best wishes with your new Bonny.

people will tell you anything to sell the car these days.

The below Ebay Ad shows why the SSEi with the blown engine could be a tough purchase. The below SSEi with 40k miles looks sweet. I speculate it can be purchased for 7k. With a 2k starting bid, plus transport, new engine, likely tranny rebuild, ABS repair, license plate issues, etc- I can't imagine the Bonny with the blown being less than 6k overall (including purchase and transport) to get operational.

Pontiac : Bonneville SSEi 1-Owner in Pontiac | eBay Motors

I feel your logic is flawed.
I'm quite sure that that free shipping (or registration fees) isn't included in the listing you cited. So someone will likely pay that on top of the selling price.

I'm also not convinced that this car can be had for $7000, I find that dealers set their reserve much closer to the buy-it-now price.

So if you compare apples to apples, it seems there is quite a bit of room to work with on the car with the bad motor.

I'll never understand your reasoning that an 80k Bonneville "likely" needs the transmission rebuilt, especially one that has been driven by a middle-aged woman. I'd rate it possible, but unlikely.

Your previous numbers were pretty close to my worst-case scenario, but that would still put me under 6k for a southern California SSEI with a complete zero miles drivetrain.
And KBB books a 81k '03 SSEI about $400 more than the 40k '00, so it would seem there is still almost a $2000 cushion if everything went wrong. And that doesn't take into account for the fresh engine & trans.

Meanwhile, I've been driving the car for a couple of weeks now thanks to a very nice donor motor from a collision damaged '04 Lesabre with 84k miles from salvage yard a couple hours away. Everything is fixed, including the ABS & the ash tray lid. The car looks, runs & drives spectacularly, I think its too nice for my original intention of finding a clean affordable car for my teen aged son. My total investment is less than $3800 (plus shipping & reg fees), & it could have been less if I repaired the original motor. And I now also have a super clean, complete supercharged spare motor to repair, sell, part out or rebuild/mod at my leisure. I think I did ok.

And yes, the transmission's fine.
I gave it a new filter & Dex VI anyway.

Jeff,

Congrats on getting your Bonny running and under budget.You did great on the numbers and the time to get it running.the

Guess we learn something every day. I didn't know the LeSabre offered a supercharged 3.8L.

Maybe not, I misspoke.
It was actually a Park Avenue Ultra.

Looks like after the car started to bid up, someone decided to pull the trigger at the $7900 buy-it-now price, so we'll never know what the final auction bid would have been.