Long time admirer, first time owner
 

Recently purchased a 2000 Bonneville SSEi for the Misses. Black, 180k miles. Has some problems, but I have a lot of faith in the supercharged 3.8L.

Check Gas Cap / Service Stability System Soon codes. Any help here?

Also, the sunroof is toast. What am I looking at to replace everything there? The glass is good, aside from that I'd say everything else needs replaced.

Any suggestions on wheel/tire setups? What are the first set of purchases I should make here? Any suspension/drivetrain upgrades that are essential to enjoying this thing?

Many thanks in advance, and I look forward to years of happy Bonnie ownership. :D

First of all.....Welcome to our club:)

THis is usually just a case of needing to tighten you gas cap more.

If your patient you can do this yourself. But you would need to probably get a good working donor sunroof from a salvage yard.

Depeneding on your budget the possibilities are endless.
But most run stock wheels. Some like Danthurs runs 17" wheels from Sears. Pretty cool IMO.
Tires: I personally run with Kelly Navigator Gold's very very good tires all year round. IME


First thing you should do is give your new Bonni a full tune up regardless of what the old owner said.
plugs/wires/fuel filter/o2 sensor if needed
just DO NOT put in Bosch..does not do well with our cars

And yes there is a wide array of possibilities of performance products out there to give our cars a wow factor.....smaller supercharger pulley...cold air intake...K&N filter....lots more
Suspension can be dialed in to to make it seem like it's on rails to.

Stick around and we will help as we can.

Todd.

I agree with Todd. New plugs and wires. Oil, trans fluid, air filter. Change it all. If you can't find a scrap yard, there are a few cars being parted out in the for sale section.

Just pick one thing to take care of and work on it. Wont be long and the car will be in top shape. Once you have it running good and strong, then you can start upgrading the engine.

Any more details on this? Don't suppose a "How-To" exists? :giddy:



Agreed. LOVE that when I got the car, it's oil life meter said 99% (Immediately after you reset them, they go to 99%, without driving one mile). And at the check of the dipstick the oil was clearly -well- used.

Scared to swap it to synthetic as it's got so many miles and no leaks... think I'll just use some Castrol GTX. Unless persuaded otherwise?

Thanks fellas! I knew this place would be worthwhile.

Welp. Change of plans gents.

After 4 days, and 300 miles of ownership... it's f'ed.

Transmission began "slipping" and then on my girlfriend, slipped hard, and the grabbed much harder. Died. Every time you start it now, it idles up fine, you pull it out of park, it SLAMS again, and then dies.


.... help?

Might be much more than a simple tranny drain and new filter, but; that would be a good place to start.

well theres good news and bad news.

Bad news is...and I'm very sorry...your transmission is probably toast.

But the good news is...your transmission is toast and now you can have it rebuilt better than stock!

Many of us here have gone through what you are so hang in there and with some time and money you'll be back in action impressing your girlfriend again.

Not with the symptoms he's having . Been there. It's toast and a waste of money.

As for oil, Not sure where the "old Mechanic says" legend of older motors hurt by synthetics started, but all it is. Something someone said way back and it sounded good and spread across the land quickly. There is no evidence of the validity of this "tale". Viscosity and wear protection properties of either product are virtually the same new. Synthetic shows slightly better lab figures that have been grossly overstated by advertising media. And your motor could care less. 3800's see 200-300k miles alot regardless of type of oil. It's the keeping the oil fresh that counts.The big difference is in time. How often do you want to change your oil.

Figured that much, but don't have much experience with the Pontiac transmissions . I have seen some remarkable improvements in most cars with a flush, filter and new fluid. At the least it can buy you time to save money for a rebuild if its a daily driver, at the most, like you said Venom; it's a waste of money.

Ya, a little slipping may improve with a "quick tranny tune" But when the tranny starts stalling the engine it aint good.