recent Buick V6s

[Firedome]

An elderly (older even more that me!) widow-lady friend of my wife's is looking for a new-to-her car to replace her current Neon that has finally succumbed to NY rust. I found a solid & clean '02 Buick Century w/ only 80k miles with the 3100 V6 engine. I'm familiar with the excellent 3800 and predecessors, but not this one. I test drove it, it runs strong and no problems noted. Any group info or opinions on the Buick 3100 engine? also how is the 3300 engine in other models (is it a 3800 or 3100 cousin?)

[hermitcrab]

I had one of those chevy lumina's with the 3.1 engine back in the day ... it ran just fine , it had over 100,000 when i got rid of it , only problem I had with this car was , when it was super cold out ... below zero.... the car would flood and not start because the computer would just pour the gas into it... the fix was to hold your gas pedal on the floor to stop the flooding and it would start...just like a carbureted engine .

[electra225]

I had a Pontiac with the 3.1 that I ran 114,000 miles with coolant in the oil. The Century was a version of the Chevy Celebrity. The 3100 V6 was a bored out 2.8 Chevy engine, later stroked to 3.4 liters, a better engine. The 3.1 developed a bad reputation. The 3300 was a short stroke version of the Buick 3800 V6. Standard in Less re, optional in the Regal. I would avoid the 3100 like the plague. Good luck.

[walyfd]

I had a 98 lesabre that I LOVED. Overall best car I ever had. Only thing that happened to it, before the trans started to go, was some bypass in the intake manifold leaked and the engine hydrolocked. Cylinders filled with coolant over some $5 plastic tube...

Just sent my dad's '03 with 80k to the junkyard. Engine was great but the trans was going on it and it lost brakes. Line something in the front rotted. If it's a salt belt car, I'd have it checked for that and change that manifold bypass. Probably want to replace all fluids anyway so perfect time to do it.

[electra225]

I bought a new '96 Pontiac Grand Am with the 3.1 V-6. At 600 miles, they replaced the intake manifold gasket under warranty. I parked the car, the noticed orange juice leaking out from behind the wheel. They replaced the intake manifold completely at 2300 miles. There was a short they couldn;t find. The car would stall with no warning. It would be dead as a hammer electrically. The alternator had failed. This happened three times until I had it in Walmart having the oil changed one day. They asked me if I knew the wiring harness was under the motor mount. Sure enough, that was the trouble. They put in a new underhood wiring harness with no further trouble. The 3.1 had a "mystery metal" intake manifold. That orange coolant would eat up the manifold. I changed to green coolant, and that helped the intake problem. There was always signs of coolant in the oil. At about 96.000 it started knocking. The engine grenaded at 114,000, blew all over the highway. I traded that POS for a new 2004 Grand Am with the 3.4 in it. Second best car I ever owned. The best car I ever owned mechanically. It was white, it was ugly, but you couldn't kill that car. GM beefed up the head bolts and put on a composite (plastic) intake manifold on the 3.4's. Much more reliable engine. I ran mine 207,000 miles and it was running like new when I sold it. I'm not sure I would recommend a 20-year old Century with the 3.1 to a little old lady. The subframes rust. They were not good cars when they were new, and I'm sure the passing 20 years hasn't helped them any. I would look around for a LeSabre or Park Avenue with the 3800 engine. Those things will run forever. They used a version of the 3800 at Indy. If they had had decent drivers, the engine would have done better in competetion. Good luck.

[William]

I had a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with the 3100 engine and I ran it until the rear trailing arm supports rusted out. Those supports are part of the unibody and it's where the trailing arms mount. It had 245,000 miles on it when I got rid of it and never a problem with the engine or tranny.

Bill

[Firedome]

Yes I knew the 3800 is a good one, we had a '90 Olds 98 with it (pre-Series II) that was great, my aunt had an '01 LeSabre, we rented a '95 Bonneville to go to FL once and it got amazing gas mileage imo it's one of the great GM engines, one of the few in the post-80 era. They can go 300k+ with good care. A few years of 3800 mid-'90s did have problems with plastic intakes getting hot and melting, later corrected by GM evidently

Also it seems like various full-size FWD GMs did have trans problems, the one on our '90 Olds trans (4T60?) had to be rebuilt at 100k, but other than that I loved that car, it had all the room of the old ones, comfortable, could handle, had real spunk, a handy size and a fuel-sipper. I'm not sure if GM ever made the fwd trannies durable? Can't recall if my Aunt had trans issues with her '01 LeSabre, but it was a really nice car, finally traded on a Forester for it's 4wd (she lived in snowy Mass) right before she died. I really liked her LeS and have thought about getting one as a winter beater.

I was pretty sure the 3300 was a derivative. I have no experience with the 3100 but thought I'd heard before that it wasn't one of their better ones. This Century is very solid, but I'm leery of the mechanicals and will advise her as such. If she decides to get it the one good thing is that she hardly drives, I think in the last 5 years she put at most 20k on her last car, and never more than 5 miles from home.

GM cars in particular seem to really rust out around here, sooner and worse than others, notably worse than Ford, Mopar and even Japanese makes in the last 10-15 years. They need to fix that.

[Firedome]

Well I advised her of potential issues but she bought it anyway, the stubborn old beacon. It did come w/ a 2 yr warranty on the engine $ trans at least, somewhat unusual for an older used car.