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GM's triplets Venture, Silhouette, and Montana

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What is this discussion about? Chevrolet Venture, Pontiac Montana, Oldsmobile Silhouette, Van

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#361 of 1585 '96 to '98 owners, take note by shifty4 Nov 14, 2002 (5:03 pm)
November 14, 2002   DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. (GM) is recalling about 1.5 million vehicles in order to repair a problem with a lower-pinion bearing in the power-steering gear assembly.   The recall affects model year 1996 to 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire cars, Chevrolet Lumina/Venture, Oldsmobile Silhouette and Pontiac Transport minivans, and 1997 to 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix cars. GM said about 1.2 million of the vehicles are in the U.S. and about 240,000 are in Canada. The vehicles were built between Jan. 1, 1996 and Oct. 31, 1997.   In some of the vehicles, the lower-pinion bearing in the power-steering gear may separate, permitting movement of the pinion shaft.   GM said most reports it received concerning the problem indicate the driver experienced a loss of power-steering assist when making left turns, usually at low speeds. If the pinion shaft moves too far, some drivers could experience higher resistance when turning left followed by unintended power assist to the right.   The company noted there have been 15 reports of crashes and three injuries that may be related to the condition.   GM will start notifying affected vehicle owners in January and instruct them to bring the vehicles to their dealers.
#362 of 1585 RE: '96 to '98 owners, take note by greg32 Nov 15, 2002 (7:41 am)
My steering went out last summer. It cost $1200 to replace and I'm hoping to get reimbursed and a new rack and pinion with a new design that won't fail! Does anybody know if they've re-designed the rack and pinion so this problem does not occur?
#363 of 1585 Intake Manifold gasket by jpc47 Nov 16, 2002 (5:35 am)
My intake manifold gasket is leaking on my 1998 Venture, a repair which will cost around $450. Does GM recognize the problem? My mechanic told me that Dex-Cool is like syntetic motor oil, it just gets into the tiniest spaces. GM tried to deal with this with a new gasket, something made of plastic. Anyone out there know anything more?
#364 of 1585 Anyone try aftermarket air shocks? by psg Nov 17, 2002 (7:13 am)
I just read Dirkdady's post regarding Gabriel HI jackers. We've got around 60K on our '00 Montana. Besides hating the current handling, we have a noisy shock. None of the above seems to bother my wife but it makes me crazy. I really should save the $ and not worry about it (I only drive the van on family outings). However, I would like to know what my options are.   Thanks! Phil
#365 of 1585 Intake manifold gasket ??? by CapeCod Nov 17, 2002 (3:15 pm)
Yes I have the leak... Can I continue to just add coolant ? Am I risking major damage? Leak seems to be minor.... Would I really be better off getting repair done by independent garage ?? Most dealers seem to want $800 based on posts ! Is there an organized protest to GM ????
#366 of 1585 Rear A/C Blows Hot Air; Posting #347 by mizeuml Nov 17, 2002 (5:51 pm)
Here's an update to posting #347. We have a 2002 Montana. The squeaky noise from the rear of the van was from the parking brake cable. Apparently several vans have had the parking brake cable routed wrong and it rubs something. The dealer re-routed the cable and fixed it.   As for the hot air from the rear a/c, they did not find any problems. They duplicated the symptoms I saw, but said it was normal. FYI, the rear a/c was redesigned on the 2002 vans and newer. They do not have two separate units like my '99 Montana had. The 2002 van does not have an expansion valve like the '99 had. The air ducting on 2002 comes from the front, there is no evaporator in the rear. They said that the rear air vents may take longer than the front air vents to turn cold because the ducting comes from the front and the ducts may be hot. Does not make sense to me. If the problem persists, I'll take it to another dealer to see what they have to say.
#367 of 1585 Cape Cod by jpc47 Nov 18, 2002 (5:26 am)
You could try adding anti-freeze. The problem could be a leaking intake manifold, cost about $450. Have your mechanic check it. Stop leak will work for awhile. Yes it will get worse.
#368 of 1585 mizeuml by montanafan Nov 18, 2002 (9:45 am)
Rear A/C system redesign was for 2001 (and up), still includes expansion valve and evaporator in rear unit. Been told the only difference is that the rear unit is now serviceable with seperate parts and not as a complete unit (97-00).
#369 of 1585 New Rear Air Shocks - PSG look here by dirkdaddy Nov 19, 2002 (6:13 am)
Just to update (for PSG)   I also didn't think the van handled as well as it could and didn't like the factory shocks/struts. I just bought new gas charged struts and air shocks from Autozone - total cost including the kit (see below) was less than $200. If you're adventuresome, you can do this yourself, autozone will loan you the spring compressor for the struts and the rears are no brainers. I don't recommend doing just one end or the other, for safety handling you want your vehicle to have balanced dampening on all 4 wheels, replace all of them.   In my experience, many (not all) US factory dampners (shocks and struts) are horrible and are the cheapest POS possible, you can't even buy parts for your car that are even half as crappy. Any replacement will be an improvement. Good quality gas charged units make a huge difference. I've installed new shocks on every car I've ever owned except my Maxima, which has reasonable shocks on it for now. I've never understood why GM goes so cheap on something that makes such a big difference to people who know better, I mean that's why the imports ride so differently in most cases, its the spring/shock package! Anyway, I'll quit ranting...   Last night I installed new Gaberial (sp?) Hi-Jackers air shocks and tied them into my auto-leveling system. Installing the shocks took less time than putting the lines onto the auto leveling system, the shock bolts are easy to get to and simple. The hardest part was getting the new shocks to extend (all that hydrolic and air bag resistance). I've done shocks before but these were the hardest to extend I've seen.   Anyway, to tie into a autoleveling system you need to order the Gabriel adapater kit for GM autoleveling (kit no inside box of shocks). The hose kit install involves removing the compressor from under the van (3 bolts, a wire plug and a high and low pressure hoses to unplug). You need to put the compressor frame thing in a vice and then use a very large adjustable wrench to remove the a screw lid and then you have to replace a spring and reinstall the lid. The new spring increases the minimum pressure for the system to 25lbs as recommended by mfg.   The line going up from the compressor into the body of the van remains as-is. Cut the return line's fitting off, remove all old hoses to the shocks including the T fitting. Assemble new T fitting, put new fitting on the air line you cut, install everything and make sure hoses are re-clipped into the factory routing as the original was. Do NOT overtighten the plastic line connectors, they are only hand tight. Run the aircompressor manually from the inside of the van for about 20 seconds, you should hear slight sound of the system bleeding excess air. This gets them up to minimum pressure.   The stock air shocks were a joke!!! The one that hadn't leaked was very light and felt like it had about 3oz of oil in it. The one that leaked had zero oil in it and was even lighter.   The new ones, while not a koni or Bilsteen performance shock, provide on the order of about 3x the dampening and additional spring rate increase. My van used to bounce just when I sat on the back to put shoes on, that sort of thing. Now its very firm. I have not driven it except around the block, but I can tell it has better handling already.   Tonight I'll put in the gas charged front struts and let y'all know how that goes.   ps. if you don't have load leveling, you can install w/o the kit and just use an air chuck to add air to the system manually, just allow time for more messing with the lines and mounting the T fitting where you fill it.   Dirk Daddy
#370 of 1585 Oldsmobile Silhouette problem..check engine soon by shirah Nov 20, 2002 (5:05 am)
My check engine soon light comes on for about 2 hours at a time (about once a week). Once this was right after I got gas, once i Had 1/4 tank left. IT does not flash or blink while it is on, and when it decides to go off, it just goes off. My airbag light also comes on from time to time. ideas on what's wrong?

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