veganblue

Yes, I'm a bit late on this, but it was coming from the oil pressure sensor switch. I replaced the switch with a $10 part at Auto Zone, and it fixed the leak. Everything was fine for about a month, until the oil pressure sensor warning light came on again. But I checked, and there was no leak. Oil was more than full. Drove home, engine blew. Car is gone.

the tires have air pressure in them. I purchased a 2010 Acura TSX and the first thing I noticed is both the TMPS warning display and low pressure signal (!) come on every time starting the vehicle. This Acura also has aftermarket rims on it, and 18" instead of the factory 17". I told the dealer about this concern, but he told me the aftermarket rims are what's causing the warning lights to activate. He said the sensor is synchronized with the original factory rims/tire size, thus the aftermarket rims "confuse" the sensor into thinking there is low tire pressure, even though there's not. I find this a bit hard to believe; not many would replace their rims if it meant dealing with a permanent warning light for the duration of that car's life. Is there a way to reset the sensor?

I have a 99 Grand Am SE with 186K miles on it. It has had its share of problems within the past 6 months. To call it an oil "leak" would be an understatement. The oil is literally dropping right out of the bottom. I have to carry a quart of oil in my car and top it off a bit to get the "low oil" light to come off. The car will drive about 20 miles before the "low oil" light comes on again. I have to refill the oil every time i park and restart the car. A little history: For the 6 years or so, I'm pretty sure I had a head gasket or lower intake valve leak. These engines are known for this. But I was able to easily manage this. This would cause the coolant to slowly leak, and every month I would top off the reservoir. The oil would leak/burn too, but not much - I'd use just a quart in between oil changes. Then within the past couple years, it became progressively worse. The coolant began to leak faster, perhaps weekly, and the car would tend to overheat in the summer - so I had to run the heat in the summer to keep the thermostat level. In the winter, with the heat already running, the engine runs too cool and thermostat never reaches 200 degrees. At one point this winter, my oil was so thick and yellow sludge from not warming up enough. I am probably going to buy a new car at this point, I think it's done. Just wondering what the problem is or if I could plug up the hole somehow at home.

Does it have the CVT transmission? I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I have a 99 Grand Am SE with 186K miles on it. It has had its share of problems within the past 6 months. To call it an oil "leak" would be an understatement. The oil is literally dropping right out of the bottom. I have to carry a quart of oil in my car and top it off a bit to get the "low oil" light to come off. The car will drive about 20 miles before the "low oil" light comes on again. I have to refill the oil every time i park and restart the car. A little history: For the 6 years or so, I'm pretty sure I had a head gasket or lower intake valve leak. These engines are known for this. But I was able to easily manage this. This would cause the coolant to slowly leak, and every month I would top off the reservoir. The oil would leak/burn too, but not much - I'd use just a quart in between oil changes. Then within the past couple years, it became progressively worse. The coolant began to leak faster, perhaps weekly, and the car would tend to overheat in the summer - so I had to run the heat in the summer to keep the thermostat level. In the winter, with the heat already running, the engine runs too cool and thermostat never reaches 200 degrees. At one point this winter, my oil was so thick and yellow sludge from not warming up enough. I am probably going to buy a new car at this point, I think it's done. Just wondering what the problem is or if I could plug up the hole somehow at home.

My Pontiac Grand Am with 185K miles on it has trouble starting in cold weather. It will crank, but not start. However it does eventually start after multiple attempts. Once the engine is running, it runs fine, with no stalling. Actually, sometimes it does stall, but only immediately after I start it when it's in park -- never when I take it out on the road. I just had the battery replaced 2 years ago. As far as I know, battery's working good. I also had the fuel filter replaced a few months ago, which prior to that was the original filter. Today, just to lean on the side of caution, I took apart my throttle body and cleaned it with throttle cleaner, getting a lot of the carbon out. I also cleaned the air flow sensor. A few notes: -There is also a humming sound that happens when I rev the engine. As I press the gas, the humming sound increases in sync with the revving. When I let go of the gas, the humming descends. However, this humming goes away when the engine warms up. -My car eats up a lot of gas now that it's older. You'd think it was a large truck. I am hoping it isn't a fuel-related problem.

I don't mean the recommended answer. I know one should change their trans fluid every 30-60k miles or so. But out of curiosity, how long do you think a transmission can go running on the original fluid? I have a Pontiac Grand Am with 185K miles on it with the original trans fluid. I haven't yet experienced any problems with the transmission or its shifting at all...knock on wood. The gas mileage, though, is horrible - I probably get the gas mileage of a large truck. I wonder if the old burnt transmission fluid is contributing to this. I'm not interested in changing it because I'm only driving this car until it falls apart on me, then I'm buying a new one. If it breaks down tomorrow it's no big deal; but as long as it keeps ticking I'm going to keep it. So I'm just playing the waiting game. The idea of making it to 200K miles on the original fluid sounds improbable to me, yet I'm just 15K away. How long do you think, assuming ever other preventative maintenance is kept up with, a vehicle can run on the original fluid?

I'm car shopping and I've narrowed it down to a black VW Jetta and Nissan Altima. Both are sleek cars, but I think the Jetta looks slightly better, and I love the 6-speed automatic as opposed to Nissan's CTV trans. I'm not sure I'd want a CTV trans. I love driving and feeling the car shifting gears, and I've heard CTVs can be boring as you don't feel any gear shifts. Also I've heard CTV trans can go out very quickly. A VW 6-speed would be so fun to drive. However, the only thing I'm torn on about the Jettas is that I don't see any with the duel exhaust on opposite sides of the car. Nissan Altimas have the duel exhaust standard, and I think it's a cleaner, more organized look than just having one pipe or two on one side of the car. Do they make factory Jettas with duel exhaust on opposite sides of the car?

As far as reliability, it depends on the context. Asian cars are to Mac while American cars are to Windows. If you're tech savvy and into computers, and you want to customize your computer with upgraded hard drives, etc., and know how to free disk space yourself to make your computer run faster, you'd get Windows, as it allows you more freedom to do that. If you're not tech savvy, and want something that you plan on keeping at factory settings, just to have something long-lasting and durable to do your work on, you'd get a Mac. Asian cars, particularly Japanese, are more reliable in the sense that they last longer for people who never open the hood. But American cars can last just as long, if not longer, for people who know about cars. The engines are more simplistic and they're easier to fix and get parts for. I had a Cavalier and the lower intake valve was busted at 170K - it'd leak oil and anti-freeze. It'd also overheat during traffic. But I'd check the fluids and refill the coolant and oil as needed, and knew to turn my heat on during traffic to keep the thermostat level. Most other people, the car would've died on them, but I kept it around until 220K because I knew how to navigate around the problems.

My 99 Grand Am has 210k miles on it, and it's still running on the original trans fluid. The previous owner wasn't the best at preventative maintenance, and the owner's manual says not to change it. The engine and transmission still run great, so at this point, I was advised not to change the fluid as it may risk damage to the transmission. I also don't know if I want to pay for a change, considering I'm just basically driving this car until it falls apart, and it'd be a waste of good transmission fluid. Last week I added a quart of synthetic trans fluid to the existing fluid. This is likely not something recommended by professional mechanics but surprisingly, the transmission seemed to shift smoother and I've had no problems as of yet. I also considered I may be overfilling the fluid, but given that it's 210K with the original fluid, there's a good chance it burned/lost at least a quart by this point. What are your thoughts on this? Is this an option people can do to older cars to give them a bit of transmission boost?