2000 Olds Alero for free. Should I jump on it?

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Hey guys. I just bought a 1996 Escort LX that I have been enjoying as a daily beater. But through a family member I was offered their 2000 Olds Alero for nothing, completely free. I just want to know if anyone can give me some general feedback on the car.

It was my grandfathers car and only has 44k on it (escort has 118k). I am just curious about reliability and the engine, which is the 3.4L V6. The escort runs pretty darn good, but with just having a baby and a car in this good of condition and low miles I can't see myself passing it up.
 
The engine is decent IF you replace the upper end gaskets with a felpro kit. My nephew had a pontiac with that engine. He replaced the factory gaskets with Felpro and it never leaked after that.
 
what TNS said - the weak point is the DexCool and the Intake manifold gaskets. at the very least, change the coolant right away. then if you start losing coolant, time to replace gaskets.
 
My father told me it is the V6 and not the 4cyl, but it really felt like a 4 when I drove it. I will need to double check.
 
Besides the gaskets, anything else I should know? I drove the car and it is pretty blah in my opinion. I mean it gets the job done and the engine is pretty torquey around town but the escort is definitely more fun around turns.
 
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Take the olds great car change the dex cool and flush with water only until the water runs clear refil it with the green or yellow anti freeze and you should be fine gm built thousands of those engines and although there have been gasket problems in some of them most of those engines can go 300,000 miles with proper care, if those engines were as bad as some people think i might just be one of the richest men in the world because all we do is rebuild engines and we dont see that many of them... Just my opinion from years in the engine rebuilding business..
 
Thanks for the tip crazyoildude. I love the escort, it really is a very fun little car and feels like it will run forever. But this car only has 40k (escort now at 118k) and I know all the miles were driven by my gramps.
 
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If its free why not? insuring it shouldnt be too expensive, and my guess is its not a gas guzzler. Are you in need of a second car?
 
Insuring really shouldn't be much more than the escort. 5 Months ago I needed a second car and bought the Ford... now I am being offered a free car.
 
If it is in decent shape jump onit. Those engines are like mini North Star's. They can consume some oil and burn some but theya re preety durable if you can put up with the leaks and the oil burning. The Olds Auroa had some really good structual designs a lot of what GM use's today in terms of their platform designs where developed onthat chasis. For the time it was a huge leap forward for GM interms of chasis regidity and torsional strength!

I would take the car and I would do the following. I would purchase 2 bottles of Auto-Rx. I would put 1 0nce in the power steering, 6 onces inthe transmission and the rest int he crank case. I would drive the car for 1200 miles and then get the filter and fluid changed onthe transmission and I would drain and refillthe power steering. After about 3000 miles on the Auto-RX inthe engine I would drain put a new filter on and refil with another cheap oil. I would do a 2000 miles clean phase then I would switch over to sythetic. I would go to something like M1 0W40 or M1 10W30 HM and I would change the filter twice a year and the oilonce a year and that engine will out live your desire to ownt he car assumeing the gaskets hold out. I would put Walmart brand Dex-VI in if you change the fluid and filter if you have the dealership do it they should already be useing that and you will probably never have to touch that transmission again for atleast 50,000 miles maybe 75,000 miles!

That car should have alot of life left in it. Usualy cars owned by older people that have low milages have a lot of deposits in them from slow driving, lots of idleing and lack of maintence. You should be able to put 200,000-300,000 on that car assumeing the gaskets hold. If you need to change the gaskets or injectors at some point it is a small price to pay for a free car. These things for the time road nice and had good performance!
 
Whoa John, thanks a lot for the detailed response! The car probably never seen much more than a 3 mile trip each way. I will have no problem following that fluid schedule either. Sounds good too! It's at 44k now like I said, so with all the proper maintenance it would be nice to see the car last! : )
 
There is another problem that is often misdiagnosed as bad intake manifold gaskets. The IM bolts didn't use threadlocker from the factory, and they work their way loose. They have the same effect as a bad IMG - leaking between the IM and the heads. If you replace the IMGs, get the new bolts with threadlocker pre-installed, or clean the old ones well and reinstall with threadlocker and torque down to the correct spec in the right order.
Other than this problem, this car should last. If it's the V6, I'm suprised it doesn't have power.
 
I forgot to mention, the one I got ahold of was owned by my elderly father-in-law. Short trips were the norm. Through fresh asphalt, between barriers, and over curbs until we took the car away (his licence has expired). The oil was pretty sludged out, and there was a milky substance around the fill. It also had been overheated by a family idiot who didn't see the utility of adding coolant. After I fixed the IMGs it still ran like a champ.
 
Originally Posted By: zoomzoomlx


I would keep the Escort around for hauling purposes. You would be amazed at how much that hatch can swallow..!


Hes got a point, take the Olds and keep the Escort for hauling. After all, you wont be able to sell that car for much anymore unless gas goes up again in price. If you really cant keep it, donate it :)
 
In theory I would love to hang on to both cars, but that would leave us with 3 cars and only 2 drivers. And our one car the lady will never drive.

If I can work out something cheap with insurance (maybe have the one car on a weekend only policy) then I would consider it.
 
If you owe no money on either car, throw it on liability and be done with it. It will cost you 200-300 a year if your record is clean.
 
Power window motors/regulators, wheel bearings, and brakes are just a few more thing very common to these cars.
 
Originally Posted By: rat
Power window motors/regulators, wheel bearings, and brakes are just a few more thing very common to these cars.


This car actually has crank windows which I am happy about. Brakes were replaced last year. So that's a couple less headaches for me.
 
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