2003 Buick Park Avenue

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Mar 11, 2016
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Yep, went full on senior citizen and bought an old man car, even though I'm a millennial! But I've always loved big, cushy, comfortable land yachts. Has 126k miles, one owner and dealership maintenance all its life. What the consensus on these cars? Had strong reviews everywhere I looked, but mostly from non car minded folks so it's hard to get a feel for what the cars are really like. I just know the 3.8 V6 is one of the best GM engines ever made in history having dealt with and serviced a lot of cars that had 'em under the hood over the years.

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Great find. I owned a 2000 Bonneville with the L67 engine and it was by far one of my favorite cars. Had the engine dyno tuned after doing a few mods and it made just shy of 300whp and just over 400 ft-lb torque for probably about $500 in parts and a weekend under the hood. Quite the tire roaster, still have no idea what I was thinking getting rid of that car!

The cars themselves are typical early 2000's GM quality. Lots of little bits break that will annoy you, the 4T65E (HD) transmission is okay but nothing special, most start to exhibit problems around the 150k mark in my experience. That engine is something special though!
 
+2 on the upper/lower intake manifold gaskets. They may have been done already. Baby the transmission. Great riding car, love it. Roomy engine to work on too.
 
Intake manifold gaskets, maybe the coolant elbow?

There's a shift kit you can put in that'll extend the life of the tranny, the 4T65e isn't exactly the greatest thing. Could be worse though.

GM electric motors of that era don't seem to last all that long, so things like power window motors and blend door motors might give some trouble.
 
We have a 2003 Park Ave with 186000 miles on it, purchased at 30000 miles 12 years ago. Great car, no problems at all except now the trans is shuddering under acceleration. It's parked for now, until I decide to either fix the trans or sell the car.
Wife and I liked it so much I bought the 2005 PA in my sig. a couple years ago with only 14000 miles on it (looked for a long time before it popped up in an ad). Drove six hours to get it the next day, with a certified cheque in hand.
Your Ultra looks really nice, and the supercharged 3800 you have in it is an awesome engine.
 
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Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by NO2
Nice find! Back in the day it was the CEO car.
The hyperbole that surrounds the 3.8 W bodies on this board is sometimes hard to believe.


What does a W-body have to do with this thread?
confused2.gif
 
My experience is that the Park Avenue is a great vehicle. The search feature here only goes back 3 years, so I did a DuckDuckGo search:

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/printthread/Board/39/main/75452/type/thread

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1096029&page=all

In short, my PA reminded me in ride quality and impressive looks of my long-gone Mercedes 420SEL, though a lot cheaper to maintain, feed, insure, and repair. A good road trip car, as in proper fettle it will get 30 mpg on the highway. I was astonished when I first filled up -- I'd thought the big car was going to run about 18 mpg, but instead I got 21! Yours is the supercharged Ultra, so it may not achieve that, but you'll have about 40 more hp to play with.

As I put it about mine, you're driving Cadillac/Mercedes quality for Chevrolet money!
 
Originally Posted by Benzadmiral
My experience is that the Park Avenue is a great vehicle. The search feature here only goes back 3 years, so I did a DuckDuckGo search:

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/printthread/Board/39/main/75452/type/thread

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1096029&page=all

In short, my PA reminded me in ride quality and impressive looks of my long-gone Mercedes 420SEL, though a lot cheaper to maintain, feed, insure, and repair. A good road trip car, as in proper fettle it will get 30 mpg on the highway. I was astonished when I first filled up -- I'd thought the big car was going to run about 18 mpg, but instead I got 21! Yours is the supercharged Ultra, so it may not achieve that, but you'll have about 40 more hp to play with.

As I put it about mine, you're driving Cadillac/Mercedes quality for Chevrolet money!


You're absolutely correct,the GM 3800 powered cars got incredible highway mileage.

I bet the supercharged versions are awesome cars!!
 
Suppose since this is BITOG, what type of oil do these cars like? I think it's 10W/5W-30 recommended.
 
Originally Posted by jongies3
Suppose since this is BITOG, what type of oil do these cars like? I think it's 10W/5W-30 recommended.


I just always ran Mobi1 !0W-30 in all of mine. They are really easy on oil.
 
Originally Posted by jongies3
Suppose since this is BITOG, what type of oil do these cars like? I think it's 10W/5W-30 recommended.

The oil cap on mine said 5W-30, but it was perfectly happy with 10W-30 and 5W-30 high mileage. The only oil it didn't like and started consuming was Castrol Edge, so I went back to conventional and the oil usage slowed dramatically.
 
I have several UOAs using cheap 5w-30 / 10w-30 oils in my Bonneville (same 3.8 with SC) somewhere on this board. That engine didn't care what was used, always turned out excellent results whether I was using 10w-30 HDEO or cheapest 5w-30 I got on sale. I have UOAs with Trop Artic, Chevron Supreme, Citgo semi-syn, sure there's a couple others I can't remember.
 
Originally Posted by jongies3
Suppose since this is BITOG, what type of oil do these cars like? I think it's 10W/5W-30 recommended.


For a 2003 I believe the recommended viscosity is 10w-30 with 5w-30 being acceptable in cold weather climates.
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by NO2
Nice find! Back in the day it was the CEO car.
The hyperbole that surrounds the 3.8 W bodies on this board is sometimes hard to believe.



Even more than the "Crown Vic"?
 
I had a Lesabre which isn't much different from a PA. Bought from "little old lady" , garage kept and 41k miles on it. Worst car I have owned. Sold it two years later because it was going to break me and got a Grand Marquis which is far superior in my opinion. Transmissions are weak and tempermental, the engine is good once you take care of the usual things with a 3.8. If the car hasn't had both intake gaskets done, expect it. I hope you fare better.
 
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