Faults:
Absolutely nothing has gone wrong. It could have, if not for my pride of ownership and frequent fluid changes. If this car was assembled in Oshawa Ontario Canada, & has been respected, it is bullet proof.
90% of friction wear in the engine will occur on a cold start. If you simply wait until the car is at operating temperature before you start revving it, it is unstoppable. The main mistake people make is revving the cold engine. GM designed the piston heads to be slightly smaller diameter than the inside diameter of the piston, to reduce the friction during a start, then as it warms, it slowly expands to the perfect diameter. If you rev the engine when the piston diameter was at its smallest, it bounces along the sides of the cylinder and scores it, reducing compression.
Also, the lifters are hollow and take a while to fill up with oil; that's why it taps when it's cold; all the oil has drained from the lifters into the oil reservoir, so another good thing is to let it sit at a cold start until it reaches operating temperature, and the oil pump distributes oil to the lifters before you start revving it and wearing it when the engine isn't ready.
It's a simple science, but people don't necessarily think things through these days it seems. They never change the fluids, and run the crap out of it when it's not at operating temperature, and they blame GM. It's an economy car, it will last forever if the owner has a clue what is happening. Just let it run 3 minutes at idle if it's been sitting for hours; it's that simple, and makes a world of difference in performance and durability.
General Comments:
Underrated, and sadly given a bad name, because of owner neglect and confusion.
By the way, my intake gaskets are holding up great; 210 000 miles guys in a 3100SFI. GM should have given out a maintenance-common sense video to owners before they killed their 3100s.
I also added a cold air intake and a straight pipe exhaust earlier this year for kicks. She's running like a champ at 13 years.
16th Nov 2010, 20:57
We own two Luminas, mine is a 1998 I inherited from my grandmother. Another is a '99 we bought my mom off a used car lot. Owned the '98 since 22k miles from a rental company, and the '99 was also a former rental.
They are great cars if you maintain them and are familiar with the quirks and design flaws. The intake manifold gaskets are no good, the factory ones are plastic and melt over time so be prepared for that. Some have piston slap (sounds like valvetrain racket but it's not). Also, carbon builds up in the EGR port constantly, causing a check engine light and possible emissions failure. Easy enough to clean, or just bypass the damn thing.
Now the '98 has 94k miles and the '99 has 120k. Good cars. I even unintentionally crash-tested my '98 a couple times and it was a tank, just bought new doors and other body components, good as new.
Avoid the white ones as the paint will flake off as early as 50k miles. The '98 did have an electrical problem with the rear brake light but we fixed it (at exorbitant cost but it was worth it).
Like any car, maintain it and it'll take care of you. My sister abused the hell out of my '98 and drove it with no oil and it STILL runs strong. Sorry for your poor experience but get a KIA, Daewoo or Aveo or something and you'll be begging for the 'ol Lumina back!