16th Aug 2004, 22:07

Had a 95 Grand Am with a 3100 was well maintained met all oil change intervals etc. Thought head gasket / heads were defective after heads were removed found crack in cylinder wall. Looked like it rusted from outside to inside.

9th Nov 2004, 19:01

I also have a 95 GT. It has the 3.1 and I had the same problem you described. All it took to fix mine was replacing the thermostat. Runs great now. Hope this helps.

10th May 2005, 17:11

About the over heating. I changed the head, head gaskets, water pump, etc. Finally changed the heater core and finally cured the problems. Seems they plug up a lot on these cars. Hope this helped.

28th Aug 2005, 13:38

My little gem ran hot when wife was driving home. No leaks, full of clean anti,. Happened twice. Guess what? It's been running in the driveway an hour now, and no prob. After reading the comments here I thought I was done for financially. I turned wrenches in the Service and I'm stumped. Any advice?

28th Aug 2005, 22:25

Alright everyone with over heat problems. My 1995 Grand Am overheated, I lost fluid from my radiator cap, not much, but some. In the morning it ran cool, but after work in hot gridlock it overheated, twice again. I bought a water pump, new serpentine belt and a thermostat. I came here for advice to install these items and read about all of the mysterious problems we have with trying to troubleshoot this syndrome. Then I watched the radiator fan, car running for 2 hours. I saw it hesitate and quit running. This fan runs full time with the air on. It didn't while I watched it. It was still working, only barely and sometimes not at all. Long story short, look for fan failure. This saved me at least, 800 dollars in repairs. I thank the folks at this sight for helping me.

25th Jan 2007, 17:25

I have a '96 Grand-Am and it has started to overheat. I'm not losing any rad fluid or anything like that, it just keeps overheating. We lifted up the hood and noticed the fan isn't turning on. Is there a fuse box under the hood I am not aware of, or is it something more than a simple fuse? Please let me know.

7th Mar 2007, 15:04

First, there is probably a plug-in to the fan. Try unplugging that and checking for corrosion. Shine up the contacts with steel wool, get rid of any green or gray gunk.

With the car running (be careful to keep your hands clear!), use a voltage meter to see if there is any power coming through that wire by sticking the test leads into the plug (on the wire, not the fan). If the engine warms up to operating temperature, and the voltage tester never shows any power coming through, at least you narrowed it down to rule out a bad fan motor. If it does show voltage, plug it back in and see if cleaning the corrosion helped.

There is probably a little switch screwed into the engine that tells that fan to come on, and that may be clogged up. It may be screwed directly into the radiator, or the engine water jacket, or even gets a signal from the thermostat somehow. You'll have to try to trace the wire.

7th May 2007, 15:57

Hello folks, my grand am 95 just overheated. I removed the thermostat, put it into hot water at and it didn't open until the water reached 200 degrees F instead 180 as indicated in the thermostate. Is this enough difference to get the engine overheated??

20th May 2007, 10:16

One thing that I did not see mentioned is the use of Dexcool antifreeze. I bought a 96 Grand Am 4 years ago. last winter my engine started to overheat when the tension pulley wore out. The mechanic I took it to replaced the pully and thermostat. He also replaced the Prestone coolant with Dexcool. Since then my engine always runs hot. I have heard this is a common problem with GM vehicles. Dexcool is also blamed with head gaskets, rubber and steel lines wearing out.

There are lawsuits pending in the states. I plan to change back to Prestone, I would rather replace coolant than my engine.

23rd Jul 2007, 13:02

I am also having problems with overheating. I had the water pump

checked, and replaced the thermostat. Now I am told to check the radiator cap. One problem--I cannot find it. Please help!

24th Jul 2007, 10:00

It probably doesn't have a radiator cap, they have 15lb pressure caps on the overflow/fill tank.

3rd Sep 2007, 17:10

I have a 95 Grand Am GT with 130,000,00 miles with a rebuilt engine. The problem I am having is that after about 5 minutes of normal driving, the temperature gauge shoots from normal range to beyond the red line. I have noticed that prior to repairs as well as post the repairs, If I hit the accelerator aggresively while shifting to neutral, it seems to cause the temperature gauge to immediately fall back to normal range and stay there. I am the original owner and recently spent 340.00 on a new Thermostat and relay switch to no avail. I was told that a diagnostics test showed that the engine is fine and changing the thermostat or relay switch should resolve the issue based on what I told them. The mechanics also stated that the water pump and radiator is functioning as designed. Any suggestions by anyone. I don't want to get rid if the car... ;) Thanks...

18th Sep 2007, 18:23

Hi everybody, I have a 2000 v6 Grand am and its overheating, changed the water pump, the cooling fan sensor and still overheating. fan is not coming on at all anybody with an idea thanx.

11th Dec 2007, 20:09

Hi, my name is Frank. I'm from Mexico and I have a 1995 3.1 Pontiac Grand Am with the same overheating problem. I replaced the radiator, water pump, thermostat, HEAD, and head gasket too.

I found a solution; first change the water of the radiator for antifreeze, no more than 33%. Second, you need to change the cool fan switch, because in some vehicles the electric cooling fans are controlled by the computer chip, but in others the cooling fans are controlled by the fan switch (which is usually set to turn on at about 220 degrees F). A new cool fan switch will enable you to replace your OEM thermostat sensor with a 160 or 180 degree temperature sensor.

6th Mar 2008, 09:46

Hey everyone, I think this overheating problem is more common than we think. I work at a shop where a customer had brought a 95 Grand Am for an overheating problem. Someone from the shop had replaced the water pump and stat and the manager had me go over the car and do the work over. I replaced the Pump and stat and filled the system with dex cool anti-freeze. The car still overheated. All the factors mentioned earlier can singly and collectively contribute to that issue. I recommend that the vehicle be pressure tested to determine the condition of the cooling system, head, and engine. If everything seems fine, check the heated core. Replacing the coolant reservoir cap is cheap and can also be your problem.

Good luck to you all.