28th Feb 2008, 19:21

I too have a 1999 Pontiac Montana.

Last year at 65000 miles I did the head gaskets. Before that the tail light boards and pigtails to the boards.

February 25, 2008; tail lights acting up again. Just replaced the headlights, and now the rear tail light board.

Gave it a complete tuneup only 71500 miles.

3rd Mar 2008, 20:20

Wow.. I cannot believe this. I sure wish I would have found this page two months ago, before we bought a used 97 Pontiac Transport. We shelled out $1200 for the beast, test drove it.. everything seemed to run fine. We get it home and realized the turn signals did not work when you hit the brakes. Just thought it was a wiring problem.. no big deal. Today, the brake lights, turn signals, parking lights.. every light on the back just mysteriously quit working. Please help! I have no idea what's going on with this thing. There are no lights working in the back, whatsoever. Also, it is getting terrible gas mileage, about 12 miles to a gallon. When we first got it, the mileage was between 20-25 mpg. The spark plugs have been changed, fresh oil, new filters.. I just don't understand why this is happening.

9th Mar 2008, 09:01

My 99 Montana has all problems listed above.

Gas gauge malfunctions.

ABS and service engine soon lights on and off.

Air bag warning light on once in a while.

Head gaskets replaced at 101,000, and now again at 151,000 miles.

Both front wheel bearings replaced.

Seems to eat front rotors and brake pads.

Drivers side power window goes halfway up on its own, then needs help.

Power sliding door would open on its own, even when the van was locked. Finally just disabled it.

Power locks lock, but will not unlock, has to be done manually.

Transmission shifts hard once in a while.

Van drives great and works well when it works, has plenty of room for my family, but this litany of problems is ridiculous for a modern vehicle. Especially the engine problems. If they all weren't self repaired they would have cost a fortune. A Class Action Suit is a great idea

11th Mar 2008, 11:28

Wanted to know if anyone out there is having issues with "newer" Montana models... we have a 2005 Extended Montana and have had nothing, but issues, lots of stuff already replaced on warranty - but that's just about up and we still have another 10 months of lease payments...

Kim.

16th Mar 2008, 12:50

I too have had gaskets replaced at 47,433miles, again at 117,820 miles, head gaskets replaced at 138.375. Now at 152,000 miles was just told lower intake manifold needs to be replaced. My airbag warning light has been on since42000 miles. Have replaced the battery numerous times. The gas gage hasn't worked in years. Replaced driver power window, worked for 7 months. Power locks don't work. Advise given to me by dealer the other day was to rid of car, even if I fix the problem again, it may only work for another 20,000 miles. What really gripes me is GM blaming everyone for not maintaining their vehicles. Was just told by recent dealer to call GM for help, did so, was routed back to a different dealer for help. Will get the same answer, first your warranty is up, next is too many miles... I'm getting a lawyer, I don't think they charge as much!!! More problems than this. Air compressor went too! praying on the transmission.

18th Mar 2008, 23:23

I too am in the camp of unhappy GM 3.4l minivan owners. I bought a 1997 Olds Silhouette in 2001 from a little old man, literally. The car only had 30k miles on it and was in near showroom condition. Well that was all well and good for the first couple years we had it. Besides typical consumables, like lights and fluids, the car did reasonably well for a daily driver for my wife.

At 90k miles however, it all started changing. First the camshaft broke, then I got ripped off by having the engine rebuilt for $4k, which included a new block (supposedly when the cam broke it cracked the block, but I didn't doubt it, because the broken cam could have done that).

So after taking that in, I thought, "well it's almost like a new car now"...not. About 4k miles later, the transmission went out, so nearly another $2k later, got that fixed, then it started having a consistent Evap diagnostic code P0441, which the repair shop couldn't fix.

Next rearing its ugly head was the oft-mentioned coolant leak - thinking it was the dreaded lower intake problem, I thought I'd do it myself and save some coin. So, I subsequently spent 3 days tearing out the top half of the engine (which is a real joy, I must mention - those engineers at GM should be proud of making such a miserably designed, impossible to service engine). Anyway, I finally got the engine back together - it ran great, but alas, the leak persists.

Now, tired of looking at it, I'm going to take it to the shop, because I think it's the lower seal that has gone bad, and not having a hydraulic rack, nor the desire to fix it anymore, I guess I'm going to have to shell out some coin this time. Never will I buy a 3.1l or 3.4l (if any GM) car. I have never ever seen such a pile of refuse posing as a car before. I'll either buy a Japanese car, or something American that is actually built well, not sure what that might be... but given the gas prices, maybe I'll just get a SmartCar. :-)

2nd Apr 2008, 14:39

I can at least say that our 1997 Transport has made it to the 147,000 mile mark, and after reading these comments I consider myself lucky! We purchased this vehicle about a year and a half ago at 115,000 miles at a good price, it was an older vehicle so we didn't expect perfect, but we also didn't expect repair costs to total more than the vehicle cost!

Everything worked fine for a couple months then the auto sliding door stopped working, the auto driver window stopped, then the passenger. At 145,000 miles it was over heating, and this passed week we had the thermostat replaced, now we have it in for repair of intake manifold and head gasket, cost is $2400. I would definitely say "consumer beware" because this seems to be an obviously recurring problem.

7th Apr 2008, 22:27

I happened to pick up the recent Consumer's Report on automobiles. It should come as no suprise to any of you that the Pontiac Montana, Transport ect.. made the top ten list of cars to avoid. My 2000 Montana now has the ever popular coolant leak. Could this vehicle be any crappier?

12th Apr 2008, 20:45

I just stumbled across this class action suit regarding autos that used Dex Cool. This includes the Ponticrap vans. If you have had a coolant leak, or a problem with the intake manifold, check this out: http://www.dexcoolsettlement.com/