# Expectations for 2002 GrandAm

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/expectations-for-2002-grandam/7681>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** grandam\
**Created:** [November 26, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/expectations-for-2002-grandam/7681 "2007-11-26T21:54:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![adkrag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@adkrag](https://community.cartalk.com/u/adkrag)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/expectations-for-2002-grandam/7681/1 "2007-11-26T21:54:37Z")

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Our son has 2002 GrandAm. He took it for tires latetly and salesperson told him to “take out a loan”. Question: Should a Grand AM with 100,000 miles have these problems?  
  
 1-replace rack and pinion  
  
 2- new brakes all around  
  
 3- replace head gasket and manifold gasket  
  
 4- replace tie rod joints.  
  
 This sounds like a gimmick to us. What would be reasonable–or should he sell the car fast?

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**Author:** ![mr\_josh](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mr_josh/32/3008_2.png) [@mr\_josh](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mr_josh)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/expectations-for-2002-grandam/7681/2 "2007-11-26T21:58:08Z")

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Well, on a 100k mile car, you can expect to do 2 and 4, that’s just called maintenance.

Number 1, that’s not completely unusual.

And unfortunately, number 3 is something that the GM 60-degree V6 cars are just prone to have fail (not so much the head gasket, but the intake manifold gasket for sure.)

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**Author:** ![msilveira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@msilveira](https://community.cartalk.com/u/msilveira)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/expectations-for-2002-grandam/7681/3 "2007-11-26T22:05:13Z")

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AdKrag,

Mr. Josh is dead-on correct. This GM platform had serious (read engine devastating) issues with the manifold gasket. The “take out a loan” joke would be, IMHO, for a new car, and not one with a 60 deg V-6 since these have this issue and the known “piston slap” issue, too.

-Matt