Bought used car...need help!

[avsfan]

Hey! I know this is a Calgary/ Canadian site- but I always come here for the best answers. I just bought a used 1996 Pontiac Grand AM SE 4 door for under $2k for my son. It has 116k miles on it and seems to run well. It is a 5 speed (I haven't owned a manual in years).There is no maintanace records that I am aware of. My main questions are:

-What kind of maintenance is required of a 5 speed transmission (vs auto tranny).

-I am a big fan of synthetic oil (I use it in my '99 Grand Caravan, which now has 100k miles). I haven't a clue about what the prev. owners used. Should I use synthetic or maybe try Quaker State high mileage oil...due to the mileage?

-Timing belt- are the 2.4l 4 cyl. engines interference? Or how can I find out? I don't want to take a chance, but money is also tight. If it isn't interference, should I wait to replace it- after it breaks?/

- Anything else I should look into/ be aware of with this type of mileage/year vehicle?

Thanks so much for any help!

Aaron

[africano]

Mobil 1 makes an excellent synthetic oil for higher mileage engines. Excellent stuff.

Don't really know what your saying with the whole interference thing, meh, :dunno:

Guess just do a regular tune-up and see if everything is in order: timing, air filter, oil filter, oil, spark plugs, dist cap, rotor, etc.

good luck

[Gonthro]

check out www.gaownersclub.com great bunch of guys over there they have helped me with many of my questions

[Zero102]

I believe (but don't hold me to this if I'm wrong) that the 4 cylinder is an interference engine. So you will want to keep up on that timing belt, the good news is, I think it's pretty cheap.

I would just keep up on the regular tune-up things, as well as perhaps have the onboard computer scanned for fault codes, in case perhaps it is not displaying them.

On a 5 speed gearbox, just keep up on changing the transmission fluid, don't need to do anything extra to them. If it has limited slip (don't know if that was available, or if you even had traction control on the 5 speed's), then remember about using a limited slip additive when you change the transmission fuild.

I don't know if this is a common trouble point, but on my mom's grand am (a 96 as well), she is starting to have issues with the ignition cylinder, as well as the rear and parking brakes.

Check that all the recall work was done, there was a recall on the ignition wiring, and I believe there was another one as well.

Other than that, they're pretty good cars, although I don't know too much about the 4 cylinder engine.