hi,

I'm trying to lump the issues all together... not too too detailed...

OLM/oil change interals
I read up about the OLM, on this forum and google search.... some swear by it and others not...
We did an oil change today and noticed that the oil was dirty... the Oil light didn't come up yet, just that the dealership changed it in March,, and we bought the car 2 months ago. Btw its the 3 button DIC
For now I'm doing short trips, around 3km one way for work... I know this is not good, but would the OLM pick up on this and request an oil change sooner... also we may put like 10000km a year on the car. I don't think its good to run regular oil for a year... does anyone know someone who may not put too much milage on a car with OLM and comes on at the right time?
another note this is our first car with an OLM...
- side note, I don't know if the car is burning oil, since we got it the level looked full, and now it was about one level down on the dipstick... maybe now the weather is colder?
The oil was cleaner in September than now..
also hear from lifter tick, sounds like it from the top of the motor... then I read up on flexplate cracks, now this has started to get me nervous...

DIC question
DIC question, since we have winter tires on, I didn't have time or the budget to get TPMS, so the message comes on... now let's say if there is an oil change, or another DTC code, would that appear too after I acknowledge the message for the tire pressure...

Rear
Rear alignment, after changing to winter tires, I noticed that around 1/2 inch on the outside of the rear tires don't seem to touch the ground as much, as the rest of the tire was dusty... I did notice on the summer tires a similar thing, the inside were a little bit more worn than the outside, nothing major... as the summer ones, originals are almost done. I see there is a rod coming from the center of the car with a adjustable bolt... I don't think that would fix this.? Is this more of a camber thing?

Radio steering controls:
Lastly, the volume decrease button on the steering wheel needs more effort than normal.. like this since we got the car.. I read up and saw bolts behind the buttons... how would one go about fixing this? would the airbag have to be removed?

Thank you

The OLM is based on engine revolutions and temperatures and has some pretty complex formulas involved. If you follow ti you should be fine but I recommend using full synthetic oil if this is just a daily driver for you.

As for the DIC, each warning should come up individually. so if say you start the car and it comes up with multiple warnings, when you acknowledge the first one, the next one shows up right after it and you have to acknowledge each one seperately so you shouldn't have any issues there.

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If the inside of the rear tires are wearing the camber needs to be adjusted. Sometimes there's not enough adjustment so you have to buy eccentric camber bolts to get the rear wheels in spec.

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Bright Red 2008 G8 GT

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@Strech, thanks for the info, its strange now the TPMS alert hasn't come on in the last few days, its not exactly consistent haha
We have synthetic in for the winter, and usually switch back to regular for summer... we'll see I'm still keeping track of data/mileage of oil change just to be safe....
That noise, that i hear only appears with the engine is warm.... it sounds like lifters... I mean our mazda protege 5, makes the same noise... maybe its just normal operation.. ur red gp looks nice in the sig, the G8 too haha

@Done-Rome, I heard about these camber bolts... expensive? just pick them up at a Canadian auto parts store... then take them to an alignment place... I Don't know if we could pull it off ourselves, in terms of getting the right alignment


thanks fellow Pontiac brothers!

As for noise if it sounds like sticky lifters or something you can always do a seafoam treatment and that should help free them up. As for oil level, you will use up a little bit between oil changes, but not a large amount. It never hurts to do a quick check around gaskets for leaks though. Better safe than sorry.

And yeah I had the same issue when I had different wheels on without the TPMS, it would intermittently show up and sometimes it would just take driving the car a little bit and then it would register and sometimes it would just say all 4 tires were at 129 psi lol

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Thanks Stretch... I'm very skeptical about using seafoam, maybe more scared than anything... we've been driving quite a bit... one 1 hour 20 mins long road trip one way...
I do drive like 3 kms to work everyday... plus try to take the car out on the highway when I hang out with guys at night...

hehe the TPMS works when it feels like 129 psi heheheh ya fun stuff

forgot to add that the GP was sitting at the dealership from March to early September....

I seafoam every oil change and have no problems. When I had the valve covers off a couple weeks ago for my rocker install everything was nice and clean too with 85k miles on the car. The only potential issue is don't put it in the intake/vacuum line before the supercharger as it can allegedly eat the coating off the rotors. Or are you N/A? I don't know what trim level/motor you have.

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heyyyyyyyyyyy,

Oh ya seafoam every oil change.. hmmm... would you do it on dirty oil.. let's say just before one changes their oil....
This car only has like 60k kms. its' a base GP, so the N/A....

One thing I noticed again, after a good run, 2x wot, does the car ever move I was scared for a bit hehe... remember I'm coming from the 3100 V6. I put the car in park, and rev it a little, as it comes down to near idle, popping noise in the exhaust... is that the way normally Pontiac's exhaust sound like?

I haven't seen any engine light.. so I'm guessing the mixture should be right?

thanks again...

I change the oil every 3k ....just me

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All sho no go...

For the seafoam in the crank case you have to do it right before you change the oil. Recommended from the manufacturer to put it in the crank case and then drive at least 30 miles but no more than 100 miles before changing the oil. I don't know the conversion for kms but you get the idea.

I am not sure what to tell you on the popping noise without hearing it. Someone else may be able to chime in on that but I doubt that is normal.

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The popping sound is either an exhaust leak or you have aftermarket high flow mufflers.

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Bright Red 2008 G8 GT

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The popping noise is normal engine operation (Backfires or more technically afterfire since it's happening in the exhaust and not the intake), being able to hear it or not is the question. As Don said, if the noise is very noticeable there's a hole in the exhaust or the exhaust has been modified in some way. I do know that on my old 04, stock exhaust, you can still hear a slight afterfire when free reving the engine, nothing under load during shifts, and nothing like gunshot loud BaBangs!!!!!! The 3800's are a raspier sounding engine compared to the 60*V6's like the 3100.

As for Seafoam in the crankcase... I'm not a fan. We've discussed this topic before quite a few times. If you run a good quality oil (preferably a synthetic) in the first place you won't need to clean the crankcase out with something like Seafoam and most quality oils have detergents which will clean out most deposits after a couple of oil changes. Stick to using Seafoam in the gas tank and brake booster line.
The valve covers/rockers/head on my lady friend's 97 looked almost brand new even after 150,000 miles because the car always had a quality full synthetic oil in it and was always changed at least every 5000 miles. Spend money upfront, save money in the long run

Also, why only run synthetic in the winter? If anything you should be running it in the summer more so to prevent from high heat viscosity lose and shearing.
As for the ticking noise, you sure it's not just your injectors. They are always noisy on 3800's.

Since I'm too lazy to read to see if it was answered, the DIC will display any message for around 5 seconds, maybe 10 I can't remember, before flipping to the next one (if there is one), and keep doing so until all messages are shown, then it will repeat the list of messages again or go away after you acknowledge each message. So basically the DIC will display all messages without you have to acknowledge any of them so no message will be hiding behind another one so to speak.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

I run full synthetic but I like my seafoam just the same. I do put it in the gas tank but I avoid the barke booster because of the s/c rotors as previously mentioned. I don't know if anyone has proven it eats the coating or not but i prefer to stay on the safe side.

As for the DIC, mine will display each message as it detects it but will not cycle through them, it just sits on the last one to pop up until you acknowledge it. Could it be diferent settings or just something that changed in the later model?

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Thanks guys for all the replies

@Stretch, I see about the seafoam, I will have to think about that one, I see about the DIC. Thanks I'll find the conversion online

@speedball, I see... hmm 3k miles? sorry just that here in Canada its all KMs

@Don_Rome, bone stock the car

@Planeboy, Now that I recall, it did the popping noise while in park... and I haven't heard it under load... thanks for pointing it out. I found the 3100 use to scream at high rpm, very throaty sound, while the 3800 sounds very refined...
Seafoam in the tank cleans out the injectors?
I like the line spend money...
Fuel injectors would make that clicking noise too? hmm lol

For the synthetic oil, run it in the winter, for easier starts... and switch to regular in the summer also cost factor I think in the US its cheaper for synthetic

mobil 1, 4.4 liter, regular price $47.99
Castrol Syntec, usually put this one, is $48.99

roughly how much is it for you guys in the US?

btw I'm getting roughlly ~250 km, on 1.2 tank, including city driving, colder weather and a decent amount of highway...

This is my first post on this site as I just picked up my 2008 GP last night.
I read the manual last night and the OLM goes by revolutions and temp as mentioned earlier and they recommend changing it when told by the DIC or every year if no message pops up. I guess that is for regular oil and not synthetic.
I usually change my own oil so I do it around 5-6 thousand kms.
As for your radio volume control, I noticed this morning going into work the same thing that you have. I had to push the volume down button harder than the up one to make it work. Although I very rarely listen to the radio, I was wondering about this, but now that I see yours does the same thing, I guess I'm not going to worry about it.
I love the car so far as I traded in my 2003 Grand Am and noticed a huge difference.
I'm going to put my winter tires on this week-end and was wondering how it will effect the TPMS as well. I was trying to figure out how to disable it, but I guess you can't.
I come back to this forum daily as I try to learn as much about this car as I can.
These sites are great.
Hope to talk to you soon.

Welcome to GPONA! As long as the winter wheels & tires have tire pressure sensors the warning won't popup if they are filled to the proper psi.

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Bright Red 2008 G8 GT

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My winter tires are from my older 2003 Grand Am and are on steel rims.
There are no pressure sensors in them as the GA didn't have TPMS.
I will be putting my winter tires on today, so I'm curious as to what exactly is going to happen when the Grand Prix doesn't detect the sensors.
Will the car think that the 4 batteries are dead and display it on the DIC?
Can I disable this message for the winter?
Will the "Tire" indicator on the dash stay on until I put the summers back on?
I suppose I will find all this out later today, but if anyone has a trick to disable TPMS indications please let me know.
Thanks.

@Paul, we're only two hours away... hehe

I see about the radio button doing the same... I guess its common.. I wonder if there is a way to fix it.

For the TPMS, It took like 40 mins before the computer even picked up on there was no TPMS, even after a few restarts.... lately it hasn't shown the message.

If I recall what happens, is that when you start the car, the first message is something like: Service Tire Pressure Monitoring system, and it chimes, and just press the arrow button to acknowledge it.
The amber TPMS light will flash in the tachometer area, for a while then stays on solid and that's it.

As for disabling it, I did several searchs didn't come up with anything... if I understood right, its that the TPMS work with the body control module... I could be wrong...... I would still think there is a way to get rid of is, as I read up on Toyota's some others you can... not sure about the recent ones... but some you can....

Good to know about the oil change interval... so every year or 5-6 km... right now we have that onstar trial and it shows the % oil life remaining, too bad the 3 button dic can't show it.. would be nice lol... maybe there's another way beside switching it....

edit, forgot to add, I noticed that I get cyclical vibrations felt in the car, when its in D, and I have my foot on the brake.. normal? or

Well it happened exactly as Raj said.
After I put on my winter tires on Saturday the TPMS didn't do anything for a while.
Then the Tire indicator started flashing then went solid and a message to check the TPMS on the DIC appeared.
Just like clockwork.
On Sunday the Tire indicator was still solid and the message appeared on the DIC once again.
I figured this is the way it is going to be until spring when I put my summer tires back on.
However, this morning (Monday) when I started it up to go to work, there was no Tire indicator or warning on the DIC.
All the way into work, nothing. Which is good, that is the way I want it, but it was a little unexpected.
Just thought I would let you guys know about this.
Raj, did this happen to you as well?

The TPMS will randomly throw messages on the DIC if you have wheels without sensors on the car. It will not have any impact on how the car drives though, it is simply to let you know that you may need air in the tire or something is wrong with the sensors. It is a tad annoying at first but you get used to it after a little while. If it bothers you that much you can always pick up some sensors and have them installed on your winter wheels too. I am not sure if they would have to be reset every time you switch wheels though with 2 sets of sensors? I am not sure about being able to disable that particular warning either.

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If you have 2 sets of wheels with sensors in all of them, the TPMS system must be calibrated so it will recognize the "new" sensors when you swap wheels & tires. As for the TPMS warning message it can't be disabled.

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Bright Red 2008 G8 GT

Mods: DRCUSTOMPARTS Center Gauge Bezel
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Paul, same thing is happening to me, sometimes it will show other times it won't.. its strange hehe.. oh ya that calibration thing, I think in the service manual, its something to do with the remote, increase and decrease air.... and some order lol....

Well I think I spoke to soon on my last post.
Today coming home from work the Tire indicator came back on and the message appeared on the DIC.
Oh well, I guess I will just have to live with it for the winter.
I am not going to install sensors inside my winter tires just for a few months.
Yes Raj, I read about how to calibrate the sensors for each specific wheel, about lowering the pressure until your horn chirps.
Anyway, that's it for me on this subject, looking forward to learning a lot more about this "new" car of mine.
Thanks everyone.