As the title asks, How are the 3.6 liter GM V6's holding up to higher mileage? They seem to put out good power, but are they a ticking time bomb?
I'm specifically asking because this one is available at a reasonable price:
https://www.iaai.com/VehicleDetail/39204705~US
But it has over 200k miles.
I'd say that any 200,000 mile motor that you do not know the maintenance history on is a ticking time bomb.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
The hit on the Equinox strikes me as a pretty big repair. Adding to that, it has a receiver hitch, in rear hits the hitch tends to cause some additonal resistance and buckling. Further more, a 200k Equinox with a heavily ripped driver seat is not worth all that much once repaired.
I'm also sour on Equinox because its the one salvage purchase that I got burned on.
The 3.6, even with horrible maintenance, will outlast an Equinox chassis.
The area of attachment for the front of the front subframe, or the rear trailing arms, just disappears.
Enclave...if that rear quarter dent is the think that took it off the road, if I owned it, I would sell it without ever fixing it. But 190k miles is a lot for this engine/trans combo. Also note it doesn't have keys. Your not gonna get to hear it run...more risk. At the current price you'd have $1500 into it. How much will keys cost? If all goes well and you can have under $2k into it. It might sell for $5k, max.
EDIT: MAKE NOTE...after really zooming pictures, the rear driver's side tire is twerked. Rear suspension damage.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:The 3.6, even with horrible maintenance, will outlast an Equinox chassis.
The area of attachment for the front of the front subframe, or the rear trailing arms, just disappears.
I was about to say the same thing. Those were notorious for the underside getting religious. We actually just failed one on inspection today for that issue.
John Welsh said:Enclave...if that rear quarter dent is the think that took it off the road, if I owned it, I would sell it without ever fixing it. But 190k miles is a lot for this engine/trans combo.
Yeah, transmissions weren't terrible great on these. Also, these tend to turn into electrical nightmares before they even get that old.
My honest opinion; Avoid both of these. Neither seems like that great a deal.
Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:I'd say that any 200,000 mile motor that you do not know the maintenance history on is a ticking time bomb.
My daily driver has 279k miles on it and I'm about to take it on a 14 hour round trip vacation. No worries. Some engines are more tolerant to high mileage than others. That's what I'm trying to ask about this V6.
In reply to John Welsh :
Good catch on the tweaked rear wheel. I hadn't noticed that.
In reply to NickD :
I need something that can seat 7 people (would prefer 8, but 7 is min). I found the Enclave during my searches. Are you saying avoid ALL years of these (and the chevy traverse)?
Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but weren't the early GM 3.6 V6's notorious for timing chain and tensioner issues?
Turbine said:Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but weren't the early GM 3.6 V6's notorious for timing chain and tensioner issues?
Yeah, but it's not that bad of a job. I'll let Pete and Nick say more since it's their job but I flipped a CTS that needed that and the chain was the easy part.
Turbine said:Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but weren't the early GM 3.6 V6's notorious for timing chain and tensioner issues?
Define "early", please.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
The Lambda chassis weren't great. The early engines, or later engines that weren't religiously maintained, had lots of timing chain issues, which is an engine-out repair. Usually the transmissions are starting to call it quits around 120k, especially the early models. The 3-5 waveplate was made of overly thin material and the springs would wear right through where they seated, as well as flukey torque converter clutches. Lots and lots of electrical issues; side detection modules and harness rot out with regularity and yank down the high speed bus and knock out all sorts of stuff. Prone to getting water in the underdash fuse block and melting it and all the connectors as well. The rear AC lines always rot out and then leak out all the refrigerant and cost a fortune to fix. Or you just live without AC. And the power steering systems started leaking from the pump and the rack practically as soon as they left the showroom floor, usually simultaneously, and labor to fix it was around 8 hours, plus the price of a pump and rack.
In reply to NickD :
But other than that, they're ok?
people actually want this garbage?
In reply to NickD :
Ok, Understood.
I will avoid these in my search. There's just a LOT of them at the auction now, and I thought they could be a good/quick flip.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
They seem to have become the primary vehicles of No Credit, Low Credit Buy Here, Pay Here lots around here. Which is telling.
In reply to NickD :
I don't miss hydraulic power steering, as someone who services vehicles.
As a driver, most electric power steering sucks. But it is so nice to not have all that leaky crud under the hood. And unless you have a Focus/Escape it is pretty problem free.
We still have my wife's 2015 Enclave that we bought new, it has 125k miles now. We live in Georgia so no tin worm here, but the body and trim have held up well. The motor runs strong and has had no issues. The transmission seems to have a lot of slack, but it'a been making disconcerting clunking noises since 40k and still runs like a top regardless. It's been a good car for us.
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