Hello, just joined the forum. I live in Toronto and am interested in buying
an '02 or '03 STS. I am looking for feeback from you fellow enthusiasts on what to look for (ie. ) known problems, etc.

Thanks,

Kevin :thumbsup:

:welcome: Most of the known problems have been taken care of. Just follow the maintanence schedule, especially coolant changes. Oh yeah, trunk leaks are common. Check the spare tire well. An '02 or '03 may well be under warranty yet so that should not be a big problem. I just bought my '02 in Oct and it had a wet trunk. It only had 13K on it so it was certified and the warranty was extended to 6yrs/100K and I just to it to the dealer and had it fixed.

Another common problem is vibration at 60-70 mph. Easily curred by a Road Force Balance (see Tech Tips section).

Also go to the top left of this page. Click on Technical Archives and read up on WOT and oil usage, though oil usage has been reduced after about 2000. That said, you will see that oil usage is not a bad thing.

Not much in 02 or 03. According to schedule neither of those years is due for a coolant change til 07 and 08 so long as they are relatively low mileage cars. Those are so new your primary things to watch out for would be common sense issues like anything else... make sure the car is not leaking any visible amount of oil as the Northstar is known slight crankcase leaks, make sure there is no overheating on hills or stopped in traffic as this could indicate a headgasket issue (re: the cooling system maintenance, which again, isnt due to be performed quite yet anyway), check to make sure there is no wet carpet or standing water in the trunk spare tire well. If there is make sure to negotiate a few bucks off the car so long as it hasnt rusted or anything like that. This is an easy repair to do yourself with the right gasket material etc. Or just have them replace it.

Check to make sure the AC is working and it is not noisy or otherwise not cooling well. I had an 01 SLS that ALREADY had the AC system shot on it at 98k miles. AC and Headgaskets are some of the costliest common repairs on these cars so make sure all is good there.

Lastly drive the car on an open piece of freeway at 65-75mph and check for any bounciness OR any vibration through the body. Driveline vibration at cruising speeds is also a relatively common problem and sometimes can be fixed easily though a balancing, or other times is inherent to the way the car was put together or the tires on it and cant be as easily fixed.

Good luck and :welcome:

Ranger took the words right out of my mouth... ;)

:histeric: