The 2004, 2005, and 2006 Pontiac GTOs are great cars, but it's good to know about their common problems and issues before buying one, daily driving one that has been sitting, or adding a bunch of power.
0:00 • Intro/GTO Stock Strut Mounts
These strut mounts fail remarkably quickly... Absurdly quick! One forum post claimed they failed on a new car before it reached 10,000 miles.
* Nolathane Polyurethane Strut Mounts for GTOs: amzn.to/3ouiUiC
(I used Whiteline strut mounts that look just like this, but their Amazon listing currently has the wrong image: amzn.to/3blR8kH )
0:39 • LS1 & LS2 Oil Starvation
The LS engines in these GTOs have a front sump design which can cause oil to pull away during hard acceleration, leading to there being no oil there for the oil pump to pull in.
1:09 • GTO Wiring Harness Near Glove Box
A wiring harness behind the glove box is known to wear through the insulation, shorting some circuits and diverting power to others.
1:57 • LED Taillight Issues on GTOs
LED lighting is awesome, but GTOs seem to have an issue with one particular bulb pair being LEDs instead of a more traditional bulb. The taillights seem to deactivate the traction control whenever not enough amperage passes through their circuit, so putting in a 6 ohm resistor parallel to one of the tail light circuits allows for enough amperage to make the problem go away.
2:36 • GTO Front Radius Rod Bushings
These bushings cause suspension issues but also create weird handling conditions under braking, making the car unstable, unpredictable, and less safe. Fortunately, replacements are available in three varieties.
* Pedders front radius rod bushing, red polyurethane: amzn.to/3hW8829
3:30 • Pontiac GTO Headliner Sag
The headliner often comes loose and sags on these cars. That is all.
3:58 • Rear Spring Sagging on GTOs
Rumor has it that GTOs arrived at the dealer with sagging springs because they were strapped down too tight when shipped from Australia to the US. True or not, the stock rear springs on these cars seem to sag pretty early on.
4:53 • Final Drive Gear Whine/"Differential Whine" in GTOs
The actual differential unit on these cars doesn't whine, the final drive gears do. But, since the whole differential case/assembly is often just called the differential, people refer to this problem as differential whine. This might be fixed with a proper gear alignment (which is usually the fix on other cars) but Torco makes a gear oil that is known to quiet down GTO differentials.
* Torco RGO 85W-140: amzn.to/3q0GTpW (Read the reviews! It's like the whole GTO community showed up.)
* Type F Friction Modifier: amzn.to/2LALWP7
6:13 • Fuel Door & Trunk Popper Failure
These two solenoids that pop open function panels on the GTOs seem to fail, making their use annoying but still possible.
* GM 92210033 Trunk Release Actuator: amzn.to/39cRXJX (Note: this might not be your problem. Diagnose first!)
7:00 • Noisy LS1 & LS2 Lifters on GTOs
While often easy to misdiagnose, the lifters can become noisy on the LS engines in these cars, which can be a sign of future engine failure if taken care of quickly (and properly diagnosed, since other problems can sound similar).
7:42 • GTO Rapid Battery Drain
It seems like the GTO never completely shuts down, and drains the battery pretty quickly.
8:22 • Check The Comments For Issues I've Missed
If I missed a common issue on these GTOs, let me know in the comments! Check out those comments so you can see what I missed, like brake performance and tire size limitations.
8:40 • 2005 Pontiac GTO Cold Weather Engine Rev Sounds
I miss this. I think my subscribers do, too. This may be old footage, but I like it.
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