Chevrolet Venture: What do you think?

[Starex_Gold]

buhayin ulit natin ito.

67k na yung odo nung Venture namin. Napansin ko may malakas na umuugong sa gulong sa harap pag lampas ng 40kph tapos palakas ng palakas habang bumibilis. Tingin ko bearing yung may problem.

Saan kaya makakabili ng front bearing? Sa casa kasi walang stock tapos sobra mahal pa

[userfriendly]

That sound is most likely the front wheel bearing. Should cost around 11 to 12k per pc sa Thunder. Its an assembly that also contains the abs sensors. You cant just pullout the defective bearing. You have to replace the entire unit.

BTW, my unit's milage is already over 100,000 kms. Just had the front and rear suspension repaired by Cruven. Ride is not as good as before but its usable.

Aircon tip. A clogged or dirty cabin airfilter will cause the aircon to lose cooling capacity. Air volume is also greatly reduced. Solution: open your glove compartment, at the very back there is a panel. Open it and pull out 2 cabin airfilters. Use a aircompressor to clean it. Your aircon will be back to normal. I've been doing this for over 4 years and almost 50,000 kms. Works well and have not had to buy new cabin airfilters.

Has anyone tried adding aux fans to help with the overheating issue?

[Gen. Miting]

nakow yan din naging problema ng venture namin noon. initial estimate ng casa, 100K daw. good thing we pulled some strings, napababa sa 30K. after repair, binenta na kagad namin venture namin

[Starex_Gold]

ay grabe naman ang presyo ng front wheel bearings :hammer:

nakita ko na yung aircon filter sa glove box. pinabugahan ko na ng compressed air last november pa. ngayon ayos parin yun. lumamig na rin at lumakas yung fan.

[mulawin]

hello po, i know this is an old thread but i'd like to share my own experience with our venture 2003...

i got 2nd hand * 58k miles, though its not spring chicken anymore it's still a very good ride.

aircon is not cool...it's COLD! the air filter is the key i guess.

fuel economy is not ideal but then 6-7km/li city driving from pasig to makati is not so bad, it's just as fuel efficient as our highly abused corona. so far so good :-)

suspension is "soft" and comfortable considering the car's age, maybe a larger wheel diameter + lower profile tire will stiffen it up a bit and give it a more robust feel.

no overheating problems yet, let's see how that holds when we go up to tagaytay (haven't gone on a long drive for some time!). actually i've been expecting cooling issues but thankfully none of that has happened.

cabin is spacious and captain's chairs are second to none (IMHO) in comfort.

before deciding on the venture we've gone through a lot of articles all over the net muna and there are a lot of horror stories around regarding this model specially locally but there are also a lot of positive comments even in american forums. siguro one can say the same for most cars.

yes, parts and casa service are somewhat pricier than toyotas, etc., fuel economy is NOT low (but then it IS a V6). if fuel economy is the main factor, don't go for this chevy, it will never win vs the jazz or yaris.

we're probably lucky the previous owner took good care of his minivan.

maybe it just need a bit more TLC than our other cars but over all we've got a spacious and very comfortable family car in this ride. it's got a lot of life in it still and i'd still choose this one over a bnew innova or starex.

[userfriendly]

Do you experience coolant loss? Ang lakas ng coolant loss ng unit ko. About a liter a month ang dagdag ko sa coolant expansion tank. No overheating. No leak detected. No oil in the radiator or expansion tank.

Pag uphill, hirap ang engine and medyo umiinit. About 1/2 or a little above 1/2. Lipat ko aircon to heater and babalik sa normal ang temp. Sabi ng mechanic ko, ex casa supervisor, na no signs of broken head gasket pero di rin niya masabi bakit ang lakas ng coolant loss.

Radiator cap replaced last April 2007 mga 30,000 kms na rin. Malinis ang radiator, na pa lavramon ko nung April 2008, around 19,000 kms ago.

I suspect a pin hole leak na evaporate agad ang coolant. How do i trace this?

[Frontsight]

Hello everyone

I have a 2004 Venture. It developed a weird problem. The idling is rough for the first 15 minutes after each startup then it becomes normal after that. It seems that if the engine cools down a bit, the rough idling happens but disappears when the engine reaches normal operating temperature. This is only while idling with the tranny either in park or drive.

Had the engine and tranny supports checked and all are still intact. Could this be related to the intake or exhaust?

Hope someone has other ideas or can recommend a good venture mechanic/shop aside from the dealer.

Thanks

Ed

[mikeg]

For Overheating at uphill climb and coolant loss, replace your radiator cap with the correct pressure cap (1.1 - 1.4 bar rating) Mine I use is 1.4 bar, bought at Blade for I think only 140pesos. I saw one also at Ace and Truevalue. Don't use 0.8bar as it will just spill your coolant when it reach 110degC. For rough Idling, Just clean your throttle body, remove the Air intake hose going to throttle body, then wipe off sludge on throttle plate. You can swing the throttle plate to clean. Use rags and damp it with kerosine or carb cleaner. Hope this helps. Blaming overheat on the GM is not so right, we have other brand of vehicle that is overheating and can't be fixed, after different tries of different Mechanics overheating was fixed.Overheating may be due to a simple radiator cap failure initially or broken hose... etc.... then as soon as you experience overheating, engine block will warp, then now will contribute to increasing pressure in your coolant system. Never open rad cap frequently to prevent early damage of your rad cap seal. Just check coolant on Overflow tank. I have a chevy Venture, and works perfectly even on long hill climb, full of passengers.

[mikeg]

Additional input, check also air in coolant system. If upper Radiator Hose is soft, there's air/bubbles in your cooling system. Bleed it as per manual. Also worn rad cap will make upper rad hose soft to squeeze and make bubble noise in the overflow tank.

[glntVR]

Anyone here knows how much Ventures go for?

2003 model with around 67k mileage.

Thanks!