My 03 Malibu has had to be topped up with coolant twice in the last month
,, checked the oil today before i topped up coolant and it's pretty thin.

I had the oil changed about a month ago so it should be pretty clean , but
it feels like it's thinner than it should be , though still the "honey"
color , and it smells funny compared to newly changed oil.

It started up today , and was chugging a bit and the coolant light was on
then the dreaded service engine light ,, so i'm suspecting that its either
of the two dreaded gasket repairs, seeing as it's at 100km and the above
signs.

Now would this be the intake or head gasket that would need replacing?

How much should i be looking at , Canadian dollar wise??

This will sit in the drive until it goes into the shop , i had this problem
with the 2.8 in my 87 Jimmy and didn't know what was going on and drove it
until the engine was ticking ,, cost me a whole engine replacement and even
then when i got rid of it about 5 years later the same thing started up
again. I just hope the same thing doesn't happen with the repair on this
car , i loved the Jimmy and hated to give it up , but wasn't going through
the same cost /repair a second time ,, the same with the Malibu , love the
car but now worry that it might come back again in the near future after
being repaired.

Anyway ,, we'll see on Tuesday what the damage will be , dollar wise and
engine wise.

Gord

Hey Gord,

It sound like a gasket leak, if you are indeed sensing issues in your
fluids. If one truly is failing, you should be able to notice
moisture, even teardrops around when the head meets the engine and (if
you can see it) where the manifold is attached. I've replaced a few
heads and gaskets in my time and I've found it's best to just replace
both gaskets at the same time, no matter what. It doesn't cost much
more time to do both, and it means less to worry about it the future.
If you are not doing it yourself, I'm not sure how much more it would
cost to do more than what is absolutely needed. I would hope that a
good mechanic shop would recommend doing both (even all your gaskets
in the engine) at once. Gaskets come in sets that generally contain
every gasket for your engine. For a malibu, I'd wager they run around
$100-170US for the V6 (maybe less if you have a 4 cylinder. I've never
paid for such a repair, but my mother had a head, plus some other
work, done on her Chevy Venture and it was something like $900US. I
know how you feel, so good luck.

Does the engine get relatively hot while driving? This is usually the
first indicator of a bad gasket. You could try some radiator stop-leak
($8 at the part store), but I would be hesitant. It's been known to
help some engines, and exacerbate others, causing more damage. I
wouldn't recommend it, but if you find the repairs too costly for the
value of the car, think about giving it a shot.

Phildo <phil4881 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote in news:0ada2600-aa71-4aad-9213-
0f2694fe1046 (AT) k39g2000hsf (DOT) googlegroups.com:

After getting it into the shop on Tuesday , they ran the dye through the
car ,, pressure tested the system for a couple of hours with no drop in
pressure.
After explaining that i had to top up the holding tank twice since just
before Xmas , with the warning light coming on , not noticing any
antifreeze on the drive or around the engine , none on the passenger
floor , not blowing white smoke , no sweet smell coming from the car at
all ,,they were stumped , i told them that the water pump had been
replaced within the last 6 months , they decided to go back to that and
have a look to make sure that it wasn't a faulty pump ,, they pressure
tested it for another 3 hours with the pressure holding the whole time.
The only thing that they could find is the rad cap was looking kind of
ratty so they replaced that and topped up the fluid and told me to keep
an eye on it over the next week or so and if it starts to look low again
to bring it in.
I've been going to these guys for some time and trust them with all my
cars including the company vehicle , they also stated that they've
experienced many of these GM engines with the intake problems and didn't
notice anything that pointed to my vehicle having that dreaded problem.

So right now that's where i sit ,, oh and the service engine light
problem was a broken vacuum line to the pvc.

Hopefully the cap was the culprit , that's a lot easier to stomach price
wise.

Gord

As a note your statement about the oil looking thinner. Water won't mix with
oil and make it thinner. It will make a sludge and cause corrosion but not
thin the oil. You will also see a sludge around the dip stick and around the
oil cap. Hopefully the mechanic is on the right track as a leaking cap can
cause your problem

"LouisG" <imnot (AT) home (DOT) com> wrote

"Woody" <TheDuck (AT) pond (DOT) net> wrote in
news:Qtanj.708$0o7.349 (AT) newssvr13 (DOT) news.prodigy.net:

But it's not water mixing with the oil ,, it's antifreeze and after
having this problem in the past with another vehicle , i can tell you
that you'll feel it in the oil.

Hello

I own an '02 Malibu with the same engine and I noticed the foam or sludge on
the Antifreeze cap. Check for that. its a serious sign you need a new
gasket.



Larry


"Woody" <TheDuck (AT) pond (DOT) net> wrote