Hi all

I need some advice. WIth 40,000 miles on my 2002 3.1 engine. Ive started to
lose anti freeze. It's not a slow leak as I find a puddle every morning
under
the car.
I spoke to a mechanic, that used to work on GM cars and he said its the
Intake Valve Gasket. which will run me about $800. A lot of money for me.
Now the question. Why is GM still putting on poorly designed gaskets that
break in almost every car they sell. Can they be held responsible and
replace the gasket or at least be responsible for some part of the labor
cost?

Has anyone else dealt with this and what was the outcome?

Thanks

Larry

"Larry P" <lpagano (AT) nyc (DOT) rr.com> wrote

If you are within the warranty period, they will probably help you. If you
are not,
but raise enough stink, they might help you.

Your problem could be the intake gasket but you have to have it diagnosed
to be sure.

Hope you enjoy your next GM.

Larry P wrote:
These things seem to have a nearly 100% failure rate up through at least
the 2002 model year. I'm not sure if and when a real "fix" was ever
developed by GM. The 3.1/3.4l engines get these failures all the time.
Ours went at about 40k miles, which luckily was still in the extended
warranty period.

Ignoring it is a bad option as the antifreeze often contaminates the
motor oil. When the contamination gets bad enough it can take out the
whole engine.

GM has shown nearly zero interest in taking responsibility for this
design weakness once you are out of warranty.


John

"Larry P" <lpagano (AT) nyc (DOT) rr.com> wrote

Did this mechanic of yours actually look at the car? You can't diagnose a
problem without inspecting it. There could be many reasons why your car is
leaking coolant. Take it to a shop and get it checked out. If it does turn
out to be an intake gasket, call up GM and see what they will do for you.
They recently told me they couldn't do anything with my 2001 Montana, but it
has well over 200,000km's on it. With only 40,000 miles on yours, they may
help. But, like I said, get it checked out and don't worry about something
until you know for sure what to worry about.

John Horner wrote:

Not true! They will automatically repair this problem for
5 years/100,000 klms, no questions asked. And we goodwill
many of them past that mileage/date. If a person cannot get
this repair done within that time/mileage, then the problem
is with the individual dealer, not GM.

Ian

I am sorry, sounds like your Intake Gasket failed...they all do on these
enginges, yours is kind of early though with only 40k miles. Reach for about
$800 out of your wallet.