1999 Pontiac Grand Am 3.4L V6 - leaking coolant from intake manifold gasket

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on October 8, 2002:

From:

RE: 1999 Pontiac Grand Am 3.4L V6 - leaking coolant from intake manifold gasket

My Grand Am has only 43,000 miles on it and I purchased it new. The low coolant light had been coming on. I took it to the Service Dept. at the dealership for an oil change and asked that they check the coolant.

I was then told that the intake manifold gasket needed to be replaced and the job would cost $865.00 (including the oil change and a coolant flush) because it was very labor intensive.

I later asked another mechanic at a local garage for an estimate and was told it would be $460.00 (I did not need the coolant flush or most of the parts/labor the dealer was trying to sell). I feel that the "Dealer" name is unimportant at this point, because I think they all rip you off anyway.

I am very upset that GM has not made a recall or attempted to reimburse the car owners having this problem. Is there ANY recourse?

Comment On This

put dex-cool in anything and the gaskets will fail.Caution not useing death-cool will harm your engine ,How much worse could it be,Flush the death-cool x2 and install green antifreeze and a good water pump lube and your repair bills are over?100,000 mile plugs will seize in heads at 50K miles even with anti seize,100,000-150.000 dex-cool will distroy any engine regaurdless of poor gaskets installed in the 3.1L and 3.4L motors.

Comment On This

I feel the same way, the 3.4 v6 also comes in the Malibu and Impala, I have two friends with the two cars that have had the same problem as my Grand Am Gt has

GM needs to own up and take care of these problems.

I am very disappointed in GM.