Leaking Intake Manifold Gasket

GM builds quite a few vehicles in Canada.

With my car, any little thing that is out of the ordinary goes to the dealer to be checked out ASAP.

"Mike" wrote

Yes, I suppose it must seem as though I get my shorts in a knot occasionally. Sometimes...at least for me...it's a bit of a balancing act between knowing that there are a lot of really bad designs and crappy parts on GM vehicles, and yet feeling like the owner has to take their lumps at some point with these vehicles.

I can understand this. This is one of the reasons I spend my time here....hopefully some people will be able to save some money as car repairs are quite simply unbelievable at times. Of course it's my living...but there are probably a million people out there to the one person here on these newsgroups who have no interest in learning about their car and will continue to have someone like me do their repairs for them.

Good for you. I don't subscribe to the notion that you are selling out either Canada or the USA by buying a Japanese automobile. Their quality is much better then the American built stuff. The best car we ever owned was a 1980 Toyota Corona. I did only the most minor repairs and maintenance to the that vehicle thru 330,000 klms. If it wasn't for the rusty body...I'd have kept it a few more years. If people only knew what country of origin is on almost every GM part....I'll give you a clue....it's almost never Canada or the States. There is no such thing as an "American made" or "Canadian made" vehicle anymore. It's a global market, folks. Better get used to it.

Well, "bearing a cross" would put me in some company that is too far above me. Thanks for the comments....I just need to remind myself of some advice that my father used to give me......"never take what anyone says personally".

Ian

I agree. Except... for the sh*tty taste it leaves in the mouths of people who won't buy another GM ever because their last one was a POS and GM crapped all over them. Pissing off your customers is a good way to have them become former customers and tell 10 people that GM sucks... and that takes a lot of work to undo... remember the ads GM just ran that basically said "sorry our cars sucked

10 years ago? they're better now"

Ray (who owns 5 GM products.)

"ray" wrote

Yes...you are right...except that there tons of former Ford and Chryster customers now buying a GM and telling 10 people each that Ford and Chrysler suck.

It never really ends....there will always be the discontented customer here or over there.

Ian

Ian, if you're still watching this thread - just curious if the recall for this problem (the new fasteners and sealant) really "fixes" it, at least for some reasonable time? It was done on my '02 Impala LS. Since I got the recall notice in the mail, my car must have been built before the redesign. Thanks.

"gad" wrote

It hasn't been long enough to really tell, but I think that it probably helps. The whole idea of the new nut design is to maintain the proper torque at those locations. Perhaps they discovered that the old style nuts were backing off. In any case, I think that the plastic upper manifold design is just a poor one. Especially if the manifold is a "wet" design. Cadillac uses the same style (plastic) intake on the Northstar, but there are no fluids running through it. So there are no problems with that intake manifold. Same story with the new generation of chev small block engines. Big fancy plastic intake, but it's a dry one.

Ian

Ok, thanks for the input. Since I typically keep my cars a long time (got

15 years out of my 86 Thunderbird) I may consider a preemptive replacement of this gasket after the warranty is up in a year. We'll see how people are faring with the recall fix at that point and if it's really doing the trick.

My guess is that the intent of the cheap manufacturers "fix" is to get the engine to go without leaks beyond the warranty period so that the real fix is on the customers dime later.