Complaint Review: Pontiac

This complaint refers to the defective design of the Intake Manifold Gasket installed in 1996-2003 GM 3.1 & 3.4 Liter engines. The following is a link to a GM service bulletin that all but admits to the inadequacies of the design. http://www.autosafety.org/uploads/SB-10001282-8175.pdf. This defect affects 14 car types of 4 GM brands.

I own a 2001 extended Pontiac Montana Mini-Van. I bought this vehicle brand new from the dealer ands have kept up with the oil changes as recommended by the manufacture. Several months ago my Low Coolant Light (LCL) turned on during a long trip and then did not reapers for several weeks. In conjunction with the LCL my LOW Engine Oil Light (LEOL) began to go off every 1500 to 2000 miles.

I could not find any external oil or coolant leaks yet the problem persisted for 4 months. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the van and nether could my local mechanic. The last piece of the puzzle came when the heater in the van stopped working. At this point I did not think that the engine problems and the heater problems were related.

The van was not covered by the warrantee at this point so I went to my local mechanic and had him flush my heater core to see if this would cure my heater issue. After the flush my mechanic told me that my coolant had become a grayish white sludge and that was why I was not getting any heat. The pump could not circulate the contaminated coolant through the heater cores.

I did some research and found the above service bulletin. It cost me about $900 dollars to fix a problem that GM knew about when I bout the car. This problem is fairly wide spread, my mechanic said that he sees a lot of GM cars with his coolant problem and I personally know 2 people that have had the same problem.

Jose
Burlington, New Jersey
U.S.A.