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Endless Problems

Pontiac Racer

Pontiac Racer

New member
Noticed the car was leaking oil. Then noticed the coolant light came on and the car was burning coolant. Get the intake manifold replaced. Mechanic said VC gaskets were fine. Coolant issue got fixed (plan on swapping out the DEX-COOL sh*t this week.... hopefully. Park car in driveway for 5 minutes while running. Move car out of the driveway come back, big 4 inch diameter oil puddle on driveway. Now its gotta go back to get fixed. On top of that I have no job so money is fairly tight. And to top it all off my transmission is sh*t. It's like one thing gets fixed another issue comes up. You'd think GM would test their stuff to the extreme before selling it.... I know they're common problems, but I mean this is too much for a jobless Junior in HS lol.
 


It's a old car guy nothing last forever. Check the oil sender for your leak.


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Oh and aren't those engines like one of the best produced? They can't even go 100k miles without needing major repairs done!
 
Actually I recall seeing the studs directly under the VC drenched in oil. I believe the studs for the exhaust manifold, but I believe it is those VC gaskets. It leaks all the way from the top to the bottom onto the subframe and then onto my driveway.
 
They like to nickle and dime you along the way. Vc gaskets, elbows. Only big stuff is the oil pan gasket and lim gaskets. Both of which were fixed by mid 05, so I guess that year and later were the actual best engine produced. I don't think it's the engines in this platform that will cost you. Its the trans and suspension.
 


When I got my intake manifold changed, they put in metal coolant elbows. They weren't bad, they did it as preventative maintenance.
 
Pontiac Racer said:
Oh and aren't those engines like one of the best produced? They can't even go 100k miles without needing major repairs done!
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Things you said aren't really major repairs thought. There's plenty of info on this forum so you can learn to do things yourself. I've saved hundreds of dollars by reading here. Did they replace your whole manifold or just the gasket? If they did the whole thing then you got ripped off there.
 
Pontiac Racer said:
Do you have a pic of what it looks like. I have no clue where it is or what it looks like.
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oil sensor is in the side of the oil pan. It has a plug with wires as well. Extremely hard to miss and extremely easy to fix. 95 and up 3800s are one of the best engines produced. They may have some minor issues but they are easy fixes provided you and/or your technician knows what to do.

Also if you think these motors have too many problems to be listed as one of the best, think of all the other motors that aren't listed as one of the best lol. Those motors must have way more issues.
 
I don't think any motors going to 100k without needing some type work.. Especially when it comes to gaskets. You may want to lower your expectations. Guess what parts are cheap.. Labor not so much but that's when you learn to do things yourself.


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turn the wheels all the way to the left, then look from behind the pass side tire and look for the oil filter, to the left of the filter is a sensor with a green plug, if the plug is dripping with oil that sensor is bad.
 


The oil level sender is in the oil pan, but the oil pressure switch is the one that is known to dump oil when it goes. It is located in the oil filter adapter. Pull the passenger wheel and you can swap it out.

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SomeDudeAtHome said:
Things you said aren't really major repairs thought. There's plenty of info on this forum so you can learn to do things yourself. I've saved hundreds of dollars by reading here. Did they replace your whole manifold or just the gasket? If they did the whole thing then you got ripped off there.
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If they did replace the UIM, it was a smart move because a lot of the plastic UIM have a hole burned through the egr stove pipe which causes coolant to leaking in the LIM as well.
 
after changing it 3 times and installing a brass plug in the hole, i dont fix them no more lol

12 dollars worth of hell right there lol

seriously tho, they fail often, so invest in a oil pressure gauge set up, it will eliminate that sensor 100%. not like it does anything but leak oil sooner or later. it sets the light when it see's 5 psi or less, and its already to late then.
 


Yep they replaced the entire UIM cause coolant was leaking out of it. And I didn't neccessarily mean major repairs, but ones that are somewhat involved to fix. I'll go ahead and look at the sender tomorrow, but that wouldn't explain all the oil above the headers. That's my big hint as it's the VC gaskets.
 
HighOctaneRacing said:
If they did replace the UIM, it was a smart move because a lot of the plastic UIM have a hole burned through the egr stove pipe which causes coolant to leaking in the LIM as well.
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Actually it's the more costly fix. Plug the coolant ports and reuse your original UIM. The permanent and cheaper fix.

Racer: you can't really expect that 16 year old gaskets... no matter the mileage should be magically perfect. It's like saying you never expect a tire to dry rot. Yet there's rules out there stating no tire over 10 years will be mounted on a rim by a shop. Because.. after that time, the tire quality is compromised.
 
Sounds to me like whoever did the intake job screwed up one of the end seals or something when they laid the LIM back down.
 
Only thing you get from a botched end seal is a slight amount of oil seepage down the timing cover or trans and an unmetered vacuum leak.

Yeah.. I've tested this in the field. hahaha
 
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