I know this is an old topic, but I need some advice. 18 months ago I had the lower intake gasket on my 2005 chevy Equinox replaced due to coolant leak. Immediately after the repair I continued to have a drop in coolant level. Went back to shop 3 times to diagnose. They pressure tested it, dropped tablets, and eventually said it was just going out exhaust. So, I have just continued to add coolant at oil changes. Car overheated yesterday...no coolant in reservoir, and I definately have mixing in my oil. I don't think the origional shop every repaired it correctly. Any insight you all can give me.
GM 3.4L Gasket Leak
- Thread starter westside5
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Take it back to them, sounds as though they did not do a good job.
That's where the car is at today. my fear is that they are going to say it is a new issue and not related to the old repair. Epecially since they pressure tested it twice (one time for 8 hours) 18 months ago. Is it possible that pressure testing would not identify a leak in the lower intake or head gaskets?
We have (2) 3.4's in our household and they are pretty sturdy engines. The lower intake manifold gasket (or LIM as most refer to it) is a known issue. GM has an updated gasket kit that works for about 100K miles, but if you want a permanent repair use the Fel-Pro "problem solver" gaskets. You should never have to do it again. Although some say they need replacing around every 150 K.
Some vehicles have never had a failure, some have had several.
Some vehicles have never had a failure, some have had several.
I have done many of these myself being a mechanic at a used car dealer. My boss would complain that I am taking too long to do the job. I made sure it was done right and everything was spotless before putting it back together by the book exactly. He sent out a few to some local guy that obviously didn't do a very good job. Many of those came back with issues and none of mine did.
If you are dealing with something as important as the LIM gaskets are you really have to take the time to do it right. Let's face it most shops are only worried about how fast you can get it out of there to collect your money. I used the cheap gaskets for most of the LIM jobs I did simply because they were cheaper ($27 compared to $100 for the Fel-Pro). I did one of these for someone I know on their 3.4 Monte Carlo and used the Fel-Pro gaskets which were much nicer and tougher in design. They have put over 100k on the car since then and no issues so they do seem to work well. Honestly putting the two gasket sets next to each other you can see it is a no brainer as to which set to use. Hope this all turns out well for you but you know the shops usually deny any wrong doing on their part and often times there is not much you can do about it. Might be best to take it elsewhere if you end up having to pay for it again. Just my .02
If you are dealing with something as important as the LIM gaskets are you really have to take the time to do it right. Let's face it most shops are only worried about how fast you can get it out of there to collect your money. I used the cheap gaskets for most of the LIM jobs I did simply because they were cheaper ($27 compared to $100 for the Fel-Pro). I did one of these for someone I know on their 3.4 Monte Carlo and used the Fel-Pro gaskets which were much nicer and tougher in design. They have put over 100k on the car since then and no issues so they do seem to work well. Honestly putting the two gasket sets next to each other you can see it is a no brainer as to which set to use. Hope this all turns out well for you but you know the shops usually deny any wrong doing on their part and often times there is not much you can do about it. Might be best to take it elsewhere if you end up having to pay for it again. Just my .02
I hope that it isn't a head gasket. It is common on the 3.4 to have HG failures.
Do all the GM 3.4L engines have this problem? My niece has a 2003 Olds Alero with the 3.4L engine with 80k miles. Factory coolant was changed to Peak blue about 20k miles ago. Should I go ahead and replace the lower intake gasket? Or just keep an eye on the oil not to get milky?
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