Getting the Intake Gasket Repaired
Eyebolt
06-20-2005, 11:23 AM
So here's my story...
My wife came home the other day and told me the low coolant light came on in her car (2000 Malibu). Ok...so she didn't say coolant light...she described it to me. So I go take a look at it...deffinately have a coolant leak...the tank was pretty well empty. So I filled it up to try to isolate the leak...couldn't really find it too much myself...only confirmed it was leaking. So my next step was to check out the good ole automoveforums.com to see if anybody else has had any such problems. This board has already helped me out with 3 other problems most malibu's seem to have (blower motor resistor, AC Control Panel, and bad Hazard Switch). Sure enough...the malibu has a problem with leaking coolant from the intake gasket.
So today I finally get it into the dealer. They call me and tell me that after doing the pressure test, my water pump leaking and my intake gasket...estimation of $1100. So I was inspired by a post on here about someone saying that their Malibu that was out of warranty had the problem and GM gave him some sort of coverage to cover a large chunk of repair...I then layed down the whole loalty speech (my dad worked for GM, his four brothers, their dad, my mom's dad and one of her brothers, and both myself and my brother work for tier one suppliers) and the "if GM can help me out here with a couple hundred, then most likely in another year or two, they'll probably be getting thousands from me from a new car purchase."
The service advisor then said she'd go talk to the warranty manager and call me back. An hour or so later I get a call from her telling me to call GM Customer Assistance with some info she gave me. So I call them...they call the dealership...my bill is now down to $588 for the intake gasket, water pump, and an oil change. Knowing it was a problem with a lot of Malibus, the dealer had agreed to split up the cost of the intake gasket repair.
In the end, some of my faith in GM was restored with them for at least partially owning up to their own mistake and bad design. Now if only I wouldn't have had to go through all of that for what ended up being the end result. In the end...I'm pretty happy...sucks that it ever happened...but hopefully it won't happen again as long as we have this car.
(sorry for the long post)
My wife came home the other day and told me the low coolant light came on in her car (2000 Malibu). Ok...so she didn't say coolant light...she described it to me. So I go take a look at it...deffinately have a coolant leak...the tank was pretty well empty. So I filled it up to try to isolate the leak...couldn't really find it too much myself...only confirmed it was leaking. So my next step was to check out the good ole automoveforums.com to see if anybody else has had any such problems. This board has already helped me out with 3 other problems most malibu's seem to have (blower motor resistor, AC Control Panel, and bad Hazard Switch). Sure enough...the malibu has a problem with leaking coolant from the intake gasket.
So today I finally get it into the dealer. They call me and tell me that after doing the pressure test, my water pump leaking and my intake gasket...estimation of $1100. So I was inspired by a post on here about someone saying that their Malibu that was out of warranty had the problem and GM gave him some sort of coverage to cover a large chunk of repair...I then layed down the whole loalty speech (my dad worked for GM, his four brothers, their dad, my mom's dad and one of her brothers, and both myself and my brother work for tier one suppliers) and the "if GM can help me out here with a couple hundred, then most likely in another year or two, they'll probably be getting thousands from me from a new car purchase."
The service advisor then said she'd go talk to the warranty manager and call me back. An hour or so later I get a call from her telling me to call GM Customer Assistance with some info she gave me. So I call them...they call the dealership...my bill is now down to $588 for the intake gasket, water pump, and an oil change. Knowing it was a problem with a lot of Malibus, the dealer had agreed to split up the cost of the intake gasket repair.
In the end, some of my faith in GM was restored with them for at least partially owning up to their own mistake and bad design. Now if only I wouldn't have had to go through all of that for what ended up being the end result. In the end...I'm pretty happy...sucks that it ever happened...but hopefully it won't happen again as long as we have this car.
(sorry for the long post)
malibugtp
06-20-2005, 12:08 PM
yeah lucky, lets see, me bro works for gm, my best friend works for gm, my neighbor of 21 years retire from gm, my dad only trusts gm, i only by gm, so you think they will help me out
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