Bad engine/Bad company

What is the name of your state? Texas

I bought my vehicle in 1998 brand new. It had a 3 year/36,000 drive train warranty. The vehicle is now 5 years old and has only 43,000 miles on it. I realize the warranty period is up...barely.

2 weeks ago a bad intake manifold gasket cost me $1600 to fix (it sucked all the coolant out of the cooling system and into the engine). Got it fixed...drove it for two weeks and then I had a clicking noise coming from the engine. Two garages now say I need a whole new engine at a cost of almost $6000.

The mechanics at both garages told me that they see allot this trouble on these engines. They also said the car maker knew the little plastic gasket on the intake manifold is bad but keeps using it and refuses to do a recall. I think it is incompetent to say the least and maybe even criminal at the most to have a widespread problem and not take responsibility for it. There may even be a safety component to this...this happened very quickly while my wife was driving...if this happened on a major highway at a high rate of speed, especially with children in the car...this could be very dangerous. The thing is it's apparently a KNOWN problem.

Might I have any legal recourse here? Isn't the manufacturer liable for something?

[spawn_x]

Liable for what? Their warranty is up to 36K miles, so why would they cover anything?

And if you payed 1600 for a manifold gasket change then you payed too much.

And for 6,000 dollars I can get you a V8 engine putting out 500 horsepower and 600 pounds of torque. Unless that is what they're giving you - you're getting ripped off.

They're not liable for anything, its a case of "crap happens"..

sucks, but not much you can do about it. Hell, my heads cracked, that's a 2000 dollar job right there (much less for me since I do my own labor..).

Good luck.

Check to see if there are any recalls . . I know that the GM 3800 series engines are notorious for the plastic intake manifold cracking and getting coolant in the engine. Rumor has it that only NOW are they starting to have recalls for that.

[JETX]

You might want to check to see if there has been a recall or TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) for your vehicle. Click on:
[url]http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/tsbsearch.cfm[/url]

[spawn_x]

jet, a TSB is all that it says it is - a bulletin. It in no way covers any warranty or non-warranty repair.. Simply its a bulletin that says that something is known as a problem.

There's tons of TSBs relating to all things from defective engine parts to small squeaks coming from the side.

The only way a recall would be issued is if its a Safety issue.. Your engine dying on you has nothing to do with your safety so I don't see why it would be a recall... Please note: I am not 100% sure that ONLY safety issues become recalls, however I have yet to see a recall for something that's not safety related.

I understand that you're pissed, trust me, I own a Dodge. I just found out that my heads are cracked, and that it is a VERY known problem for about 4 years of making..

Sucks, but oh well, I still love it.

[JETX]

I understand about TSB's.

Let me give you a quick story.... that happened to me.
I have a GMC with the 350 engine. After the 3-36 warranty expired, one of the lobes on the camshaft went 'flat'. I checked with one of my brothers who was a service writer for Buick and he said that was a common problem and to negotiate with the dealer. I did. We agreed to a 50-50 split of the cost (something like $900 total). When time came to pay the bill, I was handed a 'paid in full' bill, without any mention of the split. Clerk stamped, "Paid In Full" and gave me my keys. A few days later, I got a call from the service manager saying 'come on down and pay'. I then called my 'bro' again (the one with Buick) and he checked. Seems that they were running a double involve on me. One invoice showing the work under full warranty to be submitted to the factory, another showing my 50% deal. They just gave me the wrong invoice!!! I called the service manager back and explained the situation. He threatened mechanics lien. I said that since I had an invoice stamped paid in full, if he did 'grab' the vehicle, that his job would be the first to go when I took over ownership of the dealership. Never heard from him again!!

Really didn't mean to divert, but thought this thread needed a little 'pay back' on the dealers.

[spawn_x]

wow, glad to hear you didn't get screwed over.

Dealers I and people I know dealt with basically won't touch a vehicle after the warranty expired, and DC (daimler chrysler) don't look like they care much for out of warranty repairs either.

I guess its an issue of customer service - if you go to court and sue you will not win since it is out of warranty and is not something that happened while they were working on it or some other circumstance. However to keep the business sometimes they'll go out of their way....

I guess my point was that every mechanic I talked to said that this is a KNOWN problem with these little plastic gaskets. And quite a few engines have been ruined because of it. It seems the company should bear some responsibility for this problem.

It's sick that I have to swallow about $4000 because of a known bad design.

I guess I'll see what happens if I threaten a lawsuit, smearing the GM/Chevy name over the Internet siting this problem and advising people to avoid, etc.

Oh, I might have paid to much for the gasket job but it was on a weekend and they said all the coolant was sucked out of the cooling system and into the engine. All the hoses had to be replaced and maybe even the radiator.

[spawn_x]

again, a known problem doesn't automatically qualify for a recall or free repair, its simply a known problem aka TSB. I think you're missing the point here buddy...