One of our company cars, an 03 V6 malibu, has started leaking coolant. Driver says it leave a six inch puddle on his driveway every night.

He brought it to the dealer today, and they aid probably head gasket, possible warped head or cracked block, and quoted $1300 to do one head gasket and $1800 to do both.

This car has 142k miles on it, and we still owe $3600. We expected to push it 2 more years.

I told them to put some stop leak in it and give it back.

Any suggestions?

What motor is it?

Jim,
Head gasket would show milky oil or milky anti-freeze. Do you see that? It it a freeze plug? Hose ? Heater Core? Where is the leak? Front,side ??? Is it a 3.2, 4.3 engine. I will look it up on AllDataPro for TSB etc....

Kev

I believe it's a 3.2. Definitely NOT a 4.3. Pretty sure the only six you could get in a malibu that year.

I didn't look at it myself, can only go by what the dealer said.
I was not told of any milky oil, it would not be being driven if I had been.
It also had a leak some 30k ago, that turned out to be the water pump.

I forget which engine, maybe the 3.4, but they have problems with intakes/intake gaskets going bad. Piss out antifreeze. The motors don't like overheating, wastes headgaskets.

Both the 3.4 and 3.8 have a history of lower intake manifold gaskets going and causing the leak. They also have had heater core failures and even problems with the neck and mouth of the radiator that caused leaks. Head gaskets are down on the list and with high mileage could be teh problem but I would look into the manifold gasket first. It's about a $600 - $800 repair compared to the cost of doing a head. Oh the problem will always be resolved by replacing the head gaskets because pulling the heads requires pulling the intake...

they have problems with intakes/intake gaskets going bad.

Agreed.

Dye is also available to add to coolant and check for leaks with a blacklight. I recommend that highly Jim.

Of course drive the car in a normal manner before checking.

Take a close look at the LR area of the intake gasket.

Has the coolant ever been changed in that car? If not that could be the reason you are having leak issues. Dex-cool at work. Have someone look into the coolant tank and see if there is brownish sludge. If so you need to flush and change the coolant (hopefully you don't have the brown goo yet). It has been debated but, the reason GM had all the "manifold" leaks was because of Dex-cool. It is also known to turn to goo and clog up passages and heater cores. Just something else to look into. Hopefully it's not a head gasket because if it is the stop leak is only going to hold for so long. I bet it is a intake manifold leak (very common), did you driever admit to overheating the car? If the car wasn't over heated then the head gasket should be fine.

I believe it's a 3.2. Definitely NOT a 4.3. Pretty sure the only six you could get in a malibu that year.

I didn't look at it myself, can only go by what the dealer said.
I was not told of any milky oil, it would not be being driven if I had been.
It also had a leak some 30k ago, that turned out to be the water pump.


Could it be the water pump again?

Since it is a company car, any repairs lengthen the depreciation period of the car/vehicle.

I personally wouldn't add Stop-leak. As said, check for brown coolant with Dex-Cool, shows an air leak.

More than likely, its probably the rear head gasket, as it is against the firewall and where the most heat is contained in the engine compartment.

Talked to the driver this morning, he says the oil is fine. If it survives his 400 mile road trip today, I think we'll see about the dye check, somewhere other than the dealer. Sounds like thier estimate was pure "CYA" with minimal diagnostics, they only charged 1 hour of labor. $6-800 to change an intake gasket is satill pretty outragious!!!

$6-800 to change an intake gasket is satill pretty outragious!!!
Not like our V8s. It's a 2 piece manifold and the pushrods pass through it so teh rocker assembly has to come apart. It's also burried under all the FI that you can't just leave in place as you remove the manifold. Oh and it's almost impossible to remove without dumping cooling system fluid into the crankcase so you're getting an oil change along with it. Shop rates are the killer on a job like this, try to find someone that doesn't charge dealer rates and that will save you some...

I just changed my 2nd intake gasket a couple of months ago on the 3.4 in my Lumina. I also suspected a head gasket because of where it appeared to be leaking. I have about 160K miles on mine...seems to be pretty common with the 60* V-6's.

The v6 motors are famous for this repair. I had a quote to fix my kids lumina for $1500. I did it myself for the cost of a $36 set of gaskets. Lots of tear down to get to it - time consuming - but pretty straight forward. just make sure you tag/mark everything so you get everything back where it goes.

Make Sure You Put The Push Rods Back In The Same Place Or You Will Bend The Valves