3400 Coolant leak

[ADub02]

A friend of mine (out of town, so I haven't seen car) took her Malibu with the 3.4 in to have a coolant leak checked. They told her "the manifold is cracked." I would assume they mean the lower intake manifold. Car only has 60k on it. Does this sound plausable? They were closed by the time I left work, but I plan to call them in the morning. They were waiting for a parts quote and told her 400 labor, 5 hours, so thats 80 an hour at some basic shop, not a dealer. Already sounds like they are trying to screw her over. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

AW

[DEI37]

RE: 3400 Coolant leak

The lower intake manifold GASKET is what is leaking. It's doubtful that the manifold is actually cracked. SHould be in the $550-700 range.

[geoffinbc]

Agreed highly unlikely the manifold is cracked. Very likely the gaskets need changing. Extremly common problem. Get the new revised gaskets.

Goto a (preferably the dealer you bought it from) dealer depending on their policy the may do it free under good will.

If not you may want to do it yourself. It costs about $100 with all the gaskets and fluids

[the4biddendonut]

i had a lower intake manifold gasket leak which costed me $300 dollars to fix by a mechanic at a dealership. i got a good deal on it because i know the mechanic.

a few months later my brother in-law's car had the same problem. he brought it to the dealership and it costed him over $600 to fix.

i guess it's a pretty common problem on these engines.

[geoffinbc]

It is an extremly common problem between 1996 and 1999 model years. During 2000 they fixed the gaskets.

It was not just these engines. My buddy and I just put in a Crane Cam in his 2002 4.3L. The stock gaskets had no metal around the bolts. The new ones did. This is the same revision done to the new 3X00 gaskets. Also the entire gasket is black.