Engine Cooling System Problems of Buick Lesabre - part 1

The contact owns a 2001 Buick Lesabre. The contact stated that cooling fluids were leaking out of the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who did not offer any assistance since the failure was repaired under an earlier manufacturer's recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was unknown and the current mileage was 115,000.

See all problems of the 2001 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

Transmission repaired in 2006 window switches replaced in two windows 2007 now I have a coolant leak.

I am trying to get information on a recall for my 2001 Buick Lesabre. I spoke with Buick and they acknowledged there was a recall for engine coolant leaks, but apparently being the second owner of the vehicle I was not notified. I am now having problems with engine coolant leaking into the motor. I have 73,000 miles on the vehicle and the dealer states it is age and mileage. I am not sure!!!!!! I feel if there was a recall due to a defective gasket which caused these leaks then I should be covered under that recall??? from what I could learn from your site Buick had a recall for their regal and pontiac grand prix. It is gm recall. #07035. I know I have a Lesabre,but it seems to be having the same problems. Is there a recall on my vehicle also??it supposedly is affecting over 20,764 vehicles and the 2001-2003 models won't be notified right away. Prior years were notified April 2008. I am a second owner so not sure if I would ever be notified. Please advise.

Engine seized and wouldn't start. Found the intake manifold full of antifreeze. Caused by a faulty intake manifold. Replaced manifold, changed oil and antifreeze and replaced cracked starter.

See all problems of the 1999 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

The contact owns a 1997 Buick Lesabre. While approaching a stop, the contact smelled antifreeze and noticed that the temperature gauge on the instrument panel was becoming hotter. He then noticed steam under the hood, which eventually led to the vehicle shutting off. The vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer. The current and failure mileages were 99,000.

See all problems of the 1997 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

The engine light came on. The car was not running hot nor did any other light come on. The engine was running as smooth as it always has. I pulled into a parking lot and let the engine cool. I saw the water was low so I went inside and got water to put in it. I tried to start the car and the engine would not start. White smoke came from the exhaust. I had the car towed to a dealer. They knew what was wrong before they checked the car because they had had other customers with the same problem. After replacing the manifold, gaskets, spark plugs, dexcool, pipe asm, seals, thermostat, starter, oil filter, oil, the car ran again. Of course, I was out $1049. 27. That was 12 days ago. Tonight the car began clattering and tomorrow the car will go back to the dealer for more repair. It sounds like the lifters need to be replaced. I believe this should have been recalled and repaired before all the trouble began. I want my money back.

See all problems of the 1998 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

This will be 4th time intake manifold gasket is being replaced. By far the worst & most expensive used car ever to own. Gm's black eye.

Upper intake manifold leaking externally at 50,400 miles on 2003 Buick Lesabre. Same occurred on my 1997 Buick Lesabre at 85,000 miles. Replaced upper intake manifold and gasket with after market assembly on 1997 now at 103,000 miles. 2003 Buick currently at dealers for repair pending.

See all problems of the 2003 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

Heater only blew cold air. Upper intake leaking coolant. Upper intake replaced could have caused engine to freeze complaint is against gm Buick division not dorschel service.

See all problems of the 2000 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

Two complete sets of brakes since October 2005 intake manifold leaks, both very costly.

I helped my 78 year old mother purchase a 2003 Buick Lesabre in early Jan. 2006. When I test drove car I noticed coolant was low and mentioned to salesperson. Dealer replaced leaking plenum gasket but did not report to me. Less than 300 miles later the car was severely losing coolant again. Dealer said upper intake manifold (plenum) was warped and needed replacement. Problem is that the only plenum gm makes for this engine is defective and will likely warp again, possibly destroying engine. This has happened to many owners of gm vehicles that have this engine. All repairs on my mother's car have so far been under warranty but warranty will soon run out. Warranty is supposed to cover any defects in manufacturing. Plenum is defective and the only gm authorized repair is with another defective plenum. This is just a temporary fix. I spoke with a former gm mechanic who told me that he sees this problem all the time and that gm knows about it. Plastic is not a suitable material for the plenum, as it warps due to engine heat. A recall is only way to remedy this problem. This engine is used in many vehicles (buicks and other models) that are popular with the elderly. It is unconsciousness that gm knowingly allows the elderly to drive cars that will likely leave them stranded.

Intermittent small leak of anti-freeze/coolant that shows up on the garage floor. Have traced that it emanates from the top of the engine near the throttle mounting and then drips down the side of the engine over the engine mounts and onto the floor. Was advised by a gm mechanic that there was a recall on throttle mounting bolts that may relate to this leakage. Local Buick dealer indicated that my VIN was not affected. Nonetheless, I have that problem of coolant leakage from that area of the engine. I replaced the thermostat gasket and there is absolutely no leakage from the thermostat or the radiator hose.

1998 Lesabre burned a hole in the intake manifold causing vehicle not to start. ** the consumer inspected the vehicle and determined that the egr valve was located in such a position that the hot exhaust gases were vented to closely to the intake manifold.

Routine service revealed that I have an antifreeze leak in the manifold area.

See all problems of the 2002 Buick Lesabre 🔎.

Consumer states that vehicle has a plastic intake manifold and after about 80,000 miles it failed, causing engine to lock up. He took vehicle to an independent service department and then called general motors to be reimbursed but because it was not taken to an authorized dealer they will not pay for the work done. Consumer noticed the problem when he tried to start the vehicle and it would not star. Smelled antifreeze. Then, consumer's son examined vehicle and found out it was intake manifold.

Problems with intake manifold and fuel intake. The vehicle suddenly backfired. The vehicle was take to the dealer where the computer was scanned. The computer indicated that coolant there was coolant in the intake manifold.

Check engine light illuminated after starting up vehicle and steering wheel was shaking. Vehicle was taken to a repair shop, and coolant was found in the engine. Engine was flushed, and thermostat was replaced.

Problems with antifreeze leaking into the vehicle's engine. The consumer was told that he would be responsible for purchase the small copper piece that would not allow the plastic to become overheated. The consumer would like to know if a recall has been issued for this problem. (1998 Buick).

Vehicle engine coolant leak. The problem had been corrected.

Complaint against general motors corp concerning an unsatisfactory transaction . While driving the ses light illuminated. A few days later the vehicle stalled while being driven and had to be towed to the dealer. The dealer determined that the coolant passage in the upper intake manifold was leaking into the lower intake. The dealer replaced the upper and lower intake manifolds. Shortly after the repairs were made the consumer received a recall notice. The consumer submitted all paperwork for reimbursement but hasn't received it yet.

Problems with fuel pressure regulator on 1998 Buick Lesabre. The fuel pressure regulator was replaced in accordance with recall v1082. While driving the vehicle stalled and would not restart. The vehicle was towed to the service dealer where it was deterrmined that the upper intake manifold had failed and coolant was flowing into the cylinders. The consumer feels the manifold should have been recalled and request reimbursement.

Coolant consumption, or an engine coolant leak near or under the throttle body area of the upper intake manifold on a 98 Buick le sabre custom four door.

Coolant leak from manifold.

1997 Buick Lesabre leaking coolant. The first incident was two years ago. Plenum was replaced and same problem occurring again. Had intake gasket replaced but coolant still leaking. Will damage engine if not corrected. Too expensive to have to correct every two years.

I would like to complain about the fact that the NHTSA has so little concern for safety that you charge $38. 73 per hour and other fees to obtain recall or service bulletins about ones vehicle. I am sure that this charge does exactly as desired by consumers just giving up. Your work load must be near zero which I am sure was the desire. If safety was the desire the information would be available for one to search for free. Is that not what the government web sites are for. I hope homeland security does not take after your site. It would appear that the vehicle cooling leaked into the engine due to a plastic intake manifold failure. Hard to believe a company would make it from plastic. I also believe if I had access to the infomation I would find that many other vehicles had the same failure and the manufacturer should bear responsibility.

The vehicle overheated due to an inoperative plastic intake manifold. The manifold was replaced and the coolant system was flushed.

First we would like to report our dissatisfaction with stillwater motors in that they added bogus charges on to the invoice then later, after we questioned and insisted on seeing these new parts and the old parts, they adjusted the invoice by crediting us $400. The car was brought in due to the engine running rough, overheating and an increased usage of coolant. The dealership diagnosed the problem as being a defect in the upper manifold resulting in leakage of coolant onto the sparkplugs. In the end, the upper manifold, 4 gaskets, the oil filter, and thermostat had been replaced and had the fuel/emission system flushed. We were quite astounded to see so many issues with this very same problem we had and we are hoping that there is some relief given to all Buick Lesabre owners who have had to incur these repair costs.

Coolant leakage from coolant resevoir into air intake manifold. It is obvious that engine coolant drawn into cylynder head can have numerous results damaging to the operation and longevity of the engine. Further the loss of coolant form the resevoir can result in inadequate engine cooling and high and destructive engine temperatures. While there was no observed evidence of coolant loss before GMC recall to "tighten throttle body bolts", the loss of coolant accelerated after the unsuccessful effort to eliminate coolant loss. That this problem has been present since early in 2000 model of the Buick lesabers is evidenced by complaints and service reports. The recall program of summer 2003 was an inadequate solution to the problem. In addition to this history, the existance of long standing problem is confirmed by GMC's recall in the summer of 2003. My complaint is heightened by the fact that both the dearler and gm refused to investigate the coolant loss observed after the recall as a part of the recall and used the expiry of my original warranty after the recall announcement and also after the completion of recall servicing without fully charging me for the investigation and required remedial work to resolve the coolant leakage malfunction. During my research into this situation I encountered a "mr good wrench" who worked in service department of a large Buick dealer. While discussing the throttle body leakage, he commented the "Buick has an even bigger problem with the "plastic section of the intake manifold which is encountering frequent cracking of this section of the manifold resulting in loss of coolant and major engine operation difficulties. Sounds to me this problem which is even more damaging and expensive to consumer than the throttle body leakage merits an investigation.

I had been losing coolant (2 quarts in 4~6 weeks) without seeing any spots on ground or coolant about engine / radiator. While driving, experienced relatively sudden loss of power, mil light came on, could not drive greater than 60 mph, very poor operation and acceleration. Dealer (superior Buick, dearborn michigan) diagnosed problem as blown headgasket. I subsequently had engine remanufactured under dealer premise of head gasket, only to find that the upper intake manifold had failed and allowed coolant to pass into intake passages (reference gm service bulletin 010601007, and ~7a). I was never informed of these bulletins by the dealership, but they are 2 years old.

After owning this car for less than 3 months I noticed coolant tank empty, took it to dealer who charged me $342 for new water pump, still loosing coolant. Come to find out after a sludge was found in engine that intake plenum was cracked allowing coolant into cylinders, damaging the bearings and now am paying for a new motor. Gm denies problems exist. This car has only 50,000m miles.

Consumer had problems with the cooling system. Also the vehicle was taken into the shop, and the problem was fixed. Ph.

While driving service engine light came on. Then, vehicle decelerated followed by heat and ventilation failures. This was due to engine intake manifold malfunctioning. The manifold wasn't designed correctly by the factory engineer, which caused the engine to misfire. Dealership diagnostic test showed coolant leaking. Cylinder replaced, and lower intake manifold improved design, per bulletin 010601007a. Also, coolant and fluid plugs were replaced.

Upper intake manifold had to be replaced due to a coolant leak. This type repair appears to be very unusual for this age of automobile. Complaint submitted by family member.

Upper intake plenum gasket failed, causing engine cylinders to fill with coolant and extensive damage to electrical parts. Possible other damage to engine.

I have been told by two mechanics that I need to change my antifreeze from dex-cool to ethylen glycol, as the dexcoolant is dirty and sugary and I am looking at electrolisis problems in my cooling system if I don't change it. Why would a reputable company like Buick put an inferior product in their vehicle? is there a class action suit being filed against dex coolant?.