Consumer Complaint Detail

BUICK / LESABRE / 1998

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 004279916 Incident Date: Jan, 07 2004
Consumer's City: HIGH POINT Consumer's State: NC
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: General Motors, LLC
Model Name: LESABRE Model Year: 1998
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Engine and engine cooling:engine
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: 1G4HR52K3WH Date added to File: May, 25 2021
Date Complaint Received: May, 11 2004 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Nov, 29 1998
Was Original Owner: Yes Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 8 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: This is a engine problem with what i believe was a bad part design. the part is failure of intake plenum. the egr pipe from the engine comes through the plastic intake. there is a lot of heat generated at this point. over a period of time a hole is burned through the intake. this floods the engine with coolant. i bought the vehicle new. the first time the problem occured at 59,000 miles. i had the vehicle repaired at a cost of $1100.00. i asked the dealer about this. the reponse was . yes we know there is a problem with the k engine but the factory has not called for a recall. at 113,577 miles the problem occured again. i again had the engine repaired at a cost of $1140.93. again i asked the dealer about this. i was told that a service bulletin was sent out in 1996. this stated that if a owner complained of a coolent leak around the intake. not only should the plastic intake plenum be replace but also the aluminum intake should be repalced becaused the factory had replaced the egr pipe with a smaller pipe. this would keep the heat from burning a hole in the plastic plenum. the cost of this repair is to be paid by the owner. i checked out the service bulletin and found the problem covered all gm 3800 series engines form 1995 - 1998 my engine vin # is 1g4hr52k3wh51080. i was told by the gm service tech. that this problem occured so often that any owner of a 3800 series engine and the new design intake has not been installed you are guaranteed the engine will fail. again i feel this was a design problem.