1998 Pontiac Bonneville: loss of power steering

Filed Aug 22, 2010 · Engine · 129,000 miles · MI

My upper intake manifold leaks engine coolant into the combustion chambers and into the crankcase. The egr tube melts the upper plastic manifold I have had the upper and lower intake replaced for this issue once before with gm parts and it happening again. If it not fixed the coolant can contaminate my oil and lock up my engine when traveling down the road and possibly cause me to crash. If the engine locks up I will lose power steering and braking ability.

Filed Oct 22, 2004 · Engine · 62,000 miles · KS

Sudden catastrophic failure of the intake manifold causing anti-freeze to enter the engine, oil resulting in complete engine failure at 75 MPH. *ak ase certified mechanic replaced engine, intake manifold and peripherals for over $5000. Have possession of original factory intake manifold showing hole in egr area that failed. Ruined engine had to be returned for core fee. Car recently off extended warranty. Gm customer service uncooperative and claims that tsb 010601007a (the federal safety agency item #620835) not published by gm. Gm customer service claims car has not been properly maintained, did not care to have details of oil changes (every 3000 miles) or other service performed as recommended in owner's manual. This is an obvious product failure and is a serious safety issue at higway speeds! When engine locked up, lost all power and had difficulty getting off the highway and onto the shoulder. Very thankful my husband was driving and not me, as I would not have been able to get the car off the highway due to the tremendous strength required to perform that task when there is no power steering! Recently received a safety recall from gm for the gasoline pressure regulator that must have a number of variables happen all at the same time to become an issue. Why is gm not being held accountable for this serious intake manifold problem that appears to be lying in wait for the unsuspecting consumer?

Filed May 6, 2004 · Engine · 115,000 miles · MI

Purchased used 1998 pontiac bonneville in january, 2002 with 56, 000 miles from gm dealership. Car was gm certified. About 6 months later with 65,000 miles during routine oil change I notice the coolant was a little low. Going back to dealer I purchased gm long life antifreeze and bottle of gm sealant. There were no visible signs of antifreeze leak anywhere. Coolant level maintained from that time. On april 30th, 2004 while driving down the expressway, the car suddenly begain to miss fire severley and quit running within seconds. There was no power steering and no power breaks. The engine had hydrolocked. All cylinders were full of antifreeze. The car now had 115,000 miles. I removed the upper intake manifold to find it full of antifreeze. The heat resistant material around the egr tube had failed allowing super-heated air to melt the gasket area around the adjascent water jacket allowing coolant to flow into the manifold causing the hydrolock. I replaced both upper and lower intake manifolds and gaskets with newly designed units from the dealer. I was told gm was aware of the defect and had redesigned the parts against this failure. The car is now running fine. While there was no accident involved, the sudden power failure certainly could have caused an accident. I believe the failure began at 65,000 miles and was temporarily fixed with the coolant sealant I put in it at that time as recommended by the dealer's parts person. All parts are available for inspection.

Filed Jan 15, 2004 · Engine · IL · 1 injury

My complaint is that I am about to put my 4th and 5th intake manifold & manifold gasket, respectively, on my 1998 pontiac bonneville. I was driving down highway 55 at 70 MPH when my engine died, because my manifold keeps cracking!! Because my engine died, it kept blowing and forcing antifreeze down my intake and filling my cylinders with water and antifreeze, causing a vapor lock!!! This was terrible, because when I tried to restart the car in neutral going 70 MPH, with 20-25 cars around me and 3-5 semi trucks, the engine was locked up!!!!! Because of this 'vapor lock up' of the engine, I lost control of my car!!! I had no power steering, no power brakes, no control to be able to avoid a 20-25 car pile up, with tens to hundreds being injured!!!!!!!!! Gm needs to do a complete recall of all 3.1, 3.4 & 3.8 v6 engines made with plastic manifolds and plastic gaskets!!!! Gm needs to replace them with the aluminum manifolds and rubber gaskets they used to place on all engines manufactured since these changes which I believe is 1996!!!!! Next, after all these manifolds and gasket failures on my car, of which I change the oil every 2000 miles and have documentation to support my oil changes, the antifreeze has eaten my bearings and crankshaft mains and rod bearings and my engine is knocking badly!!! A fair resolution would be for gm to give me(free of any charge), a new engine to replace the one they damaged, with their defective parts, workmanship and manufacturing design changes. If there is no problem, then why has gm issued a very expensive tsb? To change the design, component and installation of these defective parts??????? Please see the attached url -http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?gmcnsmrs to view the over 1,200 people so far that has been identified in just a few months by word of mouth. Thank you, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Jan 15, 2004 · Engine · MN

Engine intake manifold and gasket failed while car was being driven in rush hour traffic, on a major highway, with traffic moving at a speed of apx 70 MPH. This manifold and gasket failure resulted in the engine stalling, further causing a loss of steering and braking control. Several cars swerved and skidded to avoid collision with our disabled car. The car was towed to the selling pontiac dealer. The intake manifold and gasket had failed, and the cost of repair was $1,036.00. I have found out that the intake manifold and gasket had been improperly designed, and that a high failure rate is occurring on gm v-6 3.8 engines. I contacted gm, and they will not help with this. There are many web sites that verify thousands of other failures. Also, a gm service manager that I spoke with at a different dealership has acknowledged that there is a problem, and that many times, the engines fail due to this problem, resulting in a $5,000.00 replacement of the entire engine. This problem needs to be addressed, as gm is laughing at the public on this one. Who of us has the resources to challenge them, and they could care less if we ever buy another car from them.

Filed Jun 28, 2003 · Engine · MI

I own a 1998 pontiac bonneville. The manifold covers are made of plastic and eventually crack causing antifreeze to enter the engine causing vapor lock. The engine shuts off leaving the driver with no power steering or start up capabilities because the starter cone on this incident was blown off due to intense pressure. My 17 year old daughter was driving at the time and I'm thankful that she was in town traveling only around 25 MPH. I dread the thought what may have happened on the expressway. I have heard of and read of several cases that are exactly like this one. General motors is aware of the problem yet refuses to recall this manifold cover problem. My vehicle is well maintained and has only 83000 miles on it. There is no way this should be allowed to continue to happen. It is very costly to myself as a consumer. It ran me nearly $900 dollars to fix this problem. Hopefully there isn't any long term damage (which I understand there will be) to my engine from this problem.

Filed Jan 7, 2003 · Engine · 60,000 miles · IL

My complaint is: I was driving down illinois interstate highway 55 at 70 MPH when my engine died, because my manifold keeps cracking, this is the 4th time!! Because my engine died, it kept blowing and forcing antifreeze down my intake and filling my cylinders with water and antifreeze, causing a vapor lock!!! I tried to restart the car in neutral going 70 MPH, with 20-25 cars around me and 3-5 semi trucks, but the engine was locked up!!!! I lost control of my car!!! I had no power steering, no power brakes, no control to be able to avoid a 20-25 car pile up, with tens to hundreds being injured!!!!!!!!! This is a "safety issue that must be resolved!! Gm needs to do a complete recall of all 3.1, 3.4 & 3.8 v6 engines made with plastic manifolds and plastic gaskets!!!! Gm needs to replace them with the aluminum manifolds and rubber gaskets they used to place on "all engines manufactured since these changes", which I believe is 1995!!!!! Also, do not allow gm to deny these charges of defective material, parts, workmanship, or manufacturing, because I was told yesterday there is a "new technical service bulletin" changing the manifold, gasket and installation!! Please see the attached url - http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?gmcnsmrs to view the over 1,300 people so far that has been identified in just a few months by word of mouth. The dealerships stock these parts, where before their design change in 1996 from aluminum to plastic manifolds, the dealerships never stocked these manifolds!!! Other support websites: http://www.geocities.com/gm_intake/index.htm#updates & http://www.gm-v6lemons.com

Filed Dec 2, 2002 · Fuel system · MN

Intake manifold failures are a known problem at gm, and nothing is being done about it. My wife was driving home in rush hour traffic, at a speed of apx. 65 MPH, on a four lane highway, in the center lane when the failure occurred. The intake manifold failure causes the engine to stop, and loss of steering and braking then occurres. As she proceeded to try to get the car off of the highway, several cars skidded to stop as the car slowly made it's way off of the highway. It had to be towed to the dealer for repair. I have been informed that general motors is aware of these intake manifolds failing, and that it is a known design defect. They see a lot of 3.8 engines with this problem, and are doing nothing about fixing it for the consumer. My repair cost me a little over a thousand dollars. A lot of times, the entire engine has to be replaced because it is damaged by the catastrophic events that take place when the intake manifolds fail. We are very lucky that she was able to get the car off of the highway, despite the fact that several cars locked up their brakes to avoid collision with this disabled vehicle. We purchased the car new, and maintain it more than is required by the manufacturer. This intake manifold defect should have been investigated a long time ago, as I have traced owners of these vehicles having this problem since 1996, and possibly before. If nothing is done, then surely deaths will occur due to the series of catastrophic events that will occur due to this defective intake manifold, including loss of engine power, steering and braking. Dt

Filed Nov 15, 1998 · Engine · NV

Engine stalls normally when decelerating with loss of power steering and power brakes. Dealer is unable to locate problem. This is potentially dangerous when making turns across on coming traffic as it has stalled on several occassions. Vehicle has to be shut off and put in nuetral before it can be restarted and on two occasions stalled again after restarting. This vehicle is unsafe to be on public roads and gm says there is nothing more that can be done to solve this problem.vehicle has been at courtesy pontiac three times for a total of 17 days of the last 36 days and still has not been resolved.