My wife and I own a 1999 pontiac montana. In september of 2002 (~53000 miles)we noticed that the low coolant light came on. So we added coolant. Then again in november the light came on again so we contacted our personal mechanic since the vehicle was no longer under warranty. He told us that the plastic upper intake manifold and the gasket was bad. He told us that this was a common problem with this type of engine. He said that gm dealers in the area told him that it was due to the manifold being made of plastic and the fact that gm uses dexcool coolant, which eats up the plastic and the gaskets. He also told us that because of this some of the coolant spilled into the engine oil. The cost of the repairs were $392.57. We now will have a good chance of spending $2000 - $2500 on a new engine because of the coolant in the engine oil. We did call the dealer who sold us the van and they told us to call pontiac. We did call the pontiac customer service center in michigan and filed a complaint. They told us that they have never heard of such a problem. We feel that gm should stand behind these problems. Please respond. Thanks
1999 Pontiac Montana engine complaints
Page 3 of 4: complaints 41 to 70 of 100, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I had a local gm dealer repair the intake manifold gasket on our 1999 pontiac montana in dec. 2002. We had to have the water pump replaced also and have the cooling system flushed at the same time. The cost of those repairs was in the range of $1,000 and was done in a very satisfactory manner by the dealer. The service manager knew exactly what was wrong as soon as I described the symptoms. He seemed to have seen a lot of the same problems from other owners. Our car began to lose coolant and then the oil began to look orange and finally the coolant was dripping on the ground. These problems began about 70,000 miles. We are the second owners of this van and bought it from the repairing dealership as a program, used vehicle with 20,000 miles on the odometer. I have saved all our receipts for the aforementioned repairs in hope that gm might have a recall for these problems. In my opinion, the fault lies with texaco and others who made and manufactured the dexcool coolant used by gm. Judging from the information on the internet, it seems other manufacturers have run into problems with this coolant (catapillar, cummings diesel.)
Leaking lower intake manifold gasket. Hard to say how much to date has been internal, but has never dripped on garage floor until this week. I list milage failure at 38,000 miles because that is when I first noticed coolant level dropping with no visable leaks. Current mileage is aprox 60800 miles. I have had to add coolant since june of 2001. 3.4l v6
My 99 montana (70,030 miles but never a problem) failed on us about 15 miles east of hagerstown md while returning to pittsburgh from ocean city on 7/13/2003. The short story is that the engine failed with little prior warning and had to be replaced. There was a catastrophic failure of the intake manifold gasket, I have it as well as photos. The leaking coolant mixed with the engine oil and the resulting emulsified combination resulted in a ruined engine in a very short time. The engine had new oil because I changed it on 7/5 at 69,000 miles as specified in owner's manual prior to leaving pittsburgh. I still have the old oil in my garage and it is in good condition. I had the van towed 180 miles to my dealer, the power of bowser, so that they could tell me that there's nothing they or gm can do for me. The local gm service rep looked at it on 7/17 and said no goodwill warranty as did the people at pontiac customer relations. (1-800-pmcares should be 1-800-wesayno). The people gm "empowers" to make these decisions are not technically trained such that they can even understand what happened and yet they make the decision that it's tough luck. I wouldn't be so upset about this situation if I had done something that contributed to the failure of the engine. But, I'm a fanatic, I change my oil every 3k and do all the other stuff that's recommended in the owner's manual. There is no way that a competently designed and manufactured engine should experience the type of failure that the engine in my montana had. I've had no choice but to have the engine replaced at a cost of $4,100. I just paid it off in may. The fact that gm has internally recognized a problem with the gasket via internal service bulletins and didn't give their customers this information is malpractice as far as I'm concerned. I'd be in jail if I did this in my work. We pursued action with the bbb auto line but, were turned down for an arbitration hearing based on the mileage.
Intake manifold leaking coolant into the engine oil on my 3.4 liter engine. After complaining to pontiac & the bbb, gm offered to pay 50% of the repair cost. Faulty oxygen sensor & leaking fuel pressure regulator oh december 16, 2003. Since original complaint, keyless remote failed on 7/15/03 & seat belt pretensioner failed causing airbag light to go on, july 28, 2003
Engine: intake manifold gasket leaking. I followed thru with a complaint to the bbb and to pontiac's 800 number. I was told I needed to have the van diagnosed at a gm dealer before anything could be done by pontiac. My dealer quality pontiac in cocoa, florida looked at the van and agreed the intake manifold gasket was leaking (november 2002). Quality informed me it would be about $500 to repair. A phone call to pontiac's 800 # put pressure on the dealer and they performed the work for $100 plus extra for a coolant flush. The total was around $180. Supposedly the work came with a 12 month 12000 mile warranty. I think the van had 58000 miles on it when this work was performed. Looking back I have a feeling it started leaking earlier. Today we have 70500 miles on the van and the check engine light is coming on. The codes indicate that engine cylinder 5 is misfiring. We had new spark plugs put in and will now try new spark plug wires. If that doesn't fix it then we may need to put in new fuel injectors. My complaints to date with this vehicles are: 1. Original tires wore out at 24000 miles $500 2. Battery died in the first two years. $0 3. Drivers side seat belt retractor failed $ 156 - airbag light came on. 4. Intake manifold gasket failed $180 5. Sliding power door module failed 4 times. $0 6. Front brakes drums warped at ~35000 miles $250. Front rotors cut and pads replaced. 7. Windshield buzzed from the day we bought it (2 years) and took us threatening the lemon law to get it fixed.
At roughly 2k miles, the transmission was replaced. Then again at 28k miles, another replacement. Both were covered under warranty, but I tried to get the local dealer and gm to buy it back since it was untrustworthy for my family. The most my threats could do was get an extended 60k/$0 deductable warranty out of gm. Then at 56.5k miles, the intake manifold gasket problem got me. This also resulted in a water pump replacement.
Cracked intake valve
1999 pontiac montana experienced no heating. Garage stated coolant had sludge and was flushed and recharged. After driving 10 miles to home, coolant light came on and steam rolled out under hood. Found air intake manifold gasket leaking in numerous places. Garage said they have seen many of these. Coolant cap states coolant good for 150,000 miles. Only 49,000 miles on van.
Lower intake manifold gasket and water pump leaking dexcool coolant. Dealer reports oil pressure switch, oil pump drive o-ring, and both valve covers leaking oil. Don't know if these oil leaks are due to gasket & seal damage from dexcool coolant.
Vehicle comes equipped with side air bags which are located in the front seat backs. The padding wasn't properly designed when manufactured. As a result, seat cover material is ripping, which will eventually leave the box containing the side air bag exposed. Also, at 33,000 miles the head gasket developed a leak and destroyed the engine motor.
Complete engine failure and radiator slude on 1999 pontiac montana as a result of dex-cool coolant
I have just taken in our 99 montana and have learned that I have an engine gasket leak. This will be the 2nd gasket leak the engine has incurred. The first one was a head gasket and this most recent gasket is a lower intake. The reason this concerns me is that I had a dear friend have an automobile issue where he had to pull over on the side of the highway. It happened to be friday with heavy traffic. Too make a long story short, while he went out for repairs his vehicle was rear ended while on the side of the road and he lost his first son and his second son had brain damage. The reason I bring this up is because I've been lucky as far as catching these gasket issues in their early stages of failure. I could have been that guy stuck on the highway with a gasket that has failed, not once but maybe twice. It seems obvious that gm has a serious gasket issue with this particular engine and are not concerned about their customer's families safety.
I have a 1999 pontiac montana that the coolant light came on and noticed water missing from coolant recovery tank. This had happened before so I took the vehicle to a local gm dealer. After they tested it I was told that the intake manifold and head gaskets were leaking and would need to be replaced at a cost of $1540.39. After doing a small amount of research on the internet I found hundreds of websites of people having the same problem with this vehicle. I contacted gm for assistance and I was told that my vehicle was out of warranty and they were not aware of this type of problem from anyone else. I know two other people that own pontiac montana's in the town I live in that have had the same problem. They both called gm and were given the same story I was told. With as many people having this problem with the same type engine/vehicle I feel like gm should stand behind there product and pay for this repair.
I took my 1999 pontiac montana in for an oil change and was told that I have an intake manifold gasket that is leaking. I was told that if it was not repaired serious engine damage could result. I have 63,000 miles on the vehicle and believe that this is not normal wear and tear but rather a factory assembly defect or poor design.
While driving 65 MPH the intake manifold gasket failed and allowed coolant to mix with the engine oil. This caused the engine to overheat and shut down. The consumer found out that the manufacturer was aware of the problem and redesigned the gasket. Chevrolet owners with 3.8l engines were notified of the potential failure, but owner of gm vehicles with 3.1l and 3.4l engines were not contacted. *ak *ph
My 1999 pontiac montana overheated. There were no signs other than my wife mentioning a funny smell. Had to replace both intake manifold gaskets and have the cooling system flushed. He claimed dex-cool causes this problem.
Gmc knew of a problem with leaking manifold intake gaskets. I recently had the problem, paid over $600 to have it repaired, and a few weeks later, the engine blew...costing me close to an additional $3500. I contacted gm before the repairs were done, and they refused to help me.
Leaking intake manifold gasget at 44,000 miles. Was found by dealer when in for normal service. Told they look for this problem. This is out of warranty service even though this is a common problem on the 3.4l engine.
1999 potiac montana - manifold failure, coolant leak. A costly and apprantly frequent problem.
On the morning of may 21, 2003 at approximately 11:25 a.m. Est, my pregnant wife of nine months, and two children ages 3 and 6 were driving our 1999 pontiac montana minivan southbound on us-131 in the grand rapids, mi area. At approximately mile marker 85 the vehicle suddenly died for no apparent reason and with no apparent warning. She was traveling 60 MPH in the far left lane of a 6 lane stretch of what is known as the s-curve in this area. With no power to the vehicle she somehow managed to safely maneuver the van across three lanes of traffic and exit at franklin street. With the help of a state trooper we were able to move the vehicle (which was blocking the exit ramp) to a safe place until it could be towed. Upon further inspection by a qualified gm dealership technician the following day, it was determined that the engine completely failed due to a problem with a faulty intake gasket which allowed dexcool coolant to seep into the engine and destroy critical components. This is apparently a problem that is more than common on vehicles with the same engine as ours. Gm has been aware of for sometime, but has failed to correct via recall or other measures. Had my wife not been swift and calm in her control of the vehicle there is little doubt that a serious and possibly fatal accident would have occurred given the location of the incident. Vehicles traveling at 60+ MPH come out of a blind curve just before this location and would have been unlikely to stop in time. I would like to reiterate that a state trooper was on the scene and documented the incident as well.
I've experienced the well known (thousands affected) intake gasket leak on gm's 3.4l engine. At 75k miles, experienced low coolant, topped off, but no puddles. At next oil change, found oil to be milky-brown and reek of coolant. Dealer service confirmed intake gasket leak and repaired at cost of $700 including fouled oxygen sensor. Pontiac "customer service" was no help and was somewhat evasive when I asked if she had been involved with any other intake gasket problems. When I asked why gm would redesign the gasket, change coolant manufacturers, and have a nationwide shortage of the new gaskets, she said she was not aware of these issues and I should question my information as it was not from gm. Her final advise, "save your receipt, you never know." I am so consoled. There must be pressure applied to force gm to make this right.
Intake manifold gasket failure.
My 1999 pontiac montana van's intake cracked at between 50,000 and 60,000 miles. It cost $600.00 to replace. Two gm mechanics have admitted there is a huge problem with these intakes. Why is nothing being done about this?
Lower intake manifold gasket leak at 54000 miles. Reason is poor design. I have heard of many complaints on this problem. Please help us.
Our 1999 pontiac montana has just been worked on by the dealership for a leak in the lower intake manifold gasket. They charged me $795.00 to fix this last week and now it is back in the shop to fix the coolant sensor which will cost another $175.00. Last night I found out there is a petition online with over 2,500 signatures on it for these same problems with their gm car. Why isn't there a recall on this!
The vehicles head gasket failed which caused the engine to be inoperative.
I had three transmissions, a cracked head because of over heating, water pump and heat sensor, oil in one cylinder, a short in the rear lights with dealer saying I (should replace the lighting structure on both sides) $200.00. Abs system sensor front right side wire burned through $500.00. The $200.00 and $500.00 I have not done yet, should I wait until it's an even $1000.00 more to spend more money? There are more problems.
I have a '99 pontiac montana with gm's infamous v6 3.4l engine. Just had the intake manifold gasket job at 56.5k miles. This is a noted problem, with sudden over heating and the car stopped on my wife. Also the vehicle is on its third tranmission.
Low coolant light came on intermittently. Dealer stated water pump and intake gasket were leaking coolant. Had to replace water pump and reseal intake at 40k miles. $1100 repair
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