Hello,
New member here. Purchased a 2001 Intrigue about 16 months ago for my Fiance with only 9k miles on it. The car currently has about 25k miles. It was owned by an elderly man who garaged it and so it was (is) in near perfect shape. In any event, we started having some engine related troubles in the last couple of weeks. Here is what is happening:

- Occasionally there is difficulty starting where you need to crank the engine for an extra second or two. Minor but noticeable.

- The car has stalled once randomly coasting into a traffic light.

- The car is using some coolant. Low coolant light was on and I had to add around 12-16oz of dexcool coolant (which has probably never been changed).

There are no apparent leaks although there is a really faint smell of coolant on the drivers side of the engine bay. Also, when I shut down the engine I can hear the sound of some escaping air from the drivers side of the engine (with the hood open). It's subtle - not loud - and lasts less than 20 seconds, I would estimate. Finally, I noticed this morning that there is an audible gurgling water noise at idle after startup when inside the vehicle.

Any thoughts on what this could be? I am thinking that it might be the intake manifold gasket. That said, I was under the impression that the 3.5 was not prone to this issue. On the other hand, I understand that there was a class action lawsuit related to dexcool impacting the intake manifold.

Any ideas? My gut tells me that this should not be a cracked block or anything extraordinary along those lines considering the miles. Also there is in no oil in the coolant or vice versa (as best I can tell).

Any advice would be most appreciated. My fiance is none to pleased driving the vehicle because she's scared of stalling randomly.

thanks!

Forgot to mention something.

I pulled the front 3 plugs this morning. They all looked somewhat worn for the miles. All three of them were in similar shape with a medium grey hard soot caked onto the electrodes. I expect to replaced them but would like to do so after the coolant issue is resolved in case I'm getting coolant in the combustion chamber. They were NGK Iridium plugs, I think, by the way... Somewhat surprised that they weren't Delco.

Issue number 1 & 2 are most likely related believe it or not. One question: is the "Service Engine Soon" light on?

I haven't heard of an issue with a gasket failure on the 3.5L Intrigue. When people experience coolant loss on these engines, it generally points to a leak or an issue with the water pump.

Not sure about the gurgling sound but it could be related to teh low coolant.

Others will chime in soon with regard to the spark plugs.

Issue number 1 & 2 are most likely related believe it or not. One question: is the "Service Engine Soon" light on?

I haven't heard of an issue with a gasket failure on the 3.5L Intrigue. When people experience coolant loss on these engines, it generally points to a leak or an issue with the water pump.

Not sure about the gurgling sound but it could be related to teh low coolant.

Others will chime in soon with regard to the spark plugs.

The service engine soon light is not on. I fully agree that these issues are all related. I suppose anything is possible - but failed water pump at 25k would surprise me a bit.

Since there is no service engine soon light, I would think your problem with the stalling is related to the ignition switch. I would watch your starting to see if the hard starting continues and pay attention to how your car behaves during downshifting (i.e. does it stumble during downshifting). If the check engine light does not come on and all else is fine, then you can narrow it down to the ignition switch.

Regarding the water pump, don't forget you have a 7-8 year old vehicle. It's not just about the miles. Parts wear out and this is fairly common in the Intrigue.

its not very likely, but very important you make sure the transmission cooler is not leaking within the radiator. I have seen many "dex-cool" loaded vehichles that wind up cooking a transmission because they are contaminated with antifreeze. Just make sure the transmission is not overfilled. Check fluid level with warm engine running in park.

its not very likely, but very important you make sure the transmission cooler is not leaking within the radiator. I have seen many "dex-cool" loaded vehichles that wind up cooking a transmission because they are contaminated with antifreeze. Just make sure the transmission is not overfilled. Check fluid level with warm engine running in park.

I will check the transmission fluid this afternoon. Thank you for the tip. This is not something that would have occurred to me. I assume that the coolant would also affect the color/smell of the ATF fluid, right?

Regarding the ignition switch suggested earlier --- I tend to doubt that this is the cause, primarily since the engine does crank immediately just requires some extra revolutions before starting. If it was an electrical issue with the switch, wouldn't it simply not crank? Incidentally, I have had some other minor electrical annoyances, ie. a flakey climate control (poor continuity in the A/C switch - replaced the climate control about a month ago with one from ebay for $20) and some issues with the interior light switches on the rear view mirror. Car also just got a new battery - although that ended up being unnecessary. Fiance thought the battery light was popping up on the dash - turned out it was the coolant light. Battery was still OEM so there was no harm in replacing it after 7 years in the car.

thanks for everyone's help.

Please read through the posts on this forum. The ignition switch causes very strange issues with this vehicle. Many of us have dealt with them and have posted our issues. Since it only happens occasionally, continue to monitor it to see if it gets worst.

Should have been NGK Platinum, not Iridium. NGK made the plugs for AC Delco, and that is wht you will get in the Delco box too. After 9K should not be in bad sahpe at all. My Platinums were in pretty good shape after 100K changed them because of service recommendation.

Ignition switches shouldn't go bad just sitting. It should be from use that these get dirty and worn.

Of the car's life how was it used? Was it driven a year or 2 then parked and ignored? This can lead to problems with fluids, oil, gas etc and components coming into contact with them, Bearings pumps etc. For intance a laid up engine will be subject to condensation (particularly if in an unheated garage) this condensation reacts with water forms acids and kills bearings etc. When parking an engine (or any rotary equipment) it is advisable to still change oil occasionally and to rotate the shaft (turn it over), With engines it helps to run them every so often to avoid problems also splashes oil on metal parts to inhibit corrosion.

And who knows what dexcool sitting stagnant for 7 years will do to rubber components etc.

Is the hissing coming from the coolant lines / block etc or are you hearing a vacuum system leak?

SD

Well, I am sorry to say that I am bumping my own thread. The issue that I initially described in this thread has escalated. Today I discovered coolant in the oil while doing an oil change. Obviously I shouldn't have neglected the issue a few months back.

I am pretty sure that there is no oil in the coolant but I will take a careful look tomorrow. I'll also pull all the plugs.

Are these cars known to have any intake or head gasket issues? I know some of the mid-generation 3800 engines were plagued with intake manifold gasket issues. Anything else I should look into? I am most likely going to bring the car in for repair this week unless the diagnosis is head gasket, in which case I might get rid of it.

Any ideas? What else can I do to narrow the issue? Thanks for your help.

I'd try pressure testing the cooling system with a pressure tester. It can be rented at Autozone, and other parts stores. To try to figure out where the coolant is going. Looking for external leaks, verification that pressure is leaking, vs. a system that's air-locked.

There is also a coolant cross over pipe on the drivers side of the engine, below the exhaust manifold, and below the throttle body. The hot supply line to the heater core comes off the back of the water cross over. The cold side of the heater core runs accross the top of the engine over to the thermostat housing assembly. (Which is where the lower radiator hose connects.)

If I remember right head gaskets for this engine are reinforced stainless steel based gaskets. They haven't been known to fail, but I guess it's possible.

Below is a guide for analyzing used plugs. I suspect that the deposits that you are talking about could be excess fuel from short trips that the previous owner drove it.

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/tech_support/spark_plugs/faqs/faqread.asp?mode=nml

The intrigue does take 6 quarts of oil, but I guess it should be easy to tell if there's signficant water at the bottom of the pan.

There's an air bleed on the radiator, passenger side at the top, small black plastic nut that can be used to bleed the air.

Keep us informed, It's hard to believe such a low milage car has significant problems.

A leaky head gasket in the 3.5 is pretty damn rare. More likely what you're seeing is water in the oil from condensation. This can occur when you drive a car for very short distances, especially in cold weather. Same for the spark plugs. They're covered with carbon deposits becuase the engine never got hot enough to burn the deposits off.

Change the plugs, change the oil (you might want to do that twice to clean it out), and you should be good. Though, you should probably keep a close eye on the coolant level for a little bit just to be sure...

the trouble starting is usually the cps sensor slowly going bad -eventually it will throw a code or a possible fpr problem.

If your stall is a right at 1/4 temp -I vote for ckp sensor.

The 3.5 will burn some coolant -mine does, I think it goes out the exhaust pipe. If you car sits for a few day you may notice some white smoke at start-up.

keep close watch on the level of coolant in the resevoir to make sure its not being burned in your engine...The one plus side of dexcool antifreeze is that its not nearly as bad for your engine as regular "green" antifreeze when cross contaminated.