Force A Recall

Ok..Who here is sick and tired of all the crap going wrong with their Malibu? Well here is what you need to do. Call GM and complain. They need to issue a recall on all the 4 & 6 cylinder engines, because of the Dex-cool. They know that Dex-cool erodes the seals and gaskets and they dont care. They will not fix them or pay to have them fixed. This is an issue that anyone who owns a GM car, should sit up and listen to. You too will be paying out lots of money to keep your car drivable. How much are you willing to pay? I have had to replace my intake manifold gaskets twice in less than 50,000 miles. My car just hit 100,000. As you all know, this is not a cheap job. It is costing me $1,200.00 this time. So, if you are mad as hell, and aren't going to take it anymore, then lets do something about it. If we all complain to GM, we can force them into a recall. I called them today, and they are not willing to do anything about their inferior parts even though they know they are useless and that Dex-cool is going to eat the hell out of your engine...they don't care.

Force a recall!
call GM at their toll free #
1-800-222-1020
ask for Carlos Mendoza and be sure and tell him that Janell Schulthess sent you!

Mmmk. Ok.. Done.

The gaskets were redesigned back in mid-'03, so this is a non-issue for anyone that's had the gaskets done since then (at a GM dealer, anyway).

Because of this, a recall will never happen. Waste of time.

And Malibus from '04 on aren't affected. Plenty of folks with '04 and '05 Malibu V-6s have cleared well over 50K with no problems.

I know this will probably open up a whole can of worms but...

I dont think the dex-cool was the issue. Many cars use this type of coolant, even some that arent gm's. And notably, the engines mostly affected are the Gm 60' v6's, 2800, 3100, 3400, (I know my montana had this issue) im convinced that it is the gasket design. With my montana, I had them go early, at 65,000km (of course, just out of warranty). After I replaced the gaskets with a set of the gm second revision, there was no problem. I still used dex-cool and after I retired the van at 212,000kms (bad accident) it still was intact. The engine today still lives on in an impala.

You will likely never see a recall, which I think is unfair, just about every 3.4L I have seen has had the gaskets fail.

There are other notable quirks of the 3.4l engine, such as a noisy valvetrain. Its simply designed like this. It is a good engine overall with very little issues other then this one, and it still lives on in the Chevy Equinox. Allthough I wouldnt count on it being around much longer with the new 3.5 and 3.9l.

Just my :2cents:

Many dont believe it's the type of coolant, its more the 2 types of metal involved. An aluminum head on an iron block. The 2 metals contract and expand at different rates. All engines of this type have gasket problems.
Isnt the 3.5 the same engine as the 3.4 except with a different bore/stroke or something?

Hmm. I know the gaskets were loosing are the lower intake manifold gaskets. Connecting the intake manifold to the head. Arent they both aluminum?

The gaskets were redesigned back in mid-'03, so this is a non-issue for anyone that's had the gaskets done since then (at a GM dealer, anyway).

Because of this, a recall will never happen. Waste of time.

And Malibus from '04 on aren't affected. Plenty of folks with '04 and '05 Malibu V-6s have cleared well over 50K with no problems.

I have had many chevy's in my driving years, but I have never had the sort of problems with the engines like I have had with the 98 Malibu. The could do something about the type of seals, gaskets, whatever, but they choose not too. I don't know if anyone is aware or not, but Canada has a huge class action suit right now against GM for this very thing. They are going to show that GM has had knowledge of the problem for some time, but chose not to do anything about it with the older models. They just assume that the consumer should bare the cost of repairing it time and time again. I am not saying that ALL the Malibu's are crap, but from what I have seen on this site, and heard from other owner's, we are all having the same occurances. There is proof that the coolant (dex) erodes the seals. So why continue the use? It is deception at the very least and until people speak out, they aren't going to change design, or materials. Isn't this how we go about getting better products? Trial and error? How about a bit less error?

Hmm! Id like to see the proof of it erroding the seals. It seems suspicious that only one family of engines has the same gasket blow and none of the other gm cars, trucks, and newer vans have no problem, and continue to use dex cool. And shockingly enough, gm comes out with a revised seal.

As well, some Sterling (Freightliner), MACK, and One or two Chryslers use Dex-cool, and you would be hard pressed to find any complaints about it.

Heres some reading to bolster the concept. Also I have yet to see any class action suit against dex cool winning. I have seen about the gaskets winning.

http://www.imcool.com/articles/antifreeze-coolant/dexcool-macs2001.htm

HOWEVER.

5 years, 240,000kms. Right. Anyone who can do a web search can see tons and tons of lawsuits and other issues. Dex-cool IMO cannot survive this long.

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/05/23/gm-dexcool-lawsuit-may-soon-gain-class-action-status/

The fellas here at autoblog have inidicated that it can, providing that you keep up with the most stringent maintenance, do not add tap water, yadda yadda yadda. Gm made us a promise. And I doubt if the general can keep it.

Myself, I go by the eyeball method. If I look in the rad and overflow and it looks dirty, I change it. Simple.

I think I might have to re-read this and take some notes.First off,the first post states you had your intake gaskets replaced 2 times within 100,000 miles.Not so good,1 of 2 things happened here.1,Your shop did not get you to flush your system when it really needed to be done.2 your shop did not get the job done right.I have been a tech for a little while now,about 23 years or so,and have never seen a 3100 or a 3400 come back with the same intake issue ever.I am not bashing your shop or your tech,just saying that thier is more her than meets the eye.FORD had the same deal with the 3.8lit.Headgaskets were junk.Swap out the head gaskets and it was a great motor.Well as good as a Ford motor can get.I can't see a class action suit going to far here.I know of a lot,and I mean more than you would ever imagine,that get paid flat rate and don't do the whole job.When you get any kind of serious cooling system repair done it is impairitive that the ENTIRE SYSTEM BE FLUSHED!Coolant goes acidic,acid eats metals.I just watched a guy lose his job just last week for not doing his job well.Guess what,he was our heating & A/C guy.I am not syaing you right or wrong,but did you factor in all the math?

Well I'll say that besides general maint. items I have had little unexpected trouble with my Malibu. This vehicle seems to have quite a few quirks about it, but that's what you get; No car is perfect. Take the good with the bad or sell your car and go buy whatever might please you. My LIM gasket went right quick at 65k miles, I replaced with GM's updated gasket and bolts, cleaned injectors, cleaned every part that was disassembled for the repair, reman. water pump, tstat, full coolant flush. I still use dexcool and have had no problems yet at 194k miles.

Take care of your car, it will take care of you.

..or..

Don't take care of your car.. force a recall?

-Mark T.

The 3500 in '04+ Malibus are of two different types. Those in the '04 - '06s (such as my '04 Maxx) are based on the old 3400. The 3500 VVT in the '07s is a totally different engine. That one is based on the 3900, which was also a totally new engine.

I had a '98 Malibu LS V-6 prior, so now you know why I have GMPP on the Maxx (and luckily, so did I on the '98). What caused me to sell the '98 wasn't the intake gaskets failing, it was having to replace the ignition lock cylinder at least once a year. I racked up over $5,000 in covered repairs on GMPP from '01 - '04 and had paid around $800 for it back in '98.

The Maxx has been a MUCH better car.

The OHV V-6s bite the dust in the Malibu next year. The '08 will have the (expensive) 3.6L DOHC as the V-6 choice, because so many Internet junkies (and the media) have complained that the OHVs are ancient-tech and noisy. But, bet I'd never see 35 mpg on the highway in the 3.6L, as I do in the Maxx. And the EPA rates my vehicle at 30 mpg highway.....

Still, I'll try the '08 when it comes out, but won't buy before '09. No more first-year gremlins for me.

The 3500 in '04+ Malibus are of two different types. Those in the '04 - '06s (such as my '04 Maxx) are based on the old 3400. The 3500 VVT in the '07s is a totally different engine. That one is based on the 3900, which was also a totally new engine.

The 3500 VVT is just the 3500 with variable valve timing , it is not the 3900.

The 3500 VVT is just the 3500 with variable valve timing , it is not the 3900.

Incorrect. The '07 3500 VVT is 3900 (which has VVT only in the '07 Impala; it's non-VVT in all other models that use it) based, NOT the old (non-VVT) 3500 based. It's too old to find now, but press releases prior to the '06 Impala's intro clearly delineated this. The 3500 VVT has absolutely no relation to the non-VVT 3500.

Members in a GM forum that I subscribe to (and myself, to be honest) were in hysterics over the expense of developing yet another 3500 so soon after the non-VVT 3500 was introduced. While the 3500 and 3900 VVT will see some use for a few more years, looks like GM is converting to DOHC V-6s, which makes all the development expense for the 2 3500s and the 3900 seem a waste. That's GM.

Well I'll say that besides general maint. items I have had little unexpected trouble with my Malibu. This vehicle seems to have quite a few quirks about it, but that's what you get; No car is perfect. Take the good with the bad or sell your car and go buy whatever might please you. My LIM gasket went right quick at 65k miles, I replaced with GM's updated gasket and bolts, cleaned injectors, cleaned every part that was disassembled for the repair, reman. water pump, tstat, full coolant flush. I still use dexcool and have had no problems yet at 194k miles.

Take care of your car, it will take care of you.

..or..

Don't take care of your car.. force a recall?

-Mark T.

Well Mark,
I have tried to take care of the malibu like any good owner should, but unfortunately maybe I just happened to not get such a good one anyway. Maybe my next purchase I should just try Mazad...lol:grinyes:

JQueenie33,

I think that I, too, have a 'not-so-good' Malibu. I used the phrase 'general maintanence' loosely. This vehicle has definately tried to nickel and dime me, and I've had nightmares about its pesky quirks. Although I've had many problems with the Malibu I still feel that I can't bash it. The day I say something really negative about it is the day damn car will leave me stranded 20 miles out of town.

To sum it up..

I found a buyer, and I'm selling her finally.

-Mark T.

P.S.
Mazda.. That's FoMoCo right?

Long Live Ford!!!

-'88 Lincoln Mark VII LSC
-'89 Ford Mustang GT
-'92 Ford f-350 diesel

The Fords have treated me with much more respect.
<duck and hide from the chevy guys>

Honestly, I'm not impressed with my Malibu but I'm also a Honda guy. It's hard to go from the reliability, and excellence of Honda's time tested reputation to the Malibu but from what I can tell, with proper routine maintanance, the Malibu isn't that bad of a car. I've had loads of trouble with my Malibu so far due to the fact that the people that owned it before didn't take car of their car. They're the kind of people who only have work done to the car when something goes wrong. For instance, a little over a year ago the car started misfiring and had a major loss in power. Turned out they had to have the coil cover replaced along with the spark plugs and the catalytic converter. They had owned the car for about 3 years and had never done a tune up. Well about a year later (this past November) it has the same problem. The coil cover that was put on had gone faulty and wasn't transfering spark to the #3 cylinder. So rather than fix the car they sold it to me for $300. Now that I'm in the midst of fixing the car I've discovered that the brakes have never been replaced (they lived in the mountains for 2 years), they changed the oil about once every 7 -8 months (about 20,000 miles for them) and the air filter had never been changed. I'm still trying to sift out how much maintanance hasn't been done but the car is obviously suffering for it. I'm in the middle of replacing my catylitic converter and I've noticed that during acceleration, when my gas is lower than half a tank or when I'm using low grade gas, that the car shudders. This could be caused by problems in the transmission, faulty ignition components, a backed up exhaust system, or low fuel pressure but the bottom line is the car wasn't taken care of and now it's suffering because of it. I try to do all the maintanance required so that I know what's changed and if everything that needed to be done was finished. I will agree that it would appear that is a large number of repetitive problems with the 98 generation Malibus but I'll also say that even the best of mechanics miss something now and again and most people aren't as good about keeping their car as well maintained as they should be. So before we go pushing a recall that appears to be the fault of GM, maybe we should take a step back and look at ourselves and see if we may have more to contribute to the problem than we may realize.

By the way, yes Dex-Cool may be used in other engines and other vehicles besides GM, but just because they use Dex-Cool doesn't mean that the gasket types affected in the Malibu are made of the same material that's used in other vehicles. The focus shouldn't be on the effect of the Dex-Cool but rather the gasket/s that are being affected. I personally haven't had to replace the intake manifold gasket nor have I had to replace the head gasket, but then again I haven't had my Malibu for very long and maybe it needs to be done.

Also I would like to get this cleared up, is the usual problematic gasket the intake manifold gasket or the head gasket and if it's the manifold gasket, how is it affected by the Dex-Cool. They should never come in contact with each other.

just crash your car, get the insurance money, and buy a first generation isuzu trooper

just crash your car, get the insurance money, and buy a first generation isuzu trooper

Change your user name to crash, seems to be your fix for everything.

all things that are chevy malibu's :) and please tell me if you think i am wrong with that diagnosis on those cars

I just bought my 98 a few weeks ago. So far the biggest problem we have had is the TCC needs to be replaced. Other than that the theft system thing needs to be fixed (Which I will be doing next week). So far its a good car. And the other poster hit the nail on the head....If you are buying this car (or any car) used you are at the mercy of whatever the other owner did or didn't do for their car. If they never did any routine maintance on the car you are gonna have problems when you buy it. And you will be the new one paying the price for the things the other person did not do.

I have a theory for ya SPRaYeD9,

Yes. Malibus break down. So do hondas, toyotas and dodges. It is a man-made machine and there is only one guaruntee with something made by man. Sooner or later, it will break down.

And thats one of the things this forum helps everyone with. When it breaks, we provide colective advice to help a person in need of assistance.

"just crash your car, get the insurance money, and buy a first generation isuzu trooper"

Yeah.. Great advice. You opinion isnt going to help this person out at all. Yes the Isuzu trooper is a good little truck. But the person doesnt have an Isuzu with a problem.

Now if you would like to rave on how your good the Isuzu is, there is a seperate forum for the isuzu trooper. Go post there. Im sure they will agree with you, otherwise if you dont have anything worthwhile to contibute...

Dont.

If you do, then feel free.

Can we kill this one ? ? ?

Change your user name to crash, seems to be your fix for everything.

DONE!

I have a theory for ya SPRaYeD9,

Yes. Malibus break down. So do hondas, toyotas and dodges. It is a man-made machine and there is only one guaruntee with something made by man. Sooner or later, it will break down.



No kidding, it gets so tiresome hearing how Hondas never break, like they're made by God or something. When I was recently looking for cheap 2nd car mainly for my kids I checked out some Hondas. There's no way in hell I was going to pay the over inflated and ridiculous prices some were asking for a beat up old Honda. And one of those had a leaking head gasket! I just looked at the guy like he was nuts, and then bought a Ford/Mazda for half the price.

If you've heard it so much then maybe there is some truth to it.

Just because you found a couple of ricers who know that if they keep the price on their civic more than it's actual value to the normal person that some 16 year old kid who just watched the Fast and the Furious and has bottemless pockets will buy the thing just because it's a Honda Civic.

Yeah I'll agree that there are several people who will (and do) attempt to overprice Hondas that haven't been well taken care of. I'll challenge you though to go to the Honda threads (and not just the Civics but any Honda) and ask how dependable their cars are. Yeah Honda's have their problems just like any other car, the difference is that usually there aren't nearly as many of them.

I won't continue to jack this thread over my Honda loyalty but if you would like to continue this discussion elsewhere, start a new thread here or in the honda forums. I'll respond either way.

Would a mod please close this thread. I think the point about the recall has been proven.

I didnt really want to start a rice vs north american argument. The prices I found to be over the top while looking were across the board, not kids selling off their dead race cars. This was private and dealer sales, Accords mostly.
I drove a few and quickly decided it wasnt worth it so bought another GM, of which I've had fantastic luck with. I'm not really loyal to any brand, I simply look for current needs and good value.

I've been driving for 30 years and have purchased a few cars, none of them imports and sure, if you like I'm willing to list my cost of ownership on any one of em as a comparison. Let me know where to post the info. From what I can recall here's the list of my vehicles in order of ownership which began in 1975. I didnt replace any motors, head or intake gaskets, axles, rear ends on any of em. 2 transmissions were replaced on 2 vehicles which was directly related to abuse (another story).
74 Comet
76 Cordoba
67 Cougar
74 Nova
71 Duster
85 Tempo
81 Century
82 GMC Beauville van
83 Malibu
03 Malibu
05 Malibu
96 Escort LX
96 Escort LX (#2)

I think the mod is capable of deciding when to close a thread.

I've started a new thread to relocate this discussion.