Coolant leak

[diamondxt]

I have a 2000 Suburban with a coolant leak. The only place we can find wet is a wire harness under the starter. It is dry everywhere else. The check coolant light comes on about 1000 miles. It is a leak, not using or going into the engine. Any help would be appreciated.

[Rileydn]

Take a mirror and bright lite and check the back right corner of the intake manifold. The Vortec engine uses a plastic molded manifold gasket and they are infamous for leaking. The coolant will run down the back of the head and onto the starter. I had a similar problem and thought it was a freeze plug behind the trans bellhousing. Further investigation revealed it was the intake manifold. About $60 bucks for gasket and anti-freeze and 4-6 hours work or around $450 at the garage.

[bluephi1914]

Sounds like it might be the intake manifold. the dealer told me that Suburbans are notorious for leaking there after about 85k miles. i had to replace my intake gasket... was leaking and i couldnt find out where,

Turns out it was the intake... unfortunately this is a common problem. better fix it before it starts leaking into the block

[Ketch]

Did the poster ever get this fixed? What was your result?


Rileydn wrote "About $60 bucks for gasket and anti-freeze and 4-6 hours work or around $450 at the garage."

I had this problem on my 1999 5.7liter sub 2wd.

Did it myself but took me a couple of days. Lots of stuff to pull off and you gotta get that manifold surface very clean. YOu also gotta get the torque right and even on the manifold bolts.

But still worth DIY. I had two quotes of $500 and $600 from local indie shops.

The best thread on this was over in the Tahoe forum. It would be good if the admin would combine the two forums (for obvious reasons.)

[Regency Burb]

I recently got out of this with a retorque. A friend had suggested to try it first. He got an extra 40k out of his. My bolts were all loose, and the leaks are gone. I had one in the front and one in the back. We'll see how long it will last, but it's been a little over a month so far.

[bluephi1914]

i had the same problem w/ my 99sub. but i thought they fixed this problem in 2000