The intake manifold gasket in our 1997 Silhouette went bad. After speaking with the repair facility and performing several searches across the internet, it was obvious that GM had a defective part. The original gaskets were made out of plastics, while now GM is constructing them of a more normal / acceptable material. We were lucky and caught this early, but if someone were to have this happen on a highway trip, oil could leak out or mix with coolant causing the engine to seize up at highway speeds. This repair averages around $800 to $1200 from what I could find.

- Chandler, IN, USA

The issue we ran into last year is where the intake manifold gasket leaked causing coolant to leak into the engine. We took it into our local dealer, pearson Pontiac, gms, olds in sunnyvale, on March 21 2002. Around that time both myself and the dealer, at least that is what I was told, called Oldsmobile customer service asking for assistance since the van was at 41788 miles, 5K miles out of mileage warranty, and the belief on my part that a major engine repair was not reasonable for a van with only 41K miles. Why say the coolant can last 150K miles when it all leaks out at 41K miles? I was turned down for assistance since the vehicle was out of warranty. I believe I talked with justin and the case number was C06614725. The dealer diagnosed the issue as a leaking intake manifold gasket. At the same time he determined the lifters should be replaced along with a leaking water pump. The total cost was $1,709.72. Breakdown was $1,130.84 for labor and the rest for parts and sales tax. The dealer repair order number is 56819. I've never owned or heard of a vehicle which had a intake manifold coolant leak, water pump and lifters fail at 41K miles. My wife and I are not hard on our cars. This cost was high (over 5% of the original purchase price) and something we did not expect to incur.

- Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Transmission failed Dec. 2000. Replaced by dealer. Failed again 1,000 miles later. Repaired by dealer. 8000 miles later engine light came on-dealer said was transmission problem, would not repair -out of warranty. This been a persistent problem, which started on warranty. Contacted Oldsmobile to put me in contact with local factory rep. Told they would not give me the number and that I was out of warranty and on my own.

- Largo, FL, USA

Failure of intake manifold gasket. Was told this is a common GM problem with this V-6 engine. GM denied request for reimbursement.

- Zeeland, MI, USA