For years I have noticed a coolant leak problem. I have never noticed any fluid under the van so I did not know what it was coming from. Last year while having the belt replaced the mechanic noticed the water pump was bad. I assumed that was my coolant leak problem. A few weeks ago, the coolant light came on. I started adding coolant daily but could not stay ahead of the problem. The parts store suggested a gasket problem. I checked the oil and found some of the missing coolant. Thought it was a head gasket but the mechanic reports it was an intake manifold gasket problem.

GM knows of this problem and if your van is less than 5yrs old and less than 100,000km (62,000 miles) they will fix it for free. Why the restriction ? It's still the same damn problem !! Just happend on my van at a later stage. Actually it probably happend a lot earlier, as I noticed the coolant was always going down, but I could not find a trace of a leak so I just kept adding coolant. But now my wife is driving it and I do not monitor the coolant as much as I should have and she says there's no heat in the van, so I take it in and this is the problem that they find. I guess if I had taken it in earlier I might have got it before the restrictions. But it is still the same problem and GM should cover it. !!

My gripe is that Pontiac knows this problem is a defect in these vehicles, yet they refuse to issue a recall. This is an expensive problem to fix and without the fix the van WILL NOT run much longer. In my opinion it is also a safety issue because if I am driving my van on an isolated stretch of road, with no cell phone service available, and my van overheats and breaks down then I would be left stranded and at risk for harm. I have read that there is an online petition to try to force GM/Pontiac to recall their vehicles for the intake manifold repairs, in Canada and in the USA. I like my van and do not have the money to buy a different one anyway. Lets do what we can to get the manufacturer to pay for the defect repairs that are their responsibility.