Expert: Skip Bollinger - 10/18/2007

Question
Took my 1999 Grand AM in for routine oil change and everything appeared fine then the mechanic says he found an early indicaton of coolant leakage into the engine. Showed me what looked like oil on the engine block and also said this was a common problem with Pontiacs. Is it just me or does this sound fishy? I can't find any info on the TSB. Quoted me a price around $800 to replace intake gasket set. Is this reasonable? Is this a common failing? GM has no comment.

Answer
Chris,
  You didn't tell me what size engine you have so I just a wild guess and went with a 3.4.
  G.M. (NOT just Pontiac) has had a lot of problems with DexCool antifreeze and gaskets. There are a lot of "pending" law suits against them. I'd look on line at law suits pending against G.M., DexCool etc. I'm not savvy when it comes to that.
  Now as far as labor to change the intake gaskets, Fel Pro makes a set (sorry I didn't bring the part number home) that is called a Problem Solver set. It retails for about $140.00. That leaves $660.00 for labor. That sounds like a lot of time to change intake gaskets. Even at $60.00 per hour, that is over 10 hours. I don't think so but please remember, in my Profile, I'm a Parts Professional, NOT a Tech. I'd get a second labor quote.
  It is a common failure and of course G.M. would have no comment since there is litigation going on, I do believe.
  I hope this helped a bit. Again, I'm not a Tech but am trying to help. Good luck and thank you for the question.
Skip