1998 Buick Lesabre Engine cooling Problems

“My intake manifold gasket was made of plastic and my engine locked up, I was informed from my mechanic that GM was aware of this problem and came out with a better one made of metal. This a costly mistake leading to 850 dollars of repair, that could have been prevented if GM would have stepped up with this in the first place and been fixed with the new gasket instead of causing more damage then needed.”

“After owning this car for less than 3 months I noticed coolant tank empty, took it to dealer who charged me $342 for new water pump, still loosing coolant. Come to find out after a sludge was found in engine that intake plenum was cracked allowing coolant into cylinders, damaging the bearings and now am paying for a new motor. Gm denies problems exist. This car has only 50,000m miles.”

“1998 Buick Lesabre. Plenum gasket on the intake manifold fails and allows coolant to get into engine. Then engine dies in the road causing people to slam on breaks. No wrecks. This is a well know problem with Lesabre's but Buick has failed to correct the problem. I had to pay $1200 to fix car and it now probably has engine damage. I would like Buick to come forward with this and let people know about it. This has to stop!”

“I purchased a '98 Buick Lesabre - from my brother-in_law, it only had 70,000 miles on it when the head gasket blew causing me to rebuild the top section of the motor--then after that was fixed and I drove the car for approximately 3 months more -- the bottom part of the engine blew--and I had to replace the complete engine not knowing what caused this problem. The car was always maintained by the dealership boyle Buick in bel air, md.”

“98 Buick Lesabre. 3.8 driving up hill, down hill, coasting, it doesn't matter. 1 or 2 times a week the engine just dies. Sometimes I can catch it full throttle and it will pick up and run fine. Or throw it in on the fly and restart instantly. New fuel pump and filter usually starts good. Some times I have to stop cranking it after 5 sec 1,2,3 times before it starts. This only happens 1 time every week or two. I can't let anyone else drive the car for fear they will pull out in front of a truck and the car will quit.”