ok, i noticed my car is leaking around the gasket of where the LIMG meets the UIM and the block. is this normal? heres pictures: click to enlarge

Yep its normal for the 3400. But when I say normal, I mean that it happens alot. And no its not good. U should take it into the shop and have them take a look. Looks like your gonna need to have it replaced. If your under warrenty still your lucky. If your just out of warrenty you may want to see if the dealer will do a goodwill for you. And If you are way past the warrenty date then it can be a little pricy. And I wouldnt leave this to long, cause it can cause some serious damage.

Goodluck with it.

so are these the early stages of the LIMG leak?

i dont know about stages......u have the problem....ur coolant doesnt have full pressure so its not cooling as efficient, and i also developed a knock that finally went away after about 6-8 months........so yea just dont let it go for a while

well when i look into my coolant resivoir the coolant isnt dark at all its normal color. and when i look under my oil cap, there is no milky or foamy residue under the cap. also my car cools just fine. to tell you the truth it stays cooler than normal, only if i drive for about under 45 minutes. but when i have the car on for a long time, the temp gauge stays around the half way mark, if not maybe a little higher, so i usually just turn on m ycooling fans.

update: there is a milky residue under my oil cap. the coolant light hasnt come on yet, and my dad doesnt feel like paying for the problem if it is actually the leak. so i hope i just blow the motor and never drive again :rolleyes:

Get some of that gasket sealent stuff that you can just add to your antifreeze I have heard and seen some good reviews on it.

holly poop!, details please.

I wouldn't trust that stuff. All its going to do is clog up your radiator and coolant passages.

^ya man, I wouldnt bother trying to go the "easy" way out. everyday that goes by without you fixing it the worse its gonna get, until one day its not gonna run. If I recall, someone posted pics of what they found when they removed the UIM. It was UGLY! the area where the coolent flows around the engine was clogged with, what I assume was congeled dexcool and oil. It wasnt pretty. I urge you to either park it until you can afford to fix it or fix it asap.

goodluck with it

some of the coolant stuff is good, there's one made by"bars leak" they look like giant gerbal food pebbles. you can put a few of those in your antifreeze to slow down the leak. there 6 ping pong sized pebbles in a package

before everyone says "they clog radiators".....they dont. the metal shaving ones do. GM puts a few of these tablets in new cadillacs from the factory to insure everything is sealed up (3) used them in my last car when i had a leaking radiator and they held it off for the 4 weeks it took to special order a new radiator (95 aurora). its a soot pebble, that breaks up and flows through your coolant, when it meets air (LEAKS) it expands stopping the leak. they only cost like $2, but are very hard to find at parts stores, i found them at NAPA (only store i found that carried them). id use 4 or 5 depending on how bad the leak is (6 in a package)


ALSO, do NOT just put these in the overflow resiviour, that is a big NO NO. take of the hose going from the water pump to the radiator, find somewhere to insert them in the system, they will eventually make there way through the entire coolant system



this is only a temporary fix, but it held off my leaking radiator for a month before it started leaking again, then 3 weeks and i added more again, then i ordered one and it took 4 weeks to come


also, my engine was damp on both sides, and i thought i had that leak. i took it to the dealer (a mercedes one, where i got the car) and they said there were no problems, they pressure tested it and it was ok. then i payed the local pontiac/buick dealership to take a look at it since if it was bad, its no skin off there back, and they said its perfectly fine and holding all pressure, and its normal to weep a little bit.

(sigh) my parents are saying they arent in the mood for me to even get a diagnostic for my car, my dad keeps saying "yeah let me pull the money oput of my ass", so i cant wait for my motor to stop running and i can blaim it all on my so called dad. any ways mike how much did it cost for you to have the pontiac dealership look at your alero? i really need to get this done... and if my dad is gonna be an ass about it, i'll just take money out of my bodykit savings.

u gotta do what you gotta do, you cannot rely on anybody but yourself when it comes to this type of stuff. I know first hand.

oh, and you need a new camera buddy!! lol

i got lucky, it was supposed to be $50. when i brought it in, they said there was also a recal (the hazard switch/blinker thing) and they asked if they should do that. well they did both, and the service manager came up to me and said he and another guy looked at and couldn't find any problems, had them do a pressure test, but he didn't charge me, they put it all on warranty work because of the recall

should i say anything specific, like "hey my car is supposd to have this leak, and you guys shouldnt charge me for this" or anything like that?

i would just say something like "my car looks like its leaking antifreeze from the intake manifold, i want to get a pressure test done to see if i have a bad intake manifold gasket"

and this is the gasket that connects the lower to the upper manifold right? or is it the lower manifold to the block gasket?

Hell, grab a couple beers and do it yourself. It doesn't take that long and isn't hard at all ;) That was a joke. I would suggest getting it fixed or fix it yourself with a couple good friends asap.

i might end up fixing it myself, but im gonna need a haynes manual, cause i dont know what the bolts need to be torqued. also if anything i'd end up getting P&P intake manifolds and copper gaskets.