1991 Chevrolet Corsica LT review from North America

Had it over 6 months now.

The seal on the old distributor placement hole in the block was leaking. This is called the "drive pump". It's located on the right of the engine block right near the fuel rails.

So the seal was leaking. Of ocurse you don't know where from at first, or without paying at a garage.

So whenever the engine was running oil would seep out. At least a one litre bottle or two per week, dependign on how much drivign, even idling the engine experienced of course. Of course we didn't know where the oil was leaking from, so after several bottles of engine stop leak fluids and a few weeks, and its was still leaking we took it to a garage.

Engine cleaner sprayed on top and botom of engine, pressure washed and air- pressure dried located the leak. Cost about 36$ canadian for the wash to find the leak.

Estimate at about 170$ to replace faulty O-ring seal (dry, shrunk over the years, no longer sealing effectivley).

Cost of O-ring seal: about $2.

Cost of labour about $168!!!

So we didn't get it done there and then, Tried another bottle of professional strength stop leak, still leaked.

So had seal replaced at a corner garage, fixed price $75+ taxes, that was after we had bought the O-ring seal for 2$ and the throttle body gasket for 4$ from the dealer.

Of important note, even though the car is a 91 you never know if it might leak again from the same spot if you drive a lot, so while you reaplce the O-ring it is well worth to replace or add a gasket underneath the drive pump bracket (abotu 2$) so that it acts a a second security barrier so that it never leaks oil form there again.

If you have this type of leak you need to stock up on oil until you fix it, and replenish often until you fix it, or your engine will run dry from oil and you will kill it. Also to save on oil waste until you fix it, don idle the engine when parked and of course don't drive if you can avoid it. Do try the stop leaks they might help sow the leak somewhat or stop it in your case, at least temporarily.

Apart from that. The stabiliser bar in the back fell from its supports and was hanging low. Although not bad, its not good because driving the car like this for too long you could snag the bar on something you go over and oops, problems. This was easy to fix, we bougth two ramps, drove the car up, and secured it at first with nylon tie down straps and then with metal straps and bolts to be sure. You need a drill to drill through the metal crossbar the stabilizer bar rests inside if you want to secure the metal strap to the bolts so they don't have any lateral movement. Yet if you just want to use nylon tie down straps and metals straps going around that entire bar, I don't see a problem. The ramps to drive the car up to do the jpob were $30.

If you want a garage to do it for you buy some metal strapping and make sure they charge you $30 or less.

If they want to sell you rubber mounts like the ones that cracked or slipped out of the hold-up bar don't waste your time or your money. COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!!

This car has incredible acceleration.

A 3.1 is much bigger than many engines even up to late 90's and today so it will outrun a lot of cars when you need power. To give an example, an intrepid 98 base engine is a 2.7 liter as far as I know. It's a far bigger car and heavier of course I should think, not to mention it has 4 oxygen sensors to give you trouble.