1998 Buick LeSabre Limited from North America - Comments

I was just about to buy a beautiful 98 Buick Le Sabre when I read the comments about the coolant leak problems. Thank goodness for this website and all the people that have contributed input. I would have spent every dime I had just to buy the car.

My 1998 Buick Lesabre has 122,000 miles on it and had the plenum leak problem back when it hit 85,000 miles ($600 repair). Now it is leaking again from the water pump. Nice car, but lots of problems!

If you've gotten 122k miles on with the original water pump you're doing OK... it happens.

I have a 1999 Buick Park Avenue with a 3.8L. Same thing, the upper intake manifold leaked coolant into the cylinders and hydro locked the engine. Had the plenum replaced at a cost of $1200.00.The car ran fine for 2-3 days. Now I have lifter noise on cold start up. The lifter noise goes away when the engine warms up bit is quite pronounced at start up. Also had to replace the starter as it broke when trying to start engine when it was hydro locked. I just would like to thank GM for looking after there valued customers! I will never buy another GM product.

I inherited this 98 Buick LeSabre with only 29000 miles on it. After I put 6500 miles on it the manifold is leaking. I'm lucky I can fix it myself; it will only cost me $150.

I always talked trash about GM and this is the first one I owned in the 15 years I've been driving, and it turns out I was right the whole time.

I just brought a '98 buick lesabre with 196.000 miles on it... It drives very smooth and hopefully the previous owner took care of it... Does the leaking water means it having the same problems?

If you have been running the air conditioning, it is probably from that and should be considered normal. Keep a close eye on your coolant level. At as high of mileage as you have, the plenium has probably already failed at least once.

I just got my 98 Buick LeSabre about 1 month ago. (145k) miles. One day driving I started to lose power, but I made it home and was going to get it fixed the next day. (thought it was a dead battery, because the battery was basically dead). Anyway, the car wouldn't start up the next morning, so I got a ride to work and put in a new battery later that day. Car didn't want to turn over, so I towed it to a shop. After a few days at the mechanic's shop, he tells me I need to replace the upper intake at about $410 including labor. Should I replace this upper intake or also the lower.. and the EGR pipes I think I read? Please help... I don't have all that much money to spare on unnecessary parts.

I have a 1999 Buick Regal with the same problem bought it a year ago put about 10,000 miles on it. I am in the process of repairing mine. So far mine does not look like it has the EGR valve problem of melting. I think my gasket fail! Trying that first Defintely a very poor design of a car.

I have a 98 Buick LeSabre. It only has 56,000 miles on her. Same thing happened to mine. Hydro locked, starter was ruined.

No wonder GM is going belly up. We should not bail this company out, or the other 2. They put themselves in this mess.

I will never buy American junk again. This car should be recalled.

America has gone to the dogs, the junk yard dogs for we only make junk.

We have a little boy in the hospital hundreds of miles away, we need this Buick to get us to the hospital and now we have no way to go, and even if I do get it fixed, will it let us down and get us killed by being broken down some late night and some sicko coming along.

GM does not see an issue with this. We all as American's should demand better treatment from the company's in this country.

My son says to install a metal intake off a newer model. Well this work?

He said his instructor in school told him to do this, he said you will never have another problem with it if you do this.

I bought a 1996 Oldsmobile 88 with the 3800 series II engine. I'm going through the same thing everyone else with this engine. A few months ago I noticed that every once in a while the car would sputter for about 30 seconds and then never do it again for about 2-3 months. One shop could never find the problem because they said it never did it when they had the car. Well now it's doing it almost on a daily basis and I was referred to another shop because they said it was a electrical problem and they don't handle that.

Well went to the electrical shop and they told me I needed a MAP sensor, Mass airflow sensor, EGR valve, PCV valve, and a fuel filter. Well after I have now spent over 1000 dollars trying to fix this car, and it's still doing the same thing, I went to this mechanic who works out of the garage in his house and I told him my problem, and he looked at my engine and immediately knew it was the upper plenum and showed me where it was leaking on the top of my engine. Luckily autozone has the part for 129.99 and he will install it for 120.00.

OK, OK I have read all these comments and yes the same problems keeps occurring. I have also experienced this first hand with my 1995 Buick Park Ave. I replaced it myself with the "improved version" and its been fine for the last 10k miles. I agree with everyone that this a design flaw and GM should step up, but I can honestly say I love this car. I commute 200 miles per day to work and back. This is why I purchased this car. Who else makes a car this big and comfortable that gets 29 mpg on the highway.

Replacing the upper plenum is not that difficult. Takes a couple of hours and 100 bucks for parts. Then your car should be good for many more miles. A few people here are paying upwards of 1200 dollars for this job. These mechanics are getting rich off of GMs screw up.

If you do an internet search for 3.8 upper plenum there are tons of links about replacing it step by step and where to get the parts. It really is a pretty simple task that most of us can handle with a few hand tools and a free afternoon. Good luck guys.

PS- I'll be shopping for another Buick if I can ever wear this one completly out.

Hi, I also have a 98 Buick Lesabre. I am having the same problems as others have mentioned. I went on break at work to find the car would barely start and when it did I could not see because of the "fog". That would be the smoke out of the tailpipe. Thanks a lot GM!!! You get what you put in!!!

I am having the same problem with coolant. I have a 98 LeSabre, it's losing coolant, but no sign of leaks. Does this mean the manifold has already failed? Is it too late for the adapter to mentioned in previously. Also how difficult is it to change the plastic upper manifold.