Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-48
This seems to be a good car, but this 1998 model, and maybe other years for some reason, has a lower soft aluminum intake and a upper plastic one. The plastic one where the water goes through tends to bow up and lets the water into the motor oil, and then blows a head gasket which cost between 1200 to 2000 dollars to repair.
Could someone explain to me why anyone would put a plastic intake on a motor knowing that the water temperature reaches over 200 degrees and that heat will warp plastic?
The car is also not very aerodynamic and has a lot of wind noise.
This car is high priced new, but drops in value very fast.
The 1998 Buick has fair power at take off, but tends to lose power at high speeds.
It does handle good, brakes well and gets excellent gas mileage.
I just had same problem with my '99 LeSabre and bought it new. @ 52,000 miles, bad intake manifold gasket, coolant leaking into oil. Because have good mechanic, caught before engine blew. Mechanic pointed out the PLASTIC plenum & showed me the "hole" that had developed so coolant spilled out. Still cost me $600+ and $200+ for a rental car because gasket had to be removed & replaced. My mechanic called GM because mechanic felt it was a manufacturer's defect; but, of course, GM said not so. I'm a neophyte. I've never been in a chat room & have never done this sort of thing (and have no mechanical knowledge). But what can we do to press GM to admit this is a defect & issue a recall? My mechanic told me to be sure to keep my receipts in case there is a recall (so dig yours up for safekeeping).
Same problem with leaking plenum. It failed quickly. One day it was at the usual level. Within a week (120 miles) it had drained the tank. $700 later, good as new. The car has 82,000 miles on it.
Appreciate the former comments. We too have a 98 LeSabre with 76K miles. My upper intake manifold recently went bad and had to be replaced. Why in the world would GM engineers create such a problem? We will keep our receipts.
My 1998 Buick Park Avenue had the same intake manifold problem (leaking after plastic developed a hole). My mechanic has seen this problem before. He said Ford stopped their plastic manifold problems with steel in the right place. There is only one temp sensor for the engine located on top. This location does not give you warning enough. There should be another sensor in bottom. Luckly I did not blow a head gasket.
This might be a good solution to problems with the plastic intake manifold. The following is a cut/paste from Ken-Co Industries, which has a Upper Plenum and Lower Intake Repair Kit. http://www.ken-co.com/manifold/default.htm
1-800-263-4283 It appears they do not sell direct, but can direct you to a distributor. Here is their text:
Background:
Some vehicle owners are complaining of excessive engine coolant consumption, or an engine coolant leak near or under the throttle body area of the upper intake manifold. The problem is that the EGR passage melts the upper intake plenum, so that composite material degrades around the EGR stove pipe and could result in an internal or external coolant leak.
If the coolant leaks into the upper plenum it could result in "hydro-lock" of the cylinders, requiring at best, spark plug and oil pan removal in order to free up the engine's moving parts. This, however, does not correct the problem.
The new repair kit from KEN-CO Industries Ltd. forgoes the process of replacing both the upper and lower manifolds, as is suggested by General Motors at a retail cost of $1200-$1400. The job is made inexpensive with the replacement valve and adapter found in our kit. In addition the smaller diameter of our EGR passage tube supplies an air space between the "plastic" of the upper plenum and the hot EGR exhaust tube to assist in cooling.
The entire process should take under three hours to R &R the upper plenum as well as replace the EGR passage tube and correct the top plenums problem with our new sleeve.
Our kit contains three pieces to make the repair at a fraction of the OE cost with labor savings resulting from not having to remove the bottom intake. All the tech needs to supply in addition to this kit would be a new gasket.
I replaced the upper intake plenum on my 98 Lesabre recently. What a mess! I had to use a modified nail puller to scrape all of the gunk off of the top of the aluminum intake from the coolant/exhaust gas mix. Its too bad that I can't post pictures here, the sludge was impressive. My suspicion with this design is that the aluminum intake is the same intake used with a super charger in other GM cars with this engine. For applications without a supercharger, they needed something to stick on top of it, so they made something cheap out of plastic. I am also not excited about their choice.
I just purchased an 1997 Buick Park Avenue from an older lady, 121 000km. Well, 300km or a week later the car stalled, the intake manifold was leaking a lot of coolant in the engine. I bought the 3.8 L because they were bullet proof, now I will have to replace the intake every 2 years, just to be on the safe side.. I'm very disappointed, my other car is a GM with a 3.4 litre. It could be expensive.
I have a 98 Buick Le Sabre with about 60,000 miles. Recently the intake manifold collapsed and it cost me about $1700.00 to fix it. I now see that a lot of people have had the same problem. How can we make GM reimburse us for our money?
I have a 1997 Buick Park Avenue. I have 80000 miles on this car. I again was looking for longevity. Not so. I am on my second plenum replacement. It becomes expensive after a while.
I also own a ’98 Buick LeSabre and its been the biggest disappointment of any GM product I’ve ever owned. At 30,000 miles the plastic upper intake (as bemoaned above) started leaking coolant into the engine costing $750 to replace (until next 30,000 miles). The engine main developed a leak at 35,000 costing $1,100 to repair. At 60,000 the water pump went out ($400) and the lifters started knocking and now the lower intake manifold is leaking. What is supposed to be a better example of US car manufacturing has been nothing, but a money pit. Do yourself a favor and avoid this make and buy a US made Japanese product. GM made a lemon and will not stand behind their product.
It is amazing that this problem is happening to so many people. I wish I had gotten wind of this months ago. I am having the same problem with the Intake Manifold consuming Dex-Cool Antifreeze. My car's engine has not locked up and so hopefully I will have to replace no more than the Intake Manifolds, which from what I am hearing may cost upwards of 600.00 to 800.00 dollars. I am an upcoming engineering graduate and understand why saving weight is so important, but at what cost. Where's the savings when I have to come out of pocket to pay for GM's careless mistakes. I had planned on taking a cruise or going on a trip, so much for that. I will be sure never to repeat the careless mistakes of previous GM engineers. My suggestion to anyone reading this is to go on the web for whatever car you have and find potential future problems and circumvent them. Whether that means addressing the problem now, or buying another car.
1998 Buick Park Ave.
Same problem as the people above. First time replaced blown engine thanks to the defect. New Motor had only 28,000 miles on the engine so I was safe, I thought!
NOT... It has happened again... Antifreeze leaking into oil. This time just replacing Intake... hope this will work, getting car back in about 2 hours... Then selling it... I will do my homework before buying my next car.
Trent Anthony, Ohio.
Well I have a 98 Buick LeSabre Limited and the Engine started to studder last night (98,000K) on it.
I pulled over, opened up the hood (engine was still running) and noticed I had no anti-freeze.
Shut the car off - thinking it was overheating.
Engine would not start again : (
Had it towed and it is a Manafold issue - $600 later - I hope the car will be ready by tonight.
This car sounds like a time bomb - and you have to monitor coolant levels.
I have a 1997 Buick Lesabre 3.8 3800 series 2. It lost all its water and would not start back up. I've spent 1200.00 and it's still not running, but when I do get it running I will sell it cheap, and I'll never own another Buick. I've owned Buicks all my life and I'm 60 yrs old, but this is my last, thanks.
I inherited a 1999 Buick La Sabre and 6 months ago had to replace my intake manifold gasket which cost me close to $2,000. We were driving it on a longer trip and the engine fails. It was toed to the nearest dealership and we were told that the entire engine needed to be replaced. The cost $4,000 plus! I only have 75,000 miles on it. I have been reading about all the similar problems others have been having and I am angry that the company does not correct the problems!