2000 Impala 3.8 l, I bought with 165000 km's, around 200000 km's my engine started to over heat, it was the electric fans, only one was working so I replaced the unit and everything seemed to be good . One week later a puddle formed under the car and it was antifreeze.....it was the by pass on the front of the engine, of course they're made of plastic, replaced both top and bottom elbows and seven days later my radiator went...lol, plastic tanks?

Anyways I had a flush done, new thermostat and I thought that should be it....everything is new, now I'm experiencing overheating again....it's not the intake. I think I'm gonna change the coolant sensors which turn the fans on and off......or maybe wire it so I have control of one of the fans. I've been using Dex cool and have had no problems, I maintain my car in every way......

The overheating problem began in 2004,and it hasn,t STOPPED!!Since 2010,I have spent $6000.00(or more!!),and it isn't over! I have had every thing done that could possibly be done to this piece of sh*t,and the mechanic tells me the last time I had it in the shop,(Jan.2012)ANOTHER $1900.00(to start!)to fix the head gaskets,and HOPE that the heads aren't blown!!!!Right now,after the last trip to the shop they said that the number4 plug was welded to the header,and they couldn't risk trying to take it out because it would PROBABLY tear up the headers,and then it would mean a new engine!!! I could have had a new car by now,but my finances aren't in the best of shape since I lost my husband 2 years ago!I asked the guy at the shop if he had a 44 magnum I could use to put the car out of it's misery(he laughed of course!)As long as I'm stupid enough to keep taking it there and giving them what little money I have they could care less!!

This is the latest; on July 14, 2010 I took my 2000 impala into the dealership because it was leaking fluid. Ask the service dept. manger to fix it. He then diagnosed the car as oil sensor switch leakage. And he could not repair it because they did not have the part but the diagnose cost was $75.00 , so I paid and drove off with a leaking 2000 Chev Impala . Later, I notice that he wrote the service order up as the customer said the vehicle was leaking oil. Not true, I said fluid.

The Leak got worse, so I replaced the oil sensor, but the leak did not stop. Therfore, I park the car for several months. One day I raised the hood, took me a small flashlight and traced the leak to two sever lines. The hard rubber flap that is mounted to the car body to keep debris out of engine has rub the two lines until it cut through the top side of both lines. I went and got my picture camera, see enclosed picture and called GM log a complaint they said it's going to cost $135.00 to diagnose the problem. This a design defect, should be recalled. I know other 2000 impala owners must have had or will have similar concerns.

My family and I have had numerous problems with this car since it was purchase off the lot brand new in 1999, now in these hard economical times we're stuck with Impala.This was my first new car purchase; sad to say a huge MISTAKE. We have learned our lesson the hard way; never buy the 1st year model of newly design or redesign vehicle, unless it's a foreign make or model. Please help us stay with buying America GM; build better, safer cars!

Update from Dec 1, 2010: Power steering line leaks from design flaw, safety hazard.

Update from Dec 1, 2010: complaint should be listed under power steering not coolant system .

My mother bought this car in '99 after our 1st Impala was totaled (sandwiched). Got the car from her in 06 with 101,000. Well before it was in my possession one of the windows decided to fail. And a little bit before we discovered the air bag light came on and that if we had a wreck they would not deploy (learned from mechanic) who clipped the wire and the light went off, still no airbag. I discovered GM had a recall on 2000-2005 impalas for airbag failure and for some reason mine was not covered. Around 140-150,000 miles I started having cooling problems. The car has 176,372 miles on it now so this is what happened between then and now. First i replaced the radiator. Went good for about a year. Well in the latter of 09 it ran hot so i replaced the radiator again and changed out the hoses. Around March 2010 it started again. I replaced the sensor as well as fan relays because one wasn't working. All was good until about 2 weeks ago. I decided to finally change out the thermostat. Worked good for bout a week and it put me back down. Now I have noticed a little sludge around the bottom of the radiator cap, my grandfather says it is time for another head gasket because mine sounds blown. Also when it does run hot i can always hear steam shooting but can't spot where. My air conditioner started blowing hot air out about 2 weeks ago too.

I can't believe that a standard coolant flush would have caused such issues. I had this gunky coolant in my radiator and the oil change place told me I needed to flush the stuff out and change it. Ok, so I paid $168 for my oil change and coolant flush. Boy, that was the start of the headache. I noticed my car overheating on my way home from work that night. (I commute 11 miles each way). I had to pull off of the highway and fill the coolant reservoir. Anyways, I ended up going to a place that specialized in radiator issues and they found the problem. My coolant and oil had been mixing together prior to the coolant flush, so not only did I pay for another coolant flush, I had to pay $1400 in labor and parts because the intake manifold gasket cracked to the point that my car was leaking a full gallon of coolant a day.

My car has a lot of miles, but if the intake manifold gasket is crap, GM should make a better part. No other car I have had, has had this issue ever. It was expensive and inconvenient. It took the shop two days to get all of the gunk out of my cooling system.

I took my car in for an oil change and car wash one day and was horrified to find out that I had oil in my cooling system...that was several months and several repairs ago!!! This P.O.S engine has cost me more than it was ever worth!! I was told that this was because there is a blown head gasket in the engine. It seemed odd at first till I looked on here and found the 100s and 100s of complaints about this same damn engine!!! I hate that Chevrolet knows about this and has not done anything to even try to compensate nor fix their f*ck up!!! If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this problem or what to do with this please let me know.

My Chevrolet Impala overheated really quick. I was stranded on the side of the highway. I was pist. The tempature gauge went from cold to hot really quick. I waited a little bit and drove home 5 minutes at a time until I finally got home. 1. I replaced the thermostat. Still overheated. 2. I replaced the cooling fans and the radiator. Still overheated. I was told it was the water pump for sure. I replaced it. It still overheated. I went all out and I had a head job done with all new gaskets and remachined heads. I just took it for a drive. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It still does the exact same thing. I am fking going crazy. I about to set it on fire! Before I burn it, does anybody know what in the hell is wrong with this POS???

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME...I AM GOING F*'ING INSANE WITH THIS PIECE OF SH*T. I got back from my second tour in Iraq with the Marine Corps and wanted to get a classic car. But instead, I figured I could pay $5,000 for a good sedan to commute. I live in NJ and need to commute to the Philadelphia VA hospital for rehabilitation every week and I even had to quit a job because of this frickin car. I have spent an extra $2,000 on this piece of sh*t and its driving me insane. I call the Impala "the Mystery Machine". It has been repaired 6 times since September and towed almost 3 times. Let's begin...

First, when I bought it I was informed that the "low coolant" yellow light would sometimes blink but they checked it out and nothing was wrong (my dad's buddy's car). When I test drove it the "trunk open" light activated, but I was told it was no big deal. Soon the airbag light activated and de-activated still until now, and it has continued to the point where the f-ing things dings so much to tell me "low tire pressure", "change oil", "check engine", "security". Then the LOW COOLANT yellow light would go to HOT COOLANT red and the temperature gauge will go from 160deg to 270deg in 5 seconds, back to the middle, to the edge, back again, I swear to God this vehicle is haunted, I may need an exorcism instead of a mechanic...it gets better. So my vehicle blink red HOT COOLANT will the temperature gauge went back and forth and passed the red and sometimes stop losing no power. Eventually weeks later the fan would kick on, power would be lost, so on until I finally broke down on the turnpike and it overheated even though I just put coolant in it and checked it (i drive with it). I was towed and repaired. Thermostat, sensor, intake gaskets were repaired. Drove it off. 2 days later the same damn things happens going to work. I take it back, new o-rings and water pump, coolant flushed and checked for leaks. Drive it off and weeks later same, took it do my buddies shop, and he has replaced the thermostat, o-rings, checked for leaks, pressure tested, etc. has been repaired 4 times (coolant flushed, tested, silicon added to hoses, etc.) until he gave up and told me to get rid of it. It used to act up on trips close to an hour, now I can barely ride 15 minutes, sometimes I lose power for a bit, sometimes it will go down, its cursed. I'm at the point where I am rolling into the VA with this piece of sh*t ringing like hell, not knowing if I'm going to make it to my destination, and sometimes stopping for 20 min at a time for the temp gauge to go down. Its 20 damn degrees outside and when I pop the hood no steam is coming from anywhere and it has coolant. Air pockets are constantly found in my coolant-radiator hoses. I'm getting desperate here...I'm waiting to be driving one day and this thing detonates on 95. Sometimes when I park it I wish it would spontaneously combust and burn to the ground so I can get my money back. HELP

Took car in for a routing oil change, asked them to check coolant system because car had been leaking a bit of coolant, nothing major at this point (about a gallon of coolant every few weeks to a month). Coolant intake valve is cracked, mechanic says drive as little as possible until you can afford to get it fixed $600.00, watch for foggy oil... if coolant starts mixing with oil STOP driving car immediately. I have been driving car this way for over a year because I can't afford a $600.00 chunk of change all at once (I know stupid move because I've probably spent more than that in coolant at 8.00 a gallon and 2 to 3 gallons per week lately) but what you gonna do?!?!? This car really irks me.

I recently brought my car from a used car lot about six months ago. This summer and fall my car was fine, I had no problems at all. This all changed very quickly when the seasons changed and the temperature dropped. Now that it is winter my car has been overheating everyday. The problem made itself known to me one day while I was driving and my "hot coolant temp" indicator lighter came on and my car cut off. I have had three other cars (mainly foreign made) in the past and have never had this problem. So I had my car checked by the closest gas station and they told me that my coolant was low and that it was not a problem. So they added Dex-Cool to my car and I was on my way. My car drove fine for like a week maybe two. Then the light comes back on and I just add more Dex-Cool and thought it would be fine. No No No. Two weeks later I am adding Dex-Cool like twice a week and my car is smoking. I take my car to be checked and the mechanic before even looking at my car tells me, you probably have a leak in your intake manifold gasket and that the problem is very common in the Chevy cars with the 3400 engine and that it would cost around $700.00 to repair. So when he tells me its common, I decide to Google "impala coolant leak problems" and this is like the first page to come up. I read through the complaints and saw that this is a little to common. I think that Chevy should pay for repairs cost for this problem. I would love to be added to the class action suit, please sign me up.

Bought the car from a used dealership. A week later noticed the Low Coolant warning was on. I went and got a tune-up but noticed that afterwards the Low coolant warning was still on. I checked the cooling system to see if there was sufficient coolant and there was so I thought it was just a malfunction on the warning light. A month later I noticed a small leak from the radiator. I used some of that Bar's Leak to stop the leakage. That worked for about a week till it seemed that it got worse and it started leaking profusely. I kept on having to buy bottles of coolant to pour in it, till my engine started overheating. It turned out that I had a radiator leak, I don't know from what, and the mech said I might blew a head gasket. I had this car six months and I'm very disappointed if it's the heads because it overheated once, and the steam was coming from the radiator and hose not from the engine. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed, that it's not the heads because the estimated repair costs is in the thousands. I personally think any car that runs on DEX-COOL sucks because I had a 98 Cadillac Catera that ran on that coolant that blew the head gaskets and I had to get rid of it because of the repair costs. I'm willing to participate in a class action lawsuit since this is the second GM vehicle engine overheating problem I've had that has cost me thousands in repairs.

Word of advice.. Buy foreign cars!!!