I bought my car a year ago and it was running fine. I did know that the fan relays didn't work so the car was over heating. Got them fixed and the car is still over heating once in awhile. But it ran perfect. One day in March it started acting like it wouldn't start unless you gave it gas. It wasn't all the time I had to give it gas but then it ended up being every time I started the car you had to give it gas for it to start. So my uncle said try changing the spark plugs. So I went to auto zone and they gave me copper plugs we put them in and my car was running way worse then it was before changing the spark plugs and it smelled like copper burning. So I called auto zone and they said that the car calls for platinum plugs. Well they are the ones who gave me the copper plugs in the first place and they knew what year, make and model my car was. So I go back and buy the platinum plugs and put them in and the car is still running worse then what it did before messing with the spark plugs. It won't go past 20 mph and it spits and sputters really bad. When we took the original spark plugs out there was oil on 2 of the front spark plugs. Now my uncle is telling me its a blown head gasket. I just don't understand. It was running fine before messing with the spark plugs. But either way my gasket was going bad and I just don't know what to do because I'm not financially stable, my uncle is too sick to help and I have to get back in forth to school.

Bought this car for $650.00 so we figured it would have problems and when it started running hot and the oil looked as though we watered it down we figured it would have been a blown head gasket or a bad water pump. I changed the water pump myself and found that it had not done a damn thing so we thought the worst (blown head gasket). We didn't have the funds to get that replaced so we have been waiting for months now until we had the money to fix it then one day we spoke to a mechanic about what the car was doing and he automatically said it was the intake manifold gasket without even having to look at the car. So I did some research and found that instead of paying for a mechanic to do the work for us and charge us more than what the parts cost all together (including new tools) that we would be able to do it ourselves. The parts required only cost $84.00 all together. Be aware though that if you want to do it your self there is a lot of work but it is fairly simple as long as you are organized about it.

Vehicle started running hot. No heat to the cabin, so I figured a new water pump. Took it in to the repair shop, and an hour later they told me I'd be in for $900 for a new pump, power flush and best of all, a new intake manifold kit. The intake manifold gaskets were gone, which caused the vehicle to lose almost all coolant. Now that I've done research on this problem,it's been confirmed that I'm not alone with this situation. Unbelievable that this design flaw due to either the gasket or the combination of the gasket and Dexcool coolant hasn't been addressed by GM as a recall. I've owned this vehicle since Oct 99, and have put 60,000 miles on it since. Before this episode, I only need to do regular maintenance items on it ,brakes and tires. But what a shock on Christmas Eve to dole out an extra $700 on a situation that it clearly an engineering defect. The shop I went to installed the new version of gaskets, so it shouldn't happen again. I'm just beside myself that this problem has been out there for so long and GM hasn't done anything about it.

I am an accomplished mechanic myself, and so I fixed it myself, cost published reflects estimates received for repair for others only. Picked up a set of metal Felpro replacement gaskets on EBay for $80. Talked to several mechanics and all reported that GM V6 3.1 for 1999 Lumina and many other GM models have a plastic intake manfold gasket original equipment that simply cracks with age. I offer the old gaskets sitting on my garage shelf as proof, both cracked in the same manner and driven that way through maybe 20 gallons of antifreeze. Plastic aging is accelerated with heat and so I would call it failure by design. Son of a bitch! What kind of a numb nuts executive chose to save a couple of pennies in that manner. Hopefully GM higher ups, given the benefit of hindsight, had the balls to fire his ass! We expect better from GM.