We had this used car one week. I bought it for my granddaughter for college. Bought it from a private individual. Car must have run out of radiator coolant and it might have been too late to save the engine. Question: If I need a new GoodWrench engine, has this problem been corrected, or is GM still making this terrible engine? I had it towed to my mechanic and he has not gotten around to looking at it yet. Shortly after I bought it, I was talking to my mechanic and he warned me about it, but....

Jerry Guth

Old Fort, Ohio

Bought my 1996 Pontiac Grand Am GT used in 1999 with about 80,000km on it. The car ran great, looked great, always reliable etc. until the second year.

The coolant light came on one day and I figured it was leaking antifreeze so it was topped up but the light never went out. When I took it into have an oil change shortly after this, the mechanics at Mr. Lube told me that I had a leak around the seals of my intake manifold and to get it looked at soon. Took the car into a certified GM dealer and they confirmed that the problem was a cracked intake manifold gasket and that it needed to be fixed ASAP or it could damage the engine from coolant leaking into it. At that time they quoted me a price of about $800. Luckily my dad works for a GM dealership and can get a discount to some degree. The manifold was fixed for around $600 after the discount, still expensive but it's all labor costs and because the engine has to be practically taken apart to fix this.

Now, again... about 5 years later, I'm running into the same problem again!!!! Last week the engine coolant light came on and again I topped up the antifreeze but the light hasn't gone out. It doesn't appear to be leaking antifreeze but oil instead, last time it was antifreeze.

Looks like it's back to the shop and another $600.00 in repairs! I love my car, I've had very few problems with it otherwise but this intake manifold issue is a major expense, major inconvenience and a problem that seems everyone with this make of car is going to have. Definitely something that GM should have addressed and recalled these models for!!!!!

A VERY FRUSTRATED and disappointed Pontiac Grand Am owner.