Beyond frustrated...
 

Our 99 Bonnie. It takes a lot for me to get frustrated, annoyed, angry...call it what you want...

My wife has been telling me for a week that the car has been very sluggish on acceleration from a rolling stop. She told me again today while I was at work. So, on my way home I stopped at the AC Delco store and bought a fresh set of wires. Then, swung over to Advance for a set of TR55s, air filter and fuel filter.

Got home, looked at the mileage log only find I did this at 107,000 (I'm at 148,200 now). No biggie...somewhat to be expected.

Begin the work...popped the engine cover off and begin inspecting. Coolant is oozing out of the damn UIM gaskets. Running down the block and sitting in the valleys of the LIM and on top of the tranny. Coolant bootle is slightly low. :evil: Anger, anger, anger. It really pissed me off. Back to the mileage log...I did the UIM gaskets, LIM gaskets, and Bob Dillion upper on 8/12/05 or 121,300 miles. I'm now at 148,200.

This will be intake #4 on this car.

I guess I'll have to put the UIM, UIM gaskets, and LIM gaskets on a 9 month maintenance plan (or every 25,000 miles...which ever comes first). :evil: :roll:

I'm so frustrated and disgusted with this car. I really hate to say and will probably eat my words later, but I don't even care anymore. It's going to southern Kentucky in two weeks (1,100 miles round trip). When I get home I guess I'll tear into it AGAIN. :roll:

Mark, sorry to hear it. Naturally, I'm extremely interested to know if the sleeved upper failed.

If I may make a suggestion, put a tube of aluminum powder radiator sealer in it and see if that helps. if it does, we have a clue that the sleeved upper probably did fail.

Should I put that in now? How much goes in at one time? And where do I buy it from?

Yeah, now would be good. Auztozone or the like. Bar's Leak or another brand aluminum powdered stuff.

I'll pick some up after work. This weekend we're taking it on a 250 mile trip. It should be a good test.

I did that, I used Bar Leak to see if it would stop the small coolant leak and it did.

Refresh my memory-did I sell you a sleeved upper? I rmember a Columbus suburb address.

Dang, Vital! That sucks big time and has me a little concerned.

IMO, there just HAS to be something else that is a contributor to these failures on your car. I haven't seen anyone else that has had such a short period between UIM issues. I'm really just spouting off at this point, but I know that mine went for 120,000 before the first failure and I've had the GM replacement UIM on for 41,000 so far with no incident *knocks on wood* or indication of issue.

I would love to hear other's considered opinions as to what possible factors could be contributing to such a frequent failure occurance.

GM switched to an aluminum castings in the newer cars. That should probably tell us a lot.

No you never sold me anything, I just tried Bar's Leak to see if it would slow down the leak (if there was one) and it worked, the level hasn't dropped any, and that was about 500-600 miles ago.