Due to oil leaking on the exhaust manifold, GM has asked owners of cars with the supercharged 3800 V6 engine to park away from structures and keep fire risk to a minimum. There has only been 267 fires reported out of a total of 207,000 vehicles.

 

Something tells me that sadly, those 267 people will not be purchasing another GM vehicle...the Honda store next door to us just took in a super-clean '00-'02 Impala LS. Another GM owner bites the dust

 

That will inspire confidence!

 

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I've had this letter sitting on my dresser for a week now from Pontiac unopened. I figured it was more of that crap to purchase an extended warranty. Low and behold it is my recall notice. I agree, those vehicles that caught fire, the owners may be swayed to go to other companies.

 

What is done with the recall, and does it cover all years?

I doubt I'll get a letter here, so I'd like to know what the deal is before I plop down to the Pontiac dealer next week.

 

The letter was kind of vague. I'm wondering what the source of the oil leak is. They mentioned in the letter not to park the car in a enclosed space, carport, garage, ect. and to use premium fuel. What does premium fuel have to do with an oil leak catching fire on the exhaust manifold?

 

The newspaper article said all years affected. GM says oil can leak onto the exhaust manifold if a driver brakes hard. If the oil gets hot enough, it can catch fire. How premium fuel or hard braking comes into play, I dont know, but dont let your insurance lapse.

 

i wonder why i always see burned gtp's in the junkyards

 

I'm wondering if there is more to the premium fuel thing, maybe people are cutting corners and running 87 octane and doing engine damage. I don't know, I just found that part of the letter to be very odd and unrelated to the issue at hand.

 

Hard braking would mean oil that is still inside the valve cover from the valve train will be more inclined to get out of that silly valve cover gasket - and those are known to leak on the GTPs. We've been aware of the leaky gasket problem for years now.

And lower octane (in theory) would cause timing to get pulled back and perhaps a richer mixture - which would increase engine temps. Hotter temps = hotter oil + hotter manifold = burn easier

 

Hmm....Does this recall include Intrigues? My wife's Intrigue just started leaking oil really bad last week, its never ever leaked oil before. Its not a drip, drip spot on the driveway, its a pretty good area. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet...because of bad weather.

 

It looks like the problem is specific to the supercharged 3.8L platform.

 

127,7xx miles. No fires, leaks pretty good. I would be more than happy to let them fix it.