Monday, October 24, 2011

98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?

I'm sorry I have read these concerns but I am so confused. I have a 98 Malibu 3100. I have a history of having to put coolant in my car about every 4 months, and no one could tell exactly where is was from.So I get my oil changed, and inspection done today.I notice the guy was checking my fluids, and I saw him poor coolant in the car, and he kept pooring. I thought how odd because my light didnt come on as usual.Next thing I know I'm being called out to my car. We look down and see liquid dropping but cant tell exactly where from.He told me I would need a high pressure test done, but the mechanic wasn't in today.He just told me to keep an eye out and bring it during the week so they could keep checking until the returns.So I go home,come out about 4 hours later, and I be damned if there wasn't a puddle under my car.I opened the hood, checked the tank...practically empty.How do I know if it is the intake manifold or head gasket?How do I know I will be given the correct diagnosis?!98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?How do you know you won't?

What are your other options?98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?Go to a trusted mechanic. Intake gasket failure is not uncommon on your car.98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?Intake and Head gaskets are not as easy to tell as the watter pump. The water pump has a pully and is driven by a belt. The intake sits on the heads with a gasket between them. The head sits on top of the engin block with a gasket between them. The gasktes are either rubber or a fiber composit, looks like paper. Under your hood should be a sticker of the belt diagram and how to replace it. It should show you the water pumps location in relation to your engin. If you can see water (coolant) coming from around the water pump, then usually that would be the problem. However, often times a pin hole in a hose or the ratiator can go undetected for a long time. Good luck and I hope I helped you.98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?If your head gasket is blown you will have coolant in your oil. It makes your oil look like a tan milky substance and you will blow white smoke out your tail pipe. Look at your radiators top and bottom hoses. Look at the water pump where it bolts on there is a gasket there that could be leaking. You could also have a hole in your radiator. Fill it up with water (Its Cheaper till you get it fixed) and drive a few miles (3-5), come back home and look to see if you can see where its coming out.98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?these cars had a manifold gasket problem. 99-01 had factory recalls. you should be able to look them up in Chevy recall info. I don't know of the fix. whether they got a better gasket or added something.

If it was a head gasket you would loose power, usually98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?It can be tricky to locate thes leaks and sometimes they don't know until they get in there.



Although may other cause could be the problem like your water pump could be going, frost plug or block htr is leaking depending on where you live, a radiator hose could be leaking, radiator could have a leak.



Try putting stop lesk powder in your radiator to see if it stops the leak. pepper or milk works too.



If you have a head gasket leak then you will generally have white smoke in the exhaust or coolant in your oil which would be seen by a milky color when checking the oil.98 Malibu Intake Manifold, Water Pump, or Head Gasket?Most of the time unless its a severe leak the cylinder head gaskets do not leak externally although there are exceptions. So if there is a puddle under the car there is a strong chance that it is the intake manifold gaskets. If you look under where the upper rad hose connects to the engine and you see a puddle of coolant thats were the intake gaskets usually leak.