Details of GM's 3800 Model Engine Recall

Edmunds.com

Details of GM's 3800 Model Engine Recall

GM recalled 1.4 million cars with its 3800 model V6 engines. This is less than 6 percent of the 25 million examples of the V6 installed in GM vehicles between 1975 and 2008.

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bobg123

This is my wife's 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix which burned last week, on Tuesday July 10, 2012, after she had turned the car off and removed the key. The recall work to supposedly fix this problem was done in May 2009 but this car still burned. The problem was on GM 3.8 V6 3800 engines of 1997-2003 on Grand Prix and other Chevy cars. My dad, a world war 11 vet used to talk of the Sherman Tanks being firetraps and with exploding shells coming at 2000 FPS fire was an expected risk. And this was a civilian vehicle!I wonder if the folks at GM or Behlmann where the recall work was done will be willing to work with my insurance company to cover the costs? Thank God this car was not parked in our garage when this happened.
My facebook page for a link to the picture
http://www.facebook.com/bob.gravlin

pepedog

While in TEXAS last October 2012, my grand-daughter called in complete PANIC. Told me her car was on fire 2001 grandprix under the hood. Got out of her car and within minutes car got totaled out. This vehicle had been supposedly fixed when recalled. Unfortunate this her first car handed down from my daughter who bought this car brand new in 2001. We never contacted GM, even worse we had just dropped insurance down to liability only. Poor KID left without a car, NOT FAIR TO HER...R.V. in Defiance, Ohio

DB4Tayy

On April 9th of 2017, our 2002 Impala LS was brought in to have the vehicle serviced due to this Recall: THESE VEHICLES HAVE A CONDITION IN WHICH DROPS OF ENGINE OIL MAY BE DEPOSITED ON THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD THROUGH HARD BRAKING, which may result in an under hood fire. This work was done in April 2017: DEALERS WILL REPLACE THE ENGINES FRONT VALVE COVER AND FRONT-VALVE-COVER GASKET WITH NEW PARTS OF AN IMPROVED DESIGN AND REMOVE THE ENGINES PLASTIC COVER AND PLASTIC OIL-FILL-TUBE EXTENSION. Summer of 2017 we had the oil and filter replaced, and afterwards lots of smoke came from engine. We thought the mechanic had simply spilled some oil on the engine. Summer of 2018 oil and filter was changed and smoke from the engine compartment, we again thought the mechanic had spilled some oil on the engine. In March of 2019 the vehicle was parked, facing downhill at an above average angle, and oil began to seep out of the engine and burn of on the hot exhaust manifold lots of smoke and potential fire hazard. The vehicle was returned to Bob McCosh, who had performed the original gasket replacement in 2017, to have the original recall work inspected. Upon inspection a piece of gasket, about 2 to 3 inches long, was found to be protruding from between the valve cover and the engine. Upon further inspection of this gasket, the edge of the gasket visually appeared to have been caught by the bolt as it was tightened and this either tore the gasket or weakened it sufficiently so that the gasket failed. Said gasket is currently in my possession. We know it failed before the oil/filter change in the summer of 2017, because of the amount of smoke that issued from the engine compartment afterwards. This recall repair lasted far less than the 12month/12,000 mile warranty. The vehicle, today April 2019, still has less than 10,000 miles since the original recall work was done in March 2017. We were disappointed that even with all the above facts GM would not stand by their recall work to address the under hood fire potential. Their substandard work actually increased the chance of an under hood fire on three occasions that are documented here within as well as witnessed by others.

Two days after 2nd recall repair, on April 11, 2019, the check engine light came on with an error code of: Code P0141 Definition O2 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 1 Sensor 2) – Downstream. Just a coincidence???