I had an 08 Impala with the 3.5, car was pretty good to me. Although I got very familiar and comfortable changing out those damn actuators. Had it down to about 25 minutes for them.

 

I trained my GF to do them, she has much smaller hands. She could knock them out in 10. She's a keeper.

 

Garage I started going to was going to let me bring my own parts, so I took them a complete Valve Cover gasket set.....they called me a few hours later and said nothing wrong with your car except the oil filter adapter. Saved me hundreds. Put a few wheel bearings in my 2007, but that is normal. Can't remember any real problem and drove it 178K miles and it was still running perfect. I commuted to Nashville and back to Clarksville. That car made me a small fortune. Can't complain. Now every 3.8 I have driven has had to have the upper and lower intakes redone, and my MC had to have the oil pan done. Talk about labor. And of course the old Coil/Module problem, but that is cheap to fix. Actually threw a serpentine belt on my 2008 Buick I just bought with 130K miles. Never had that happen.

 

Mine was an 08 also, but unfortunately it was problematic from the day it left the factory. Mostly electrical issues, but it had more than its fair share of mechanical problems too, including the worst 4t65 I've ever owned. Traded it around 80k and never looked back. Even then there were a few random electrical quirks that I never could resolve (one for an occasional airbag light, another for frequent random no-starts below freezing back when I lived in the Midwest). It returned the favor for getting rid of it by the rear drivers window mechanism failing /dropping the window on the way to trade it in. I was thrilled to have to spend $300 in its last few hours with me because someone decided to design it using the thinnest / cheapest plastic possible to hold the wire retainers in place. Another five cents worth of plastic and it would've lasted the normal life of the car.

I got rid of my 03 Impala for it (which was completely problem free at 100k) so I definitely regretted it. I still believe that gen Impala was superior in every way.

Isnt that absurd? What an absolute trash design. Thats the first car part I've literally had shelf stock of replacements for in my garage because they failed so often. I quit replacing the inside / outside air one to cut down on how many replacements I went through.

 

Bought it 2 years ago with 100k, now has 130k. Slip bang start. I replaced pressure control solenoid, that did the trick. New radiator, 3 of 4 wheel bearings, front sway bar, gas filler tube, all brake lines, trans lines, fuel lines, found a receipt showing intake gaskets dine by dealer at 98k, also oil pressure sensor, flasher relay. Removed rusted resonator, replaced with straight pipe, no noticeable difference in sound. Seems like a lot of parts, but it’s 16 years old. Love the car tho. Runs and drives great. Much more comfortable than the 16 Malibu I had. The 19” wheels were noisy and harsh ride

 

I bought those cheap Chinese ones on Amazon for $15 and never had another failure...lol.

 

Now that's some good luck!

 

I had a rotating lifetime warranty claim with Dorman. Since they were the same actuator for all 3, I just kept cycling my broken ones with new ones calling it a warranty claim each time. Wasn't costing me anything but time, but was constantly getting a new one, mailing back an old one haha

 

I did replace my upper intake manifold and gasket for a coolant leak but still have the original lower intake gaskets and have no issues with coolant leaking. I did have to replace the coolant elbows though, they started leaking bad at around 100K.

 

I bought a set of metal ones, but on a Supercharged MC they are a pain to put on. My hasn't given me a reason to yet.....lol. I went ahead and did upper and lower with FEL-PRO since they are O ringed. Also had the pan leak fixed. Labor nightmare. But it's all behind me now. Going to pick it up next week from the paint shop and start going to some weekend shows.