2003 monte carlo. Saw that its leaking coolant the other day. Brought it to a shop down the road and he said that its a connector or fitting by the manifold. They say the job is going to be about 700 for a 6 dollar part. all of it is labor because they say they have to remove the intake manifold to get to it. any one know what part this is and do they really need to remove the manifold to get to it.

Thanks

 

I've had a coolant leak twice on my '06 Monte. Once it was caused by bad cylinder head gaskets, and the other time it had something to do with the water pump.

I had an oil leak at the lower intake manifold, which was also caused by a bad gasket.

 

3800, or 3400 engine??

If it's the 3800, I know the Upper Intake Manifold gasket is common, as are the valve cover gaskets. It's not difficult to work on those engines either, but it can take some time and that is where the cost is.

 

If its the 3800 engine then join the club. Its a common issue with these engines since GM used plastic parts in the coolant system. You have 2 plastic coolant tubes which are connected to your belt tensioner and then go to your intake manifold. They are 2-90 degree plastic tubes....aprox $20 for both through the dealer. Your belt tensioner would have to be removed and not the manifold to replace these tubes...Your alternator would also have to be removed to get to them.If the leak is coming from under your intake manifold..then the cheap gaskets that GM used are the problem which is a rather large job because it would be advisable to change both the upper and lower intake gaskets since they both have defective gaskets used by GM. Ran me $850 at my local shop for the job including replacing the plastic intake as well. Good luck!

 

First, welcome to the site. Please take a moment to introduce yourself.
Second, as already said, there are some common leaks, but we need to know what engine is under the hood. Lower intake gaskets are common and I can see that being costly.
If it's a 3800 and it's a leak around the manifold, it may be the coolant elbows mentioned earlier (those are EASY and do not require removing the intake, just the altenator and tensioner bracket, $5 elbows from the DorMan rack, some antifreeze and say 30 minutes to do it all).

Feel free to give us more info and we'll see what we can do to give advise.

 

wow i ran into the same issue twice on my car and it cost me $85 the first time and $60 plus 5 or 6 bucks for the part, it took the mechanic about 30 min to replace the one by the tensioner the other one i was easy i did it on my friends car took 3 minutes, what caught my attention was how much u guys paid,, wtf..seriously i live in ny and every fkn thing is expensive i quit ciggs months ago wen it was like 13 a pack...listen man do it yourself it will probably take u an hour at most those are some wild prices ouch

 

$60 plus part for the second time****

 

get rid of the dex-cool! its junk. had my 04 flushed 2 yrs ago. not a problem since. reg prestone is fine. read the horror stories on the net about dex-cool. good luck man!

 

$6 parts? sound like a coolant elbows. if it's a 3800 it's pretty simple and you do not need to remove the intake manifold. there should be 3 elbow tubes.

 

I thought I heard somewhere that the 3400 engines are just as bad. I had to get mine changed out not to long ago- (around 2007) and it was still under warranty at that time. The car wasn't leaking or burning any coolant, but the camshaft sensor was squirting oil. I guess they figured while they were in there, why not?

Also, regarding the plastic coolant elbows, does the 3400 have those also? I have a metal tube that runs parallel with the front valve cover (with a nipple on it) from the water pump, under the brace, to the right, through the throttle body and into hoses which go into the firewall (for the heater core), but I can't find anything resembling plastic coolant elbows.

My engine-


It's the tube that is right on top of the yellow oil dipstick.