First and foremost I want to say that I love the site and have secretly been using it for over a year since I "inherited' a 2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI last October. I have been working to keep the car up but have managed to blow a head gasket (hopefully not bye bye Bonnie). I took it to a shop who explained to me that the head gasket could be replaced for 1600.00 but he would also have the heads re-machined, guaranteeing that it wouldn't just be a "scrape and replace job" that would give the same problem a few months down the line. The car has 165k on the odometer, and I love it but I honestly don't know what to do. Just need opinions from the people I trust about these cars. Any advice or knowledge is much appreciated.

JAM

My advice? Find a different shop because I very highly doubt you have a blown head gasket. 95% of the time these cars (any 3800 engine) is misdiagnosed as a head gasket failure when the real problem is the LIM gaskets (and / or upper intake manifold on the L36). Very rarely do these engines ever blow a head gasket. I had my '03 SSEi overheat bad at least a dozen times and two or three times overheated severely (buried gauge, bad smells, running very rough, messages on DIC screen) and I just fixed the coolant leaks and never had an issue.

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Ryan

2003 Bonneville SSEi - The Black Mirror SOLD!
2002 Bonneville SE - The Mutt Complete 2004 SLE interior, drivetrain, and body harness swap, ECC swap, HUD swap, black GXP wheels, GXP headlights and tinted tails - SOLD
2003 BMW 540i M Sport, 2001 BMW X5 4.4i, 2010 GMC Acadia, 2017 Grand Design Imagine 3150BH
1982 Cutlass Supreme - The fun one

Interesting. Do you know how to diagnose one over the other. Completely mechanically challenged over here but I would like to know. I hate having to explain to a mechanic what I think is wrong because I think that (unless there is previous relation) they always agree with you only to explain that there is something else that needs to be done as well. Anyone got any symptoms or ways to check one over the other?

What symptoms are you having that caused you to take it in.

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~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place