Thread: Recall

Yep got my letter today as well.

got my letter. I donno if i have my reciepts though for my gaskets. I'm still curious what they come up with.

GTPluv - I read your post and am replying to what I know so far about this recall. Here's my story....

I read about this recall for the first time on Sunday - and was very concerned because my 97 GTP had a strong burning smell, and the exhaust manifold was smoking after driving for awhile.

I decided to call the dealership the next morning to have an inspection set up; however, I never receieved a letter because I just bought the car - so the dealership refused to do anything under recall warranty without the letter.

I immediatley called GM, and spent about an hour with a GM representative who was extremely helpful. He said GM didn't have the car registered for my address, so I didn't get the letter and it was too late. However - he was very helpful and called my local dealer and spoke with the general manager explaining to him the situation. The general manager openned a spot for an immediate appointment and I took my car in.

Later that day, the dealer called me and explained to me that my car was "very dangerous" in its current state, and I was lucky to bring it in when I did. They said that they ordered the parts for the recall, and are waiting for them to come in (valve cover gasket, spark plug wire grommits, etc etc etc). They assured me that everything was going to be done for free under the recall warranty.

Today I got a follow up call from the same GM representative to see how everything went at the dealer. He asked when the parts were going to come in, and I told them the dealer didn't know. He was really helpful and called the dealer again to see what was up... he then got back on the phone with me and said the parts should be in on Friday. He's going to call me again on Friday for one more follow up call... so hopefully everything goes smoothly!

Long story short (sorry if you already read that all, but a few people have been asking me about it anyway) - GM knows what the problem is for the L67 engines and how to repair it; however, the dealerships don't have all the parts yet, so its not a 'full blown recall' as the GM representative put it.

I'm guessing sometime next week majority of the dealerships will have the parts, and everyone can bring their cars in. I'll throw an update on here when I get my car back and let you know what they all replaced on the receipt.

Hope this helps.

Yeah the dealerships are usually the LAST to know about of the recalls until GM releases the proper paperwork and bulletins to them. And it said in the letter they needed to get the parts in mass to send out to the dealerships to prepare for the recall.

So I am just waiting patiently by for my 2nd letter from GM telling me to contact my dealership to make an appointment to have the problem serviced.

I know the recall info has already been covered, however I wanted to share this with the community.

I talked to my local Pontiac dealership and was told that they will only do the work IF you are showing signs of a valve cover oil leak. The recall does not have an expiration date, so if it starts leaking, they can do the work anytime. Things may change once the official recall comes out, but as of right now they wont touch your car if its not leaking.

IF you bought new valve cover gaskets (like I did), FIND YOUR RECEIPT. GM will reimburse you for them.

webracin

Yea, between the coated headers an the animal valve cover.... I'm not sure they would know what to do to my car. But they wont get the opportunity so its a moot point. I did however also receive a letter.

Got my letter, but not taking it in. Will be replacing them when I do some rockers this summer.

I, unfortunately, don't see how valve cover gaskets or power steering has anything to do with this recall. I have recently had all of those replaced. The valve cover gaskets were the original ones with a billion miles on them, but the power steering lines...those were bubbling up being so close to the headers bad enough to have a hole seared in them. Problem is I have aftermarket headers...

My notice specifically states "braking", which I believe my brake lines are protected by my heat shield. I could be wrong. Are they saying the braking is causing the oil to run over the gaskets? Because between the valve cover gaskets and the power steering lines plus mechanic fees that was about a grand. I guess I'll just wait and see...

Hard Breaking. Causes the fluids(oil) in the car to move foward suddenly. If you have leaking gaskets, the oil could leak out onto the exhaust manifold and catch fire.

Well in all fairness, Im not convinced what they stated as the issue is really the issue. First off, motor oil leaking out the valve cover gasket is not going to just spurt out with hard braking, thats a bit of a stretch there. Unless the oil is just gushing out in which case there would be other issues. Next, motor oil even with the maximum allowed 2% fuel dilution still has a flash point approaching 300*. Good clean quality motor oil is going to have a flash point much higher, appraching 450*. Fire points are approaching 500*. Oil just does not ignite that easily and even if it does it does not burn well enough to sustain that kind of ignition with that little oil. Next, the oil would have to ignite, burn hot enough to light up the plastic tray the point out. Now, you and I know that that plastic is not going to ignite easily either as it is intended to survive a hot climate being that close to the manifolds.

And I base all this on stagnant air flow. It doesnt take into consideration of any vehicle movement that would cause air flow of any kind. Thats just going to make the ignition and sustainability of any fire that much harder.

Basically Im just not convinced that the valve cover gasket is the issue. I would say best case scenario it would take an extreme set of circumstances to generate that kind of fire from oil 'drops' as they stated. And they are citing what, 1 in a 1000 cases or something like that? I dont buy it.

I got that letter and it sounds really silly to me. I agree with you synthetic.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

Well in all fairness, Im not convinced what they stated as the issue is really the issue. First off, motor oil leaking out the valve cover gasket is not going to just spurt out with hard braking, thats a bit of a stretch there. Unless the oil is just gushing out in which case there would be other issues. Next, motor oil even with the maximum allowed 2% fuel dilution still has a flash point approaching 300*. Good clean quality motor oil is going to have a flash point much higher, appraching 450*. Fire points are approaching 500*. Oil just does not ignite that easily and even if it does it does not burn well enough to sustain that kind of ignition with that little oil. Next, the oil would have to ignite, burn hot enough to light up the plastic tray the point out. Now, you and I know that that plastic is not going to ignite easily either as it is intended to survive a hot climate being that close to the manifolds.

And I base all this on stagnant air flow. It doesnt take into consideration of any vehicle movement that would cause air flow of any kind. Thats just going to make the ignition and sustainability of any fire that much harder.

Basically Im just not convinced that the valve cover gasket is the issue. I would say best case scenario it would take an extreme set of circumstances to generate that kind of fire from oil 'drops' as they stated. And they are citing what, 1 in a 1000 cases or something like that? I dont buy it.

I agree with your thought. I was thinking the same thing. Plus Most of us run Synthetic. I believe that has a much higher flash point. I just am suspicious because I have had cars with bad leaks, some that poured oil out on hot pipes and just smoked like heck. I am having a hard time believing its an oil issue under braking. I still suspect its a fuel issue. I just personaly dont like or trust our quick connect fittings on the fuel rails. If one of them leaked then you'd have a good engine fire. When I did my fuel rails my quick connects had a small leak. I undid them, wiped off both ends and reconnected. Now no leaks I just feal uneasy now when I stomp on the gas. I'm no expert and could be way out in left field on the quick conects. Just my .02 for what its worth.
I replaced my valve cover seals last month. The 800 number told me there is a opportunity to be reimbursed for work already done. She said when the recall is official, and I am contacted, that I can claim my expenses.

Us 97's dont have the fancy quick connects............=(

I want to bypass mine and get rid of them

Got my car back today... here's what they all did for the recall:

-VC gasket
-VC bolt grommets
-2 & 4 Spark Plug Wire retainers

Car still smells like burning... so I don't know, but they said they've fixed everything. We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks...