Sound familiar? It should. GM has issued three nearly-identical recalls over the past several years to address such problems. Unfortunately, none of those fixes fully resolved the issue.
The ongoing trouble seems directly related to the age of the vehicles. After GM dealers have applied previous fixes, oil seeped through other aging parts that hadn't been replaced or repaired. The current problem is exacerbated by hard braking, which causes oil to slip through the valve cover gasket.
The recall is limited to the following makes and models, equipped with 3.8-liter V6 3800 engines:the 1997-2004 Pontiac Grand Prix, 2000-2004 Chevrolet Impala, 1998-1999 Chevrolet Lumina and 1998-2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, 1998-1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue and 1997-2004 Buick Rega.
Official recall documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration aren't yet available, but GM's Alan Adler says that when previous recalls were issued, the automaker had received reports of 1,345 fires. Some fires have been reported on vehicles that were repaired in previous recalls. At least 19 injuries have been linked to the problem, but GM knows of no accidents or deaths.
Though GM hasn't yet detailed a fix for these vehicles, Adler expect that owners will, once again, be told not to park their vehicles in garages or other enclosed spaced until they've been fixed.
This post originally appeared on the Washingtonpost as 1.41 Million Older GM Cars Recalled For Fire Risk: Buick Regal, Chevrolet Impala, More