Is anyone else noticing that many of the under-hood gaskets are sweating? I only have 50,000 miles on my car now and I notice that there's an alarming amount of "crud" starting to build up because various and assorted gaskets are sweating (not leaking enough to cause a drip, just enough to have a "wet" look around the gasket..as if they are saturated and allowing a bit of fluid to get by)

I at least see the valve cover, cam-driven fuel pump (and some related parts in the area), and one of the transmission gaskets near the drivers side wheel well.

What gives?? Is this normal? My girlfriends Nissan Altima has almost twice the miles and the underside looks perfectly fine...I dont want to look at "serious" maintenance down the road besides filters and fluids. It kinda makes me a little disappointed in GM once again, after already replacing the battery, both sway bar end links, and a broken sunroof baffle during the early stages of the cars life.

Plus there is already quite a bit of surface rust: all of the welds on the engine cradle, the strut mounts, and many other random spots under the car. Some may attribute it to the winters where I am but I again compare it to other cars with higher mileage and less visible age.

I guess its time for POR-15...which shouldn't be needed on a 5 year old car..

 

Pictures would help :-)

Much depends on how fastidious you have been on keeping the engine bay clean, as well as the undercarriage, especially if you live in a salt belt(??). Dirt helps wick the oils etc out from under gaskets.

Re: "battery, both sway bar end links, and a broken sunroof baffle" - I'd say that's not a bad track record for a 5 year old car.

 

If you see a cam driven fuel pump on an HHR, share your drugs!

The front of the cam cover gasket used to leak on mine, I torqued it back down when I changed the air filter last time.

Surface rust and corrosion under the hood comes from "steam cleaning" the engine. For some reason car lots and many car owners cling to some need to "steam clean" Aluminum alloy. Most chemicals used will cause the corrosion and pitting by cleaning the protective coatings off, basically "don't worry" about it.

 

LOL - I totally missed that. Where are my reading glasses?

 

Whopper you were out changing your oil.