Vehicle
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
The W-body coupé, and mechanically the Impala's sibling — same platform, same 3.1, 3.4 and 3.8 V6 families, same transmissions — so Impala material of the same years covers nearly all of it. The recurring fault on the pushrod V6s is the intake manifold gasket, which degrades in contact with the long-life orange coolant and lets coolant into the oil or out onto the ground. It is common enough that a coolant-loss complaint on one of these should be treated as that until proved otherwise, and a milky oil cap on a 3.1 or 3.4 is not usually a head gasket. The last SS returned to a V8 and rear-drive proportions but stayed front-driven.
Generations
-
Fifth generation 1995–1999
W-body coupé on the 3.1 and 3.8 pushrod V6s; the intake gasket is the recurring item.
- Body styles
- Coupé
- Platform
- GM W
- Engines
-
- 3.1 V6 — L82 · petrol · 119 kW (160 hp) · 251 Nm (185 lb-ft)
- 3.8 V6 — L36 · petrol · 149 kW (200 hp) · 312 Nm (230 lb-ft) · Series II
- 3.4 V6 — LQ1 · petrol · 160 kW (215 hp) · 292–298 Nm (215–220 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- 4-speed 4T60-E automatic · 4-speed 4T65-E automatic
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
-
Sixth generation 2000–2007
Adds the 3.9 and, in the last SS, a 5.3 V8 — still front-driven.
- Body styles
- Coupé
- Platform
- GM W
- Engines
-
- 3.4 V6 — LA1 · petrol · 134 kW (180 hp) · 278 Nm (205 lb-ft)
- 3.8 V6 — L36 · petrol · 149 kW (200 hp) · 305 Nm (225 lb-ft) · Series II and III
- 3.9 V6 — LZ9 · petrol · 180 kW (241 hp) · 328 Nm (242 lb-ft)
- 5.3 V8 — LS4 · petrol · 226 kW (303 hp) · 438 Nm (323 lb-ft) · SS, 2006-2007
- 3.5 V6 — LZE · petrol · 156 kW (209 hp) · 290 Nm (214 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- 4-speed 4T65-E automatic · 4-speed 4T65E-HD automatic
- Drivetrain
- Front-wheel drive
Service information
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about the Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about Chevrolet Monte Carlo.