Well I found out my UIM was cracked. They said this wasn't unusual for 02 Grand prix gt's. They said that the stock ones are crap and that they break easily. Of course they overpriced all of it and it was around $700 (outrageous) for UIM completely replaced and outer tierods. Luckily for me my warranty covered everything and I only had to pay for the alignment and coolant flush. If it came down to doing it myself I would have if I didn't have to work on it in the cold and had a garage.

Has anyone here had this happen to their GT before?

It is a common problem. But another plastic one, be it a GM or Dorman, will do it again. Shouldve gotten the L26 intake from Morad. They are aluminum, so this problem goes away all together.

From what I've heard it is a very common problem for the L36. Blackarrow continues to advise me to replace mine before I have a problem but mine didn't look too bad when I pulled it out so I'm gonna wait a little before replacing it haha.

$700 is ridiculous though, you could have paid like $100 for parts and done it yourself in an hour or two.

Also all new plastic UIM are reinforced over the original stock ones so the chances of having another problem is much, much less. Definitely would not be worth it to upgrade to the L26 unless you're going for better looks or turbo.

a big ol LIM gasket for me woahoah

BTW whered you go ben ?

Here's the latest design, looks to be an improvement over the Dorman intake: 1995-2005 GM 3800 V6 Intake Manifold Kit (Improved) Better pics here: GM Intake Manifold Kit

"The L36 UIM is glass reinforced and very strong. I would expect it to hold over 100 psi without failure." - Matt ZZP

And here is an L26 for $50
http://www.zzperformance.com/grand_prix/products1.php?id=852&catid=163

I'm pretty sure you have to get an L26 LIM as well to be able to run the L26 upper.

Direct Bolt on. Only Issue is TB adapter, and you need a shorter EGR stack.

PCV, EVAP, EGR work with the L26.

You will need to plug two ports which are not used/needed for the L36 engine.

Here are pics comparing the two

http://www.conncgp.net/gallery/Project-L26?page=1

I know they replaced it with the kit that is reinforced. They didn't throw back on a stock one. They had to order a kit for it.

I have a couple laying around.