1997 Buick LeSabre excessive heat in engine compartment

[Dave S.]

Hello fellow Buick enthusiests, I am new to this forum so i'm still trying to get familiar with the site.

My Mom bought a 1997 Buick LeSabre Limited about 6 months ago and so far it has been running like a champ, never given us any major problems (knock on wood) however, I noticed something has not been right under the hood. The front drivers side corner of the engine compartment gets very hot and has a funny smell. It doesn't take long for it to heat up, the temperature guage always reads normal (under 200). The heat seems to mostly be around the black box in the front corner in front of the windshield washer fluid resivoir.

This has been going on since we bought the car and is continuing to worry me. I don't see any signs of the intake manafold gasket being bad (no white smoke) although the car does leak some oil and i've had to add coolant 2 times since we got the car but it was never really low on coolant, just monthly maintenence I do.

 

[gnhbodyguy]

You can tape a thermometer in the spot you're concerned about. Get the car warmed up and jot down the temperature. Then find a 92-99 LeSabre for sale at a lot somewhere, take it for a test drive and do the temperature test on that one to see if it is different than yours. If they are, report back with your temperature readings. Otherwise I would say it's normal operationg temperature.
You really should not have to add coolant. If you are adding a few ounces every few months, you may want to get it tested with a pressure tester. It's leaking somewhere.