JamGear

Picked up my truck last night. The noise came from a failed driver side rear differential carrier bearing. I wonder why it failed? Is this a wearable part? I tow a 5th wheel RV. I wonder if towing heavy can produce stress and wear? Or, I truly had a defective bearing from day one? As I read up on this particular repair, most techs advised it was a good idea to replace the pinion and passenger side carrier bearings since they are only $40 a each and would not have required much more labor. I would have certainly paid a couple hundred more to have them replace all the bearings. Apparently bad bearings can produce metal shavings that could remain in the fluid or in the other bearings. Nevertheless, I am very pleased to have this issue resolved. Boy what a difference.

My truck has been at the dealer for a week. Though they still do not know what is wrong, they have isolated it to the rear end. Tomorrow they are taking the rear apart to find the failed component producing the sound. Hopefully I will have an answer this week.

As it is with many of the mysterious noises, wobbles, hippy-hippy shakes, hiccups and burps any given Silverado can make, the first challenge to troubleshoot is finding the best words to describe the sound. My old 2015 1500 had the steering shake. My current 2018 2500HD was fine for 2 years and 19,000 miles when 2 weeks ago it presented an incredibly disturbing new noise. I searched and searched for whirring, pulsing, rotational noise, whining, knocking, hammering to no avail. Until I found a thread on this forum that used the words “woob woob”. As soon as I saw those words I thought, “that’s the sound my truck is making.” Starting at 30 miles per hour, peaking at around 45mph, disappearing between 55 and 65 then reappearing at 65 to 70, my truck exhibits a pulsing, rotational, acceleration dependent, transmission engaged, woob woob sound that at times becomes almost a knocking or hammering. I do not think it has anything to do with the wheels. Comes and goes with the accelerator and, at times, when engine braking kicks in. As a test I produced the sound going down a hill steep enough to maintain speed as I put the trans in neutral. Like a light switch, the sound completely disappeared. So it’s likely something in and around the transmission. I brought it in to my dealer. When he called yesterday I readied myself to hear the horrible news “sorry sir we were not able to reproduce the problem”. But as the sweat began to come out my pores, the service tech advised that they did in fact hear the sound, they consider it a problem and need a few more days for their transmission tech to figure out what's wrong. WHEW! Happy I got past the first goalie. I figured I would post this and report back as things progress, hopefully to a complete solution. I love my Silverado. But when it comes to mysterious noises on our beloved GM trucks, the road to remedy can be like convincing someone you saw a UFO.

Ryan, Looks like they shut you down on the class action link. Please be sure to let us know when it is back up (if they let you put it back up). Boy I hope this forum does not let us down in the 11th hour of our mutual fights (yours the dim headlights and mine the denting panels.) Feel free to message me directly. Cheers (Bill - JamGear)

I had the headlight TSB done on my truck. Not at all better. Almost seems like they simply raised the focal point. They say they replaced bulbs and reprogrammed the DCM. But it still looks like a very sub-par illumination and spread. With with all the HID and LED headlights on the road today throughout the country, all vehicles need higher lumens and better spread in their headlight systems to be safe. I will happily not only join the class action but donate my time to help make it happen. (JamGear)

These dents and crinkles started showing up before I started towing the 5th wheel. After they repaired the dents in September I towed all October and November with no issue, I remained dent less until May of 2015 when the dents started reappearing. I had not yet started towing the trailer. While I agree they can indeed be stress related. Whatever stress is causing them is not payload related.

UPDATE: The dents are back with a vengeance! I ran the truck all fall and winter (post paintless dent repair by Chevy) with no reoccurrence. Then all of a sudden May 2015 one crease came back. Then in June, a second. Now a third crinkle along the rear quarter panel up by the bed rail has appeared. This problem is definitely a defective metallurgy of the body panel. The problem seems to correlate with the change of seasons. Yesterday I saw a new gen Silvy 2500HD with the same crinkles and dents along the driver side bed rail as mine. Now I see yet another thread on this ailment http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/165709-mysterious-small-dents-appearing-on-new-truck-weird/?hl=mysterious I have begun the laborious process of pushing the dealer to now escalate this matter to the factory. My truck is still under factory warranty and this is definitely a manufacturer defect. There's a commercial out there where Chevy touts "made of high strength steel" likely to give a poke at Ford that now uses aluminum body panels on their next gen F series. Let's see if Chevy will actually stand behind that claim? I will keep you all posted as I work to get final remedy.

Yesterday the service manager from Hawthorne Chevrolet here in New Jersey advised that the regional Chevy rep looked at the dents. They called engineering, looked some things up, etc. The result, thus far, is they do not know how these dents could have been produced by any defect. Nevertheless, they decided to give me the benefit of the doubt and offered to repair the dents, as a one time fix, at no charge. By "one-time" I think they mean that if the issue arises again I will likely have to wait until a causality is found and an official remedy is formulated. For those of you in this thread that seem to have the same issue, I suggest going into your local dealer. Have the service manager look at it. If the service manager looks at you like you have three heads when you tell him you believe this is a manufacturing defect, ask him to contact the service manager at Hawthorne Chevy in New Jersey. If your truck does indeed have the same condition as mine, I am sure they will help you in one way or another. By the way, I am very pleased to advise that the dents are all gone and the panel looks great. The dent guy found even more very small creases around the fender flare. Which lead him to believe the panel on my truck may not have been stamped properly. Good luck to any and all that have this issue. It's certainly a crazy one! I will, of course, post here if the problem comes back.

The Chevrolet factory rep will be taking a look at my truck for this issue in two weeks. I will let you all know how that goes.

I have the Max Tow package with a 3.73 axle ratio, 11,200 lb tow and 1860 lb payload. My 5th wheel is 10,500 lb (full load) and 1660 lb on the kingpin. It's a new segment of the 1500 series. They should have called it a 2000

I am still in process with the dealer. I think they will pay to have it fixed. But we all decided to wait until after my Labor Day RV trip to see if it gets worse. I will, of coarse, keep everyone posted here in this forum. Maybe you and should message directly on this?

It says 10/13

You truck looks great! I do not think the inner bed is aluminum. We had to cut through it to mount the hitch. It is definitely sheet metal and, I am happy to say, rather thick.

I put some pics on my original post. Where would I find the build date?

I know the bed is not aluminum. We had to drill through it to get to the frame underneath the bed. I have attached some pics to my original post.

I think I got the dealership ready to have a dent guy clear it up. The question on everyone's mind is; will it happen again after the repair? You should take it to your dealer and tell him a guy in Passaic County NJ has the same exact issue. Maybe we can get both these dealerships to talk to their factory reps? I am now convinced this is a manufacturing defect or part failure (the sheet metal)

Given the shared experience of Jtherrien, the failure does not seem to have anything to do with towing. Furthermore, why only the driver side? I am beginning to think those of us with these mysterious dents got a bad piece of metal or all of our trucks had the same guy mounting the driver side bed fender skin.

I picked up my 2014 Silverado 1500 with the 11,200 lbs max tow package. I must say I am very impressed with the thoughtfulness of this new design. I bought this truck to pull my 10,000lbs 5th wheel. I use a PullRite Super Glide 16k removable bed hitch. It tows the rig beautifully! I put in a set of Timbrens on the rear bump stops because I was about an inch too low on the rears. Other than some up-bounce that I think is inherent in all 5th will set ups, all other aspects work great! So here is the mystery. Since delivery of my truck in May 2014, I have noticed an ever increasing amount of dents and crinkles in the upper part of the driver side outer bed fender an inch or so below the rail cap. First one showed up, then two and now I have 10 dents and crinkles almost in a straight line along the top of the fender from front to rear. I brought it to the dealer's auto body guy as well as my own. Both concur that these dents are not from an outside force such as being hit with a ball or Frisbee. It is certainly not a shopping cart (too high on the fender). I admit I am at or very close to the payload and tow limits of the truck, But I am in no way over them. The way the 5th wheel hitch is mounted completely on the frame has it not touching the bed at all. The dealer thinks the hitch is mounted wrong or some other owner misuse is the culprit. But that is just silly. I had the hitch professionally installed. Besides, an improperly installed 5th wheel hitch would cause many more noticeable and dangerous issues than crinkling on the fender. The bed has never even been touched by the 5th wheel over hang. So it is not that. Could it be from towing? I have only towed the unit twice so far. Next week I go on a 2,500 mile trip. I guess we will see if the trailer is causing stress on the fender panel. Anyway, has anyone else experienced this? The 2014 Silverado 1500 is on the new design. While the frame is still the 2007 generation, the body has been almost completely redesigned. Maybe the engineers missed a stress calculation? Or, is the metal so fragile that even if I lean on it to reach over the bed rail, it will dent? This issue is more readily and clearly seen by eye. It is difficult to capture in a picture because of the Granite Blue Metallic color and the clean shine I have on it. But believe me, when I look into my driver side mirror, I can see the dents and ripples all along the top of the fender like it was cellulite! Any help demystifying this would be greatly appreciated. Like most Americans that love their truck, I have taken impeccable mechanical and aesthetic care. Whatever this is, it is not coming from the usual causalities of dents and crinkles in body metal.