Baytrucker

Of course they don't. If they don't turn a profit, the taxpayers bail them out. They are a socialized company at this point.

17 Elevation Double is what I have too. Looks like we are in the same boat. Let me make one thing clear. GM is hoping you are going to quietly go away. Don't quietly go away! GM has already officially acknowledged this as a problem. The bulletin on this issue is 09-03-09-001D "Clunking Noise from Rear of Vehicle (Re-torque Leaf Spring Bolts) ". I'll repeat again. GM has already officially acknowledged this as a problem. They do not issue service bulletins for "normal" vehicle noises. The service bulletin does have a recommended resolution, but in individual cases where that resolution fails, GM does not get to suddenly reclassify the noise as "normal" just to avoid more extensive repairs. They have already distributed a bulletin stating this noise is NOT normal. They don't get to unring that bell. Depending on where you live, you need to initiate the dispute process appropriate for your jurisdiction. Many states have an arbitration process or agency that deals with a car companies that refuses to honor their warranty. For example, in Canada, we have CANVAP. Talk to a lawyer as well. There may be some ambulance chaser in your area willing to take your case on contingency if you are pressing for legal fees. DO NOT start messing around with jury-rig fixes and inner-tubes until you have exhausted all of your legal option to hold GM's feet to the fire. They are going to use any excuse they can to avoid honoring the warranty, so don't give them any ammunition by hacking together a solution on your own. As long as this conduct is tolerated and customers continue to bend over, GM will keep pulling this crap. Don't be a floor mat. Stand up and fight for your investment.

So I took it into the dealer. They acknowledged the noise. They searched for bulletins and found one on this issue. The bulletin said to re-torque the u-bolts on the leafs and lubricate with a "special" type of lubricant. The noise is mostly gone for now. There are still traces of it of a creak, but I have a feeling I'm going to be back in the dealer in a few months time. I've got 9000K on the truck currently. There are no lemon laws in Canada. If it happens repeatedly, I'll take it to CAMVAP. The problem goes back to 2014. How has GM not fixed this yet? GM has already officially acknowledged this is a problem. After all, they issued a bulletin on it. A car company does not issue bulletins on normal car behavior. So if they try to claim that this is a "normal" noise as they have with other customers, it helps that they have already put into writing that the noise is not normal. I will fight it when the noise pops up again. I encourage others to do the same.

Of course its an exaggeration. The problem is that no one can say exactly how much of an exaggeration it is. GM doesn't release their defect data (why would they) so we are left with personal anecdotes, speculation, and a whole lot of confirmation bias. Reading this and other forums, its clear that GM has a defect with their condensers. It would be hard to deny that at this point. This wouldn't be such a problem (all vehicles have their shoddy parts), except for the way GM has handled this. There are cases ranging from 2014 all the way up to 2018s with the exact same issue. That's four years where GM has failed to address a defective part. It seems reasonable to conclude that if GM hasn't fixed their condenser model in nearly half a decade, they aren't going to be jumping on a fix any time soon. If you stuck a OEM part in as a replacement, then you can expect its just as likely to fail as the last one. It may not happen every year, but the odds of it happening again are way higher than they should be. I would think that if you have to replace it, go with an aftermarket part. I'm glad you guys have had good resolutions/experiences however.

Add me to the list. My 2017 double cab 1500 started making this noise recently. I'm not sure how long its been happening, because I usually drive with the radio on. Last week, I had the radio off because me and my passenger were having a conversation, and we kept stopping to listen to what sounded like tennis balls bouncing around in the truck bed. She actually asked me if I had something rattling around back there. In the time since, I've traced it to what appear to be shock related. It is only noticeable at very low speeds 5-10kmh and when going over uneven road or bumps. When you listen to it, its more of a popping or rubbing sound. It seems to be exacerbated by turning. My guess was leaf springs or shocks. Reading this and other forum posts seems to support that theory. My work has a pretty highly critical emergency standby component, so I have to wait until I'm off rotation before I take it in. Its one of the reasons I spend money on a new vehicle, because I needed something reliable. I appear to have negated the reliability advantage of a new vehicle by choosing to purchase a GM product. I'll report back after my dealership invariably brushes me off (I've discovered this is S.O.P for GM) and I have to start troubleshooting my brand new vehicle on my own.

I have a similar issue. I have a 2017 double cab sierra 1500, which has developed a rubbing noise in the rear driver side. It sounds like metal rubbing against rubber. It can be easily replicated when I push the bumper down by hand with the vehicle stopped. Not sure if this is the same as your issue.

Keep it. You are gonna need it when your warranty expires. The general theme among this forum and most GM truck owners that I know is that replacing the AC condenser is pretty much a yearly occurrence. Even on the new part models, apparently the flaw in the condenser still exists. Another problem that GM can't be bothered to a find a solution for. Unless you plan on trading the truck in, I would budget for it to be a yearly expense.

When you say "aftermarket", do you mean a third party component? If so, do you happen to have the part number you used? GMC seems to be wearing their pants on their head when in comes to fixing this. Apparently the new OEM condensers still haven't fixed the issue. Third party sounds pretty good right now.

The current US administration has pretty much gutted the EPA to the point where they aren't going to be breathing down anyone neck any time soon. It's almost impossible to enforce nationwide recompense for something like this in such a corporate friendly and heavily lobbied culture. You will get lots of stories of individuals beating the system or finding "deals" to fix a part that should have worked int he first place, but don't hold your breath waiting for a regulatory imposed solution. It isn't going to happen. Every man for himself and all that. Other countries may have some success with this angle. The current Canadian government seems to be big on environmental protections, so it may gain traction here. GMC (like everyone else) is also likely to suffer under this ridiculous trade war, so I'm not sure the Canadian government would want to rock the boat any more. I'm not sure if GMC has a big presence over in the EU, but they are also environmentally friendly at the moment. The new Mexican government seems rather progressive, but likely isn't stable enough to be able to twist the arm of GM this way. I wouldn't hold your breath. Unless you plan on trading in, I would squirrel $1000 away in your budget and expect to replace your AC.

Agreed. The replacement costs for all those parts could have easily financed the cost offset for trading the whole truck in for another similar truck of his choice.

They may not have warrantied the problem, but at least they could tell you what the problem was. That puts them one step ahead of GM at the moment. They either have no idea what is causing their trucks to shake (incompetence) or they aren't releasing the data because it would turn into yet another scandal (malice). Yes, there are examples where Fords have let their owners down, but at least the reasons for it are quantifiable, and when you know the fix is gonna work.

After reading this thread, it sounds like a condenser leak is a foregone conclusion. I have other mechanics and owners telling me it is a known detect (bad weld) and its just a matter of time. GM won't replace it until it breaks, and if it is under warranty, they will replace it with a part that has a similar defect. No wonder the tax payers had to bail them out. GM is a horrible company. I refuse to drive a vehicle without working AC. Pile it on to all the other little issues I'm having with this truck, and it really is a purchase I regret. If (or should I say "when") my condenser fails, I'm going to have it changed out at the Ford dealership. I'll have them change out the rest of the truck with it.

How could he possibly know that? So far nobody on this thread has been able to say how to identify the old flawed condenser from the new one.

I agree with the fact that dodges are junk. Its more of a lottery than them being consistently bad. Chrysler has notoriously bad quality control, so you stand a much higher chance of getting a lemon. They are a little better since Fiat bought them out. You have to wonder how bad things were over at Chrysler if the general consensus is that Fiat actually improved on the situation. Ford are nice, but right now it feels like buying a prototype. All this aluminum and eco-boost stuff. Ford isn't afraid to try new things, and kudos to them for it. The industry wouldn't advance if someone wasn't pushing for change. I'm just not partial to being a guinea pig at $50k out of pocket. Your family sounds like mine (although mine are pro-ford). I'm the black sheep who bought a GMC. Brand loyalty is one hell of a drug, but it's also the hallmark of consumer ignorance. Brands come and go, as do the people representing those brands. Businesses and products change over time. They get bought out and renamed and repurchased. There has never been a brand anywhere of anything that deserved "loyalty" from its consumer. You need to do research each and every time you make a purchase and look at the product past the label. I bought the GMC thinking it was the best product for me at the time, for reasons stated above. It was close though. After finding this thread, I likely would have tipped over to an F150 and taken my chances with the new tech. Anyway. 4000km on my 2017 and still no highway shake. Fingers crossed.

Might want to have them check to see if the driveshaft is true. In researching this issue I keep stumbling over a few threads on this forum and others of people who completely corrected their shake by replacing the driveshaft. Some were found to have a significant and noticeable curve when they pulled it out. Apparently this series of trucks uses a model of driveshaft known to have defects.

I don't have the shake in my 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 extended cab, but I'm only at 3500km. Its brand new. I came to the forum for another issue, and it sucks to find a 700+ page thread about a problem GM can't seem to get their head around. I'm really worried about all of the people who say their problem started at 65k or so. I'm not a mechanic, but I work in a field that require a lot of troubleshooting, and one thing I've learned is that the most difficult problems to solve are the ones that have multiple causes. It really screws with classic trail and error stratagem. Reading this thread, I feel its a problem that is inherent to design. I don't think GM can't figure it out; I think GM HAS figured it out and they know it is a major design factor that cannot be easily changed. I suspect, like others have said, it is related to resonance frequency being close to standard road vibrations. Normally it would be fine, but if anything is off at all (tires, wheels, shaft, steering column, etc) then the resulting vibrations will be amplified by the frame. It is possible that the components of this vehicle may not even be up to the specification that GM intended. Google Kobe Steel. GM is hot off the heels of a major defect scandal with their ignitions. They can't afford another one. They are terrified of bad optics, which is why Barra has been on the interview trail spewing out PR marketing speak about integrity and accountability. Its crap, but the fact that she has to that when Ford and Dodge are comparatively quiet is telling. My choice was between the GM 1500 and the F150. I ruled out Dodge ages ago. I will never own a Chrysler product due to reputedly poor QA (its a defect lottery). It was a close call, but the GM won out with better looks, better price, smoother ride (on the test drive) and infotainment system. I was under the notion that the F150 was the higher risk because of all of the new technology they are putting into it (EcoBoost, aluminum, etc). GM was closer to a proven design, or so I thought. If I had found this thread earlier, then I would have likely bought the Ford.

I just got a new GMC 1500 2017 with the Elevation trim. Currently at just below 3000km. I've not had it on the highway much but I will keep an eye out for vibrations. Nothing noticeable so far. Actually rides quite well at city speeds. Regardless, I figured I would chime in since it seems people are having a lot of difficulty pinpointing the cause of this issue. Naturally, the ones with the problem are the ones posting, and the thread seems to be lacking a control group. I figure more data can't hurt. I can see how people are alarmed about this, considering GM's history of not disclosing defects and being tardy with recalls, even when lives have been lost. I know they gutted their executive branch since then, but you can't just reset a track record like that. It would frustrate the hell out of me to pay $30-$80K for a truck that rides like sandpaper. I'm really disheartened to hear that GM is effectively just shrugging and saying "that's normal. whadda ya gonna do?" It makes you wonder if they know what is causing this and are sitting on the solution just like they did with ignition-gate. They certainly aren't doing much to earn back trust by being so dismissive. That being said, brand-loyalty is one helluva drug. I'm sure there is a large group of people who stand by the GM brand no matter what, and GM seems to be counting on that. I've been lucky so far. The only issue regarding ride quality I've noticed is a small "shudder" when idling. It's subtle but noticeable. I have had other GM products that do this, so it isn't too alarming. I assume they set the idle a little too low to increase gas economy. I can't see how it would be related to highway vibrations though. If I had found this thread before making my purchase, it may have tipped me over to Ford. Sucks to have something else to worry about.

Hi, First post. New to the forum. Joined up specifically for this issue, since I have a buddy who's '15 silverado AC kicked out last summer. I just got a GMC 1500 "Elevation" 2017. First owner. Less than 3000km. I've read back in this thread and I have the impression that there are two AC condensers. The old model, which is a bit of a time bomb, and the new model which is the replacement model. I don't remember a post about someone having a replacement model die on them, but I may have missed it. It seems they fixed the issue with the newer model. This thread is fairly long and took me a while to read through. I may have missed something. I'm a little fuzzy on how to tell what model I have. From what I have read, the 2017's could have either. What exactly am I looking for? Thanks in advance.