Water leak! need ideas please!

[Starmachinist]

Ok, so I've got a '08 GMC Sierra SLE 2500HD 4X4. On Dec 9, 2014 I brought my truck into my local GM dealership to have my driver's side rear door actuator replaced (I had bought the truck 4 weeks previously and had the "certified GM" 3 month warranty which covered the repair) and also had the latest recall repaired (which was the removal of the acoustic pad from SDM). Everything seemed to be fine since then until this past Friday when my "Service Airbag" light came on. I thought "no big deal, I'll bring it in on Monday to get checked out", until Saturday morning when I went to hit the unlock button on my key fob and my steering wheel airbag deployed! Well, I brought the truck in to the dealership today and they discovered that the SDM (which is located under the driver's seat) was completely corroded because all the carpet on the driver's side of the truck was completely soaked! So now they're trying to tell me that it's some how my fault that the truck is leaking but it had never leaked for the month that I owned the truck before getting this repair done. When I park the truck on my driveway, the front end of the truck sits a little lower than the rear, could water somehow be getting through the door and past then panel from when they repaired the actuator and then slowly runs under the carpet and down towards the front of the truck?

 

I'm at a total loss here, I hope what i've just spelled out here makes sense and any ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

Andy

 

Now that i've thought about it some more, I went thru a touchless car wash on Saturday night, after the airbag had already deployed, and am thinking that the pressurized water could hacve been driven in by the car wash thru a weak seal?

[Cosmic Charlie]

My opinion:

 

Corrosion takes more time than overnight, or a few days ... to show rust like damage.

 

The dealer is trying to push the water intrusion responsibility onto you. (Like you put a garden hose in the front seat when cleaning it)

 

Either way the truck should not have a water leak. (Even with car wash use).

 

If there was no heavy rain during the 1st month of ownership and it is leaking now, due to recent rain storms ... it's a pre-existing dealer responsible repair.

Or if you parked with the rear downhill previously and now front downhill, it would make all the difference where the leaking water went and did damage. No mater what you did not cause the leak and it has NOW showed up.

 

I would contact the Regional District Rep - phone number is in your owners manual.

Be VERY nice to the Reg Rep and things could work out fine (sometimes the Reg Rep will send you to another dealership for your Warranty Repair.

 

If all else fails - have a different shop repair it, have the shop document the water damage and their opinion of how long it's leaked by the amount of corrosion present, and go to small claims court - eventually you will get you money ...

 

I'm sure others here will advise many different solutions - pick the one you feel is best

[Starmachinist]

My opinion:

 

Corrosion takes more time than overnight, or a few days ... to show rust like damage.

 

The dealer is trying to push the water intrusion responsibility onto you. (Like you put a garden hose in the front seat when cleaning it)

 

Either way the truck should not have a water leak. (Even with car wash use).

 

If there was no heavy rain during the 1st month of ownership and it is leaking now, due to recent rain storms ... it's a pre-existing dealer responsible repair.

Or if you parked with the rear downhill previously and now front downhill, it would make all the difference where the leaking water went and did damage. No mater what you did not cause the leak and it has NOW showed up.

 

I would contact the Regional District Rep - phone number is in your owners manual.

Be VERY nice to the Reg Rep and things could work out fine (sometimes the Reg Rep will send you to another dealership for your Warranty Repair.

 

If all else fails - have a different shop repair it, have the shop document the water damage and their opinion of how long it's leaked by the amount of corrosion present, and go to small claims court - eventually you will get you money ...

 

I'm sure others here will advise many different solutions - pick the one you feel is best

I feel a little apprehensive about taking it back to the dealer that I bought it from because the day after I broght it home, the driver's side rear doorlock actuator quit working and they refused to do anything about it.

thanks for your reply, I will look into contacting the Reg Rep and see where it goes from there.

 

thanks again,

 

Andy

[takethebounce]

There is a recall on the module under the seat for the airbag due to corrosion. I received mine maybe a month or so ago.

 

I believe the airbag light is just the message indication from Onstar that a service is required prompted from the recall. I could be mistaken but the day after I opened the recall that came in the mail my light came on. I logged onto Onstar and it did show the open recall.

 

 

[gmtech4]

There is a recall on the module under the seat for the airbag due to corrosion. I received mine maybe a month or so ago.

 

I believe the airbag light is just the message indication from Onstar that a service is required prompted from the recall. I could be mistaken but the day after I opened the recall that came in the mail my light came on. I logged onto Onstar and it did show the open recall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're mistakin about the light , Onstar has nothing to do with turning on the light ... Or the campaign (recall)

 

It is to inform the operator that there is DTC , the SRS is also disabled at that time ,

[Starmachinist]

Well, I just got confirmation that GM will replace my airbag and all related components after I have repaired the leak and had it verifed by a GM dealer. I stopped by a local glass shop and they were 99% sure that it's coming from the little antannae thats' mounted on top of the cab. The problem is GM doesn't sell a gasket to go underneath the antannae, all they can do is sell me a whole new one for $130!

anyways, I'm just glad that GM is going to fix the airbag

 

Andy

[Starmachinist]

Well, I just replaced the shark fin antennae and then my windshield cracked on the weekend as well so I had that replaced at the sametime. Took the truck back to GM dealer and they found that it was still leaking! So now I've got to take it back to the body shop where I got the antennae done and windshield replaced and they said they'd redo the seal around my 3rd brake light at no charge and water test it again. I thought i might as well change all the bulbs in there right away so that I would have to disturb it again after being resealed. when I took the 3rd brake light off, I noticed the seal was all wet and there was mildew on the inside! Since it was dark out, I unplugged it and brought it inside for closer inspection and noticed that the seal was ripped and the housing was cracked in a number of places! So now I know where all the water was coming from, How frustrating! I think the only thing worse than looking for the source of a water leak is electrical issues and hopefully now that the water leak should be resolved, I shouldn't have anymore electrical issues! (water leak caused SDM to corrode causing a short and my airbag to deploy)

 

Anyways, hopefully this thread will help anyone else whose got water leak issues

 

Andy