Happy with your seatbelt recall fix?

Britt Lifsey · October 5, 2016

I am sure I can do a better job than the cutaway hack job.

I called GM Customer support 1 800-222-1020 and requested a unsold truck repair on my truck.

The created a case for me and forward it to the GM support team. Someone with the support team is supposed to call me back to confirm or deny the request by Tuesday October 11, 2016.

I will post GM's reply here.

I suggest everyone who is not happy with the fix or do not want the hack job call the Customer support number and request the unsold truck fix.

What ever you do DO NOT sign a waiver. It will make you liable for any failure of the seat belt even after you sold your truck. Rather ask your dealer to open a case with GM to request a unsold vehicle repair.

If you look at post above yours, coke813 was told there is no longer an unsold truck fix. Will be interesting to hear (or I guess technically read) what they tell you.

sk · October 5, 2016

If you look at post above yours, coke813 was told there is no longer an unsold truck fix. Will be interesting to hear (or I guess technically read) what they tell you.

I have no inside information but my understanding is that the final fix for ALL trucks is the new trim piece that is already cut out from the factory. It doesn't matter when you have the fix done, that is what GM is saying is the "final" fix.

With that being said no dealership should still be hacking the rubber up freehand. They should be ordering the correct trim piece from the warehouse. You'll still have a large gap around the seatbelt retractor but at least it will be a smooth factory-machined cut.

Guess I got lucky. Mine had the "unsold truck" fix done to it just before I bought it. At that time it appears that they were replacing the retractor but still reusing the original trim piece with all the rubber intact.

cbrsilv15 · October 6, 2016

Service advisor called me back and said it wouldn't fit my truck. Only 16-17. Lol!!! I swear sometimes they don't know shit.

Imcrazy · October 6, 2016

I'm picky about my truck but, not that picky.... Dunno what mine looks like, don't care either.

tmo · October 6, 2016

I test drove a 2016 Silverado the other day and the flaps were not chopped or factory cut out. Today I was in a 2017 Tahoe and it had the factory cut out. The attached picture is in the Tahoe. I don't have a picture of the truck, but I made sure that it wasn't chopped. I haven't done it to my truck and probably won't if I decide to upgrade. [emoji6]

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Imcrazy · October 7, 2016

Mine, they just pulled the flaps back it looks like....

Silvern Sentry · October 7, 2016

I test drove a 2016 Silverado the other day and the flaps were not chopped or factory cut out. Today I was in a 2017 Tahoe and it had the factory cut out. The attached picture is in the Tahoe. I don't have a picture of the truck, but I made sure that it wasn't chopped. I haven't done it to my truck and probably won't if I decide to upgrade. [emoji6]

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This is what mine looks like when I had them order the new part (side of seat) directly from factory and wait for it, it was not an off the shelf part.

Likely the difference is the 2016 was built in 2015 before said change and the 2017 was built after. This issue did not exist before June 2016 so anything built before would look as you seen. Anything after looks like the pic.

At this time the recall does not cover any 2016 even if they look like the one you seen. Chalk it up to legal mumbo jumbo and no reported issue or NHTSA filing for that year. Does not mean there will not be or may not.

177mph · October 11, 2016

Huge shout out to Alpine Truck Life, who's prior work allowed me to get my crap job resolved quickly. See his post # 178 & 189. The replacement part is: 84147954 - cover asm f/seat.

I have the brand new one now. I may try to replace it myself, otherwise they will do it for me when I return for next oil change.

Here's the whole story for anyone who's interested:

I had to go in for service on a cylinder misfire. Turned out to be just a loose plug wire, so they replaced that. Anyway, The check engine light went off on saturday morning. I called the service dept and asked when they could get me in. He told me if i could drop it off, they should be able to sneak it in on monday. I asked about the seatbelt and airbag recalls, and he told me they would do the airbag one, but there was a part that needed to be ordered for the seatbelt so that would not be done. Good, I thought to myself.

I didn't want to take time off work to sit there, so I dropped it off Sunday afternoon. I filled out the key drop envolope and wrote on it to fix the misfire and do the airbag recall. I also checked the box to call me before any work was done.

So i get a call at 9am Monday and the guy says its done. I said what's done? He said all 3 things. I said I only asked for 2 things to be done, you mean they did the seatbelt too!?! He said yes.

So now i'm pissed becasue they did not talk to me and i did not authorize this. I knew already what they would do and i was not going to let them cut the trim. so Monday after work my wife dropped me off at the dealership and sure enough, I got the standard hack job. It looks like crap just like all the others before me.

BUT i immediately told the service guy, this is unacceptable, since i never authorized it and i wanted to speak with the manager. she wasn't back in until tuesday morning. So she called me yesterday and i tried to explain everything calmly. I told her this fix was a joke and she needed to tell her superiors that it is a terrible thing to do to peoples trucks. She agreed and they offered to fix it for me but they weren't quite sure what to do. Since I had that part number available, I told it to her and she said they had one sitting in the parts room. So she gave it to me. She said they would replace it, but i don't want to drive back to the dealer and waste more time for this, so i said I'll bring it back at my next oil change. or I'll just do it myself if i can figure out how to pop the seat adjustment levers off.

Anyway, I'm mostly content with the resolution now. at least my seat trim won't look like a kindergartner went after it with pruning shears.

Thanks again to Alpine for finding this part and i recommend everyone else to request it instead of accepting GM's bullshirt.

PS- I did ask about the "other" fix for the dealer owned inventory, and the service manager said she was aware of that, but it has since been altered. Now the fix is the same for all truck whether you bought it before or after the recall came out.

end of rant.

This was very helpful. thanks for posting

anonymouse · October 28, 2016

After dealing with Chevy Customer Care on Twitter, and then getting my case escalated to the executive office, they wasted about 3 weeks, and then came back with the stock answer - they will offer no other fix other than the letter of the recall bulletin. Dealing with the executive office was a HORRIBLE experience - in my view, they are basically a bunch of bureaucrats trained to deny customer grievances and give you the same answer you already had. If you think you can get anywhere with the executive office, best of luck. Chevy Customer Care on Twitter is similarly useless, but at least they have more polite canned messages. They do not do anything useful though.

A couple of things: (1) if anybody can get a lawyer to get interested in this issue, based on the two classes of treatment for the recall, and the damage to our vehicles as a result of the fix, please count on my support. (2) GM has lost my business for good. I will never, ever buy another GM vehicle again.

Lood · October 28, 2016

So after about a month of waiting for GM support to call me back on a resolution to the hack job, I went and talked to the dealer.

I told him I do not want the hack job that I would rather pay for the replacement trim panel. He assured me that he would take care of it fore me. When I picked the truck up they had not cut the trim. They simply bend the flaps they were supposed to cut up so it does not touch the cable below the seat belt latch. I asked them if that is ok with GM and he explained that the only reason they cut it GM is concerned that it might wear into the cable and cause it to break.

So I am happy got my truck back with no hack job and the recall was done.

As for GM support they suck big time.

My truck had no start and stall problems for 13 months. They basically told me to drive it until the shop can duplicate it. I work with my truck so I had no choice but I would not put my family in it.

We scanned the steering with a thermal image camera and found a hot spot above the key ring on the steering column. I told two dealers called GM support. They told me to take it to the dealer where I bought it. They kept it for a week kept on driving it never looked at the hot spot on the steering. Gave it back to me and no one even talked to me at the dealer. I called GM support and they just said drive it like that.

In the end I convinced my service dealer to open the steering column. Sure enough where I told them the hot spot was is the control box for the immobilizer. We opened it and a component fell out. The dealer replaced the control box and no more stalls no more no starts.

Thirteen months they had me drive the truck like that. Now there is a service bulletin on it. No apology from GM nothing. They suck big time!

Romo · November 15, 2016

Any new updates on solving this problem?

Thomcat · November 15, 2016

Dealer called to reschedule my appointment, claimed that it was taking them longer than anticipated to do their current appointments correctly.

No evidence of cut rubber or other damage after my recall correction.

Vicarious · November 15, 2016

After GM sent me a questionnaire about my service, I told them that I intended to file vandalism charges against them for wrecking my interior. The dealership then contacted me and replaced the side panel of my seat with a new one that was nicely oval'd out around the seat belt support.

Ironically, they have a 2017 Silverado on the dealership floor. I was curious as to what that looked like while I was waiting for my new part. I was incredulous. Sitting there in the showroom is a 2017 brand new truck with the hack job. This does not make any sense since they should have had the new side cover style in the 2017. I will be avoiding any recalls on my vehicles from now on though.

USCGRetiredJosh · November 15, 2016

I had the airbag and 4X4 drive recalls completed yesterday and made sure that the dealer did NOT touch the seat belt recall. the Service writer asked why and I told her that I did not like the hack job repair to my expensive truck. She said ok and agreed and that was that.