Colorado ZR2 Owner Reports Disturbing Airbag Deployment While Soft-Roading - Details & Images

[newdude]

On ‎5‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 12:13 PM, ~Lost~ said:

I say GMC because all of my dealings above the Chevy dealership is with GMC headquarters, not Chevy Corporation. 

 

GMC is a brand.  GM (General Motors) is the parent company. 

[f5fstop]

Common occurrence on Hummers (H2/H3) when off-roading, but usually took a steep angle to set them off. And I know of no one who ever had GM pay the bill for the problem. However, insurance covered the costs (minus deductible of course).

[~Lost~]

Thanks for pointing that out, it's super important, I will be sure to use the correct acronym reference moving forward.   

I have an email from GM, and phone number that connects me to GMC for my case manager and a letter from Chevy about the denial. 

GM, GMC, Chevy, all the same shitty customer service company in my opinion. 

 

There's other ZR2 owners on the coloradofans forum who did indeed have GM pay for the repair, mine is the first they did not. 

 

Geico is covering the damages minus my deductible.  One month later my truck is still not fixed, airbags are backordered. 

[Mike Saad]

well we'll, I just bought a Colorado zr2 from Conelle chevy. I only have 2000 miles on my brand new truck and my roof airbag curtans have deployed on me. I was just on a fire trail. O need for 4 wheel drive I was In 2 wheel. My roof Air Bags went off. So I believe this isn't as rare as GM wants people to think. My car is at the dealer right now I believe there will try to give me some bullsh*** that my roll bar and light bar is the reason and try to reject fixing it but we shall see. Because my bags went off in the day time so all my light switches were off. There's no way a open circuit can effect the airbag module. That would be like saying jumping your battery would make them deploy. Come on this isn't just coincidence guys. They have a serious problem GM needs to own it and take care of it before a class action lawsuit is set in motion. 

[Amanda2305]

On 5/10/2018 at 2:40 PM, ~Lost~ said:

Hi Fellows, 

 

This is my ZR2 and I wanted to comment directly. 

 

Most of the comments here are fair enough, if the yaw sensor felt too much a learn then the airbags deployed as intended.

Where does it say in the manual the degree angle you shouldn't pass, using the built in off road angle display that's on the DIC?

It doesn't. 

The things that I want to point out is that Chevy markets this truck and a "purpose built premium off road truck" and markets it with photos of it jumping, sliding, rock crawling, etc.   While the sensors or programming in this truck might be perfect for all other GM trucks, this one is supposed to be special - they pretty much dare you to push the limits of the ZR2 in the marketing.  I did just that. 

With that said, my first gripe is how the engineering on this truck and marketing are two far different things if the airbags can go off (even on just a small number of them) when it's not in an actual rollover situation.

When I said "not leaned over too far" I mean that there was absolutely no chance of the truck rolling over and I felt I had before been on angles steeper than when it went off.  I know, it's subjective.  I was moving slowly, in 4wd low in offload mode, there was not sudden drop or jolt. 

GMC could very well just change the software to disable or raise the side curtain airbags when in off road mode, or with a switch - with all the appropriate warning labels. 

They have overlooked this and left in the same parameters as all other trucks, which isn't right for a ZR2. 

 

The thing that really has me fired up is instead of telling me why the airbags went off, giving me any data they most certainly have from the Raytheon investigator analysis of the black box, they have chosen to make up excuses of not paying for repairs. 

I could live with them telling me "you were at 20º lean when the airbags deployed, they work as intended and we're not covering it". 

Instead they said:" it was advised that damage to your Colorado and aftermarket wiring may have had some impact in the deployment no repair assistance will be provided by General Motors."

 

The "damage" was a minor dent on the fender THAT THE DEALER CASUED AFTER I DROPPED IT OFF, they have taken responsibility for it. that was the icing on the cake to find fresh damage to my truck yesterday when meeting my insurance. 

So that leaves my "electrical modifications", which was adding LED lights and a power cable for my winch.  Anyone with some technical knowledge would argue that correcting a few accessories the battery could not effect airbag deployment. 

 

GMC has dug in and will not answer my phone calls, I have requested their findings in writing and they have not sent it to me, beyond a reply on facebook from Chevy Trucks that I quoted above in the official reason they are denying the claim. 

 

In my view, this is a safety issue for all ZR2 owners who are more likely to drive their trucks on challenging terrain that folks with more standard trucks. Besides that, I'm looking at being without my brand new truck for 5-6 weeks and it's unknown if my insurance is going to cover it. They can't determine if it was a system malfunction which should be a warranty thing, or if it was a comprehensive claim due to how I was driving the truck. I'll either pay out of pocket completely or I'll pay the deductible and look forward to higher premiums.  I've never made an auto claim in 30 years of driving. 

 

Part of my frustration is the fact that it happened, the other is the response from GMC to a lifelong customer. 

I'm sharing my story in hopes of helping anyone else avoid this mess, it's happened 4 times in ZR2's so far that can be found online.

I don't see GM changing their mind... they are done with me obviously and shame on them. 

I just had this happen to my 2016 Chevy Colorado, it is at Chevy right now.  They have had it for two days now and still can’t figure things out.  We were doing a simple you turn and they deployed.  Obviously they should do a recall on these, and I would seek a lawyer.  A off road vechicle should not do this.

[Amanda2305]

On 7/24/2018 at 8:00 PM, Mike Saad said:

well we'll, I just bought a Colorado zr2 from Conelle chevy. I only have 2000 miles on my brand new truck and my roof airbag curtans have deployed on me. I was just on a fire trail. O need for 4 wheel drive I was In 2 wheel. My roof Air Bags went off. So I believe this isn't as rare as GM wants people to think. My car is at the dealer right now I believe there will try to give me some bullsh*** that my roll bar and light bar is the reason and try to reject fixing it but we shall see. Because my bags went off in the day time so all my light switches were off. There's no way a open circuit can effect the airbag module. That would be like saying jumping your battery would make them deploy. Come on this isn't just coincidence guys. They have a serious problem GM needs to own it and take care of it before a class action lawsuit is set in motion. 

This just happened to me turning around.

[Amanda2305]

On 7/24/2018 at 8:00 PM, Mike Saad said:

well we'll, I just bought a Colorado zr2 from Conelle chevy. I only have 2000 miles on my brand new truck and my roof airbag curtans have deployed on me. I was just on a fire trail. O need for 4 wheel drive I was In 2 wheel. My roof Air Bags went off. So I believe this isn't as rare as GM wants people to think. My car is at the dealer right now I believe there will try to give me some bullsh*** that my roll bar and light bar is the reason and try to reject fixing it but we shall see. Because my bags went off in the day time so all my light switches were off. There's no way a open circuit can effect the airbag module. That would be like saying jumping your battery would make them deploy. Come on this isn't just coincidence guys. They have a serious problem GM needs to own it and take care of it before a class action lawsuit is set in motion. 

 

[Nevadamatt]

It’s not just on ZR2s my 2016 Trail boss just had this happen. Easy dirt road no issues and boom the airbags deployed on me and my family.