2014 GMC Sierra Transmission Issues & Warranty

[str8304]

I have a 2014 Sierra but two Saturdays ago I took my family to San Antonio from Houston for a day trip but had to get towed back to Houston over 120 Miles away because my transmission went out.  The trans temp got as high as 240F.  While stopped at a light with no one around me, the truck lunged forward with a kick as if we were hit from the back.  While accelerating from light, the trans started slipping and struggling to get into gear.  Finally the truck seemed to get out of gear and while stepping on gas all it did was rev the engine, so I coasted to a stop at a gas station.  I have a little over 86k miles on it and still within the 5 year/100k powertrain Warranty and I also have an extended warranty (3 year/160k more on that later).  So many things happened between  then and now but to make long story short, I get it towed to Beck & Masten dealership here in Houston last Monday for repairs.  They call and tell me they are voiding my warranty because my truck is lifted!  I ask why and they tell me that since I did not get my lift through them, they are voiding my warranty.  They have plenty of new/used trucks on their lot with various size lifts and wheels that i'm sure they outsourced the work to get lifted for them to then sell.  My final bill to get truck back was $4,366.16.  I am at a loss of who to cal and or direct my anger because in addition to getting the transmission fixed, I had to pay $850 for the tow of my truck from San Antonio which was the difference between my insurance Roadside Assistance because they only covered the first 25 miles and I had to pay the rest.  Plus I had to rent a car to get my family back to Houston (there were 5 of us) because only 1 person could ride with tow driver.  Back to the  extended warranty.  When I took my truck to Beck & Masten to get my 60k service, of course my truck was lifted then and there was never any mention of it being lifted yet they talked me into getting the extended warranty which doesn't kick in until after the 5 year/100k powertrain warranty expires.  So basically since they've voided my 5 year/100k powertrain warranty, I won't have any coverage so to speak until I hit 100k miles.  To add insult to injury, I go pick my truck up yesterday and they tell me I now have a 36 month/100k warranty on my new transmission!  So I say wait, you will warranty this transmission but not the one I had originally?  They said yes, because we did the work!  This brings me to today, 24 hours later, now my transmission operating temperature at 7am driving on the street at 35-45 MPH is between 208F-212F.  Seems really high considering before my transmission went out, driving on streets, highway, towing, summer, winter, the highest my trans temp ever got was 196F.  Any advice you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated on how to handle this because I am very pist especially having to pay over $4k out of pocket that should've been covered under the powertrain warranty.

 

 

[300 Blackout]

This sounds very frustrating. Hopefully some more knowledgeable members will chime in. In the mean time, you may want to do a bit of research on Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and any related case law.

 

Long story short, based on my rudimentary understanding, your warranty cannot be voided for an arbitrary reason such as the simple act of a part modification IF that modification did not cause the failure of the warranted item.

 

For example: You may think the lift didn’t contribute to the transmission failure as they appear to be unrelated. The dealer might argue that bigger-heavier tires and a steeper driveshaft/u-joint angle from the lift caused abnormal strain on the entire drivetrain resulting in a failure of the transmission. Either party might be correct and I certainly don’t know the answer.

 

Now take this with a big grain of salt because I really don’t know how the Act applies to who does the work. In my uneducated opinion, if the sole reason they didn’t honor your warranty is because of who performed the modification rather than the modification itself, it would seem to me that they would have to prove that the work was performed improperly which resulted in the failure of the part.

 

You may want to reach out to GM or to that dealer for a detailed letter explaining why your warranty was voided and go from there.

 

Another good place to start would be reading the terms of the warranty.

 

 

[Doublebase]

This sucks, but why did you allow them to do the work? They must have told you they were voiding the warranty before they did any repairs, no? 

 

I realize you were in a tight spot and had to get it fixed but if you had more time you could've either shopped around or returned the truck to stock. 

 

Unfortunately I believe they do have the right to void the warranty...lift kit, bigger rims and tires probably is something that would void that warranty. I have heard that to be the case in the last because it directly effects the drive train.