Should I Be Disappointed With My Gm?

[paulnjackie]

I bought a new 2008 Silverado 2WD EXT cab and need some help. My truck went to the dealer for a loose steering wheel and noisy heat shield on the muffler. they replaced the steering column and did a tsb on the heat shield clamps. When I got my truck back, it intermittently makes a noise like a jake brake on a kenworth when i coast between 40 and 50mph. the truck only has 3200 miles on it and im already sorry i bought it. the driveability isnt affected but the noise really gets under my skin.

 

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated,

 

Paul.

[2000DV4.8]

Bring it to the dealer, and use the warranty that you paid for. Most new vehicles will have a couple minor things that need to be worked out. Don't give up just yet.

[Darkanion]

I'd take it back to the dealer. I'm not sure what would cause that noise.

 

I am curious about something, though. When you're "coasting down" like that, does it seem like the transmission downshifts, the engine RPM's go up, and the engine is being used to slow the truck down? If so, you may be in tow/haul mode. That shouldn't cause the noise you're describing. But, it would make the truck behave and sound somewhat differently.

[paulnjackie]

I appreciate the advise on taking the truck back in, and I will definately do that. But the noise was not there before they worked on it. Do dealers intentionally do stuff like this to make money on warranty? I noticed the tsb list on this model truck is quite long and GM should even be a bit embarrassed about it.

[minibike132]

I appreciate the advise on taking the truck back in, and I will definately do that. But the noise was not there before they worked on it. Do dealers intentionally do stuff like this to make money on warranty? I noticed the tsb list on this model truck is quite long and GM should even be a bit embarrassed about it.

 

Seriously?

[paulnjackie]

I appreciate the advise on taking the truck back in, and I will definately do that. But the noise was not there before they worked on it. Do dealers intentionally do stuff like this to make money on warranty? I noticed the tsb list on this model truck is quite long and GM should even be a bit embarrassed about it.

 

Seriously?

 

 

Listen, I didnt write this to offend anyone, I bought this truck because of a terrible exprience with Dodge. Failures included Engine, rear end , and at the time of trade in a transmission. All of which were warranty,and not caused by neglect or lack of maintenance. I am simply trying to find out if this is an adherant problem or possibly something the dealer did when replacing my steering column or the stupid straps on the cheesy heat shield covering the muffler. Forgive me for being gun shy with dealers, But I Have heard it all from DODGE. I was hoping to get away from service departments by making this purchase. Hence if I can come up with logical explainations in a place like this, I will gladly FIX it myself.

[Zembonez]

Listen, I didnt write this to offend anyone, I bought this truck because of a terrible exprience with Dodge. Failures included Engine, rear end , and at the time of trade in a transmission. All of which were warranty,and not caused by neglect or lack of maintenance. I am simply trying to find out if this is an adherant problem or possibly something the dealer did when replacing my steering column or the stupid straps on the cheesy heat shield covering the muffler. Forgive me for being gun shy with dealers, But I Have heard it all from DODGE. I was hoping to get away from service departments by making this purchase. Hence if I can come up with logical explainations in a place like this, I will gladly FIX it myself.

Can't really blame you for being gun shy about dealers after your Dodge experience. My 07 has had only one issue and that was the rattling heat shield. Like someone mentioned, there may be a few small items on any new vehicle that pop up. Of course that is what the warranty is for. I think you'll find that most of us that have the new body style trucks have had very few problems.

 

In here, you can't take offense to everything somebody says. There is a lot of sarcasm here but all in good clean fun. This group is ready and willing to help.

 

Good luck with your truck.

 

EDIT: I haven't heard of anybody else having their steering shaft replaced on a GMT900 truck. You might even want to consider a different dealer service department if this one proves to be a problem.

[minibike132]

Sorry for that last post but these kind of questions like "are techs sabotaging my vehicle so I have to come back" make me want to educate a little about how we work.

I'll speak to the TSB comment first because I can see that the amount of bullitens may be off putting to someone not in the industry. Every vehicle has problems, every make and every model. The difference in the volume of bullitens does not necessarily relate to the quality of the vehicle. For instance a dealer I used to work for acquired a Daewoo franchise. They had a crap product (I know that is bad for GM since we bought out Daewoo), but they had relatively few bullitens. So I went to L.A. for Daewoo training and quickly realized why they had few bullitens. There was no one to investigate the product and put the information out. There was one guy breaking down problem vehicles and writing bullitens and 5 technical assistance advisors. No offense to any of those guys if they happen upon this, they were all very competent techs and very knowledgeable. The problem was that there was no infrastructure to investigate every little problem that came down the pike. All of the major manufacturers have lots and lots of bullitens. I have worked for a few different manufacturers and I can tell you alot of bullitens is often times a good thing, I can see how outsiders might think otherwise and I am sure that is part of the reason manufacturers don't just release everything out into the public. Let me break down the bullitens for a 2008 Silverado 2WD. There are eight sections of bullitens

• Advanced Service Information
  This in no way relates to specific vehicle issues, one example is the bulliten notifying us of aftermarket fuses installed by
  customers that did not blow as designed and started fires and how to identify them for replacement
  
• Engineering Information
  These are issues that Engineering would like to investigate. Example If you need to replace X part GM would like you to call so
  and so brand manager to file a report, please have the following spec sheet filled out before contacting brand manager.
  
• Exchange Programs
  This usually relates to a brand new product like if are using a transmission for the first time, any time they need to be repaired
  they are to be removed and exchanged so that engineering can investigate the failure to design fixes to unforseen problems.
  
• Field Product Reminder
  This is the section that states that we are replacing unnecessary parts. Like If we are replacing alot of window regulator/motor
  assemblies and only the motor is necessary a reminder is sent out that the motor is available separate from the regulator.
  
• Information
  This is by far the largest section and hardly ever relates to a problem with the vehicle. It is mostly frequently asked question
  stuff and is usually brand wide and not vehicle specific. It goes to all areas, technical, parts and warranty management
  
• Technical
  Pretty self explanitory, these are what you think that all of the bullitens are. It's stuff that we know we have issues with and
  have designed a specific fix for. Those fixes have been developed after Engineering Information and Exchange Programs have
  come to a conclusion on what happened to the part or system. The fact that a technical bulliten exists does not mean that
  even most vehicles will see the failure just that it is common enough to let techs know about it. If it happens to most vehicles a
  recall or campaign will be issued as the case would dictate, these are not bullitens they are campaigns.
  
• Technical Training
  notifies us of new training available for new systems or updated training for older systems
  
• Warranty Administration
  This tells the warranty administrators that they are submitting alot of the same claims in an improper way usually.
  

Most of these bullitens you see do not relate at all to any defect whatsoever, they are just information, I hope that makes you feel better about the amount of bullitens. If you saw a hundred bullitens a handfull might directly relate to a defect that might happen in your particular vehicle. That might still seem like alot but with the amount of advancements and technology that is in todays vehicle I find it pretty good. The computer you are reading this on probably has twenty out of date programs and drivers.

 

About us causing a problem to get some warranty repairs, that's just bad buisness and I know we get dirty for a living but we are not morons. If I wanted to generate ficticious warranty dollars I could do that without creating a customer that has to come back upset. We could do that with creative ticket writing on the first visit that you would never know about (I don't do that GM audits us regularly and it's a pretty easy process to see through). It doesn't make any sense to create problems and make you upset. GM sends out customer service surveys and if we were creating problems it would be evident by the surveys that we are doing that or just flat out not fixing things right the first time. Trust me there are repercussions for both.

 

This does not by any means cover all dealers or techs. There are some that are shady but of all the people I've worked with the amount of shady ones to good ones is the opposite of what most people think. I'm not pumping GM, this is an industry statement. However if you stop buying GM then we have to go work for Dodge and nobody wants that. Seriously though if you walk into the dealer with the idea you are getting the raw end of something then you are, not necessarilly because that is what you got but that is the perception you have. If you don't like your dealer then we have set it up that you can take any GM product to any GM dealer so you can choose any dealer you want, take it down the road and register your complaint about the dealer you don't like. Please just come in with an open mind, we really do know you want to be happy with your purchace and we really do want you to be happy with it. If we didn't we wouldn't pay the millions of dollars in research it takes for every one page bulliten.

 

In short

Do dealers intentionally do stuff like this to make money on warranty?

No and

I noticed the tsb list on this model truck is quite long and GM should even be a bit embarrassed about it.

I'm not embarrassed I think it's a good thing.

 

EDIT:^^^^^^^^^what he said about the steering shaft on the 900. Was it the intermediate shaft or collum. If you could PM me with your vin I could look at the claim, I'm kind of interested to see what the defect was.

[Zembonez]

Way to go Mike. Well put.

 

When I said I didn't blame him for being ticked at dealers because of his Dodge experience, I wasn't saying dealers are bad news. Like anything else in this world there are some good and some not so good.

 

A lot of times your experience with a vehicle (any vehicle) is influenced by your expectations of that vehicle. Some folks start looking for anything and everything that they can conjure up as a "problem" once something has gone wrong. It's a slippery slope that leads to never being satisfied... Not pretty. It will drive you and your dealer nuts. All vehicles are an assembly of thousands of parts that work together. Some do it better than others. All have occasional issues.

 

Of the many new vehicles I have purchased over the years, I've never had a perfect one.

[Griffin86]

Way to go Mike. Well put.

 

When I said I didn't blame him for being ticked at dealers because of his Dodge experience, I wasn't saying dealers are bad news. Like anything else in this world there are some good and some not so good.

 

A lot of times your experience with a vehicle (any vehicle) is influenced by your expectations of that vehicle. Some folks start looking for anything and everything that they can conjure up as a "problem" once something has gone wrong. It's a slippery slope that leads to never being satisfied... Not pretty. It will drive you and your dealer nuts. All vehicles are an assembly of thousands of parts that work together. Some do it better than others. All have occasional issues.

 

Of the many new vehicles I have purchased over the years, I've never had a perfect one.

 

+1 for mike

 

Not to pick on him but Punmax is one of them.

[RVJ]

My 08 Sierra had the same sort of noise at about 45 mph with the slightest amount of pressure on the gas pedal, but not enough pressure to kick it into V8 mode. I found the motor cover was vibrating on a wire harness and it's now silent. It sits in rubber grommets, remove it and drive it and see if the noise goes away. If it does then your is also vibrating around in the rubber grommets.

[paulnjackie]

I would first like to say thanks to all for the feed back I recieved on this, especially Mr. Sparkstech, aka Mike and Zembonez for the extra time and consideration.

 

Secondly, just so you have an accurate idea of how i was treated by the great fellas at the dodge dealer. The last time I was in there for my trans, it growned, howled, and bucked the truck under moderate to heavy acceleration. I was told and I quote- " No problem found with trans or drive line. The noise heard is due to after market exhaust installed by the customer, causing vibration as well." This was documented and handed to me by the service manager. Mind you the truck had 48000 miles on it and they replaced the engine( but only after 4 visits @ $100 deductible each visit) And at 60000 the pinion and axle shaft bearings. THEN @ 63000 miles the transmission problem. And the transmission was 2 visits at the same deductible. ( BY the way, I pulled the pan off the trans and saw the broken separator plate and put it back together and headed immediately to the dealer to inform them of my findings. I was then told that because I did that, it was no longer under the 7 year 70000 mile warranty.) So , needless to say, Chrysler was no longer an option for me, and they assumed a position below Toyota. And now im driving a nice new shiney Chevrolet.

 

I love the truck, but with disappointment. I am confident that this chevy dealer will take care of me! And my truck and I will drive happily ever after. But... I AM dealershipped out.

 

 

I would love to get a copy of all the tsb's on the vehicle and correct when applicable.

And while on the subject of tsb's, I agree with your statement partly that they are a good thing.( that problems are authenticated and addressed) where I tend to disagree is that even though it may be a new model truck, car makers in general have been doing this for a LONG time and that GM , Ford, AND the sinful Chrysler All have proving grounds right here in Michigan. I know the world is not perfect, and I am probably over doing this, but 35-45 thousand dollars of hard earned money should not return excuses or applogies by way of tsb's. Just an opinion.

 

But I mainly wanted to say thanks and that i will try any and all suggestions. I really am quite impressed with this forum and hope to come up with my solution here! But if not, I will update with the cause and resolution if I take her in.

 

Sincerely, Paul

[2000DV4.8]

Got any pictures of the truck?

[paulnjackie]

My 08 Sierra had the same sort of noise at about 45 mph with the slightest amount of pressure on the gas pedal, but not enough pressure to kick it into V8 mode. I found the motor cover was vibrating on a wire harness and it's now silent. It sits in rubber grommets, remove it and drive it and see if the noise goes away. If it does then your is also vibrating around in the rubber grommets.

 

 

I feathered the accelerator like Mr. RJV had and I was able to duplicate the noise but not as well as heard on the decel. I removed the cover and that noise has disappeared. Can anyone answer why the engine is stuffed so far back into the bulk head or firewall?

Thanks for sharing this, I would have never guessed that fix. I was sure it was gonna drag on and on.

 

Did you leave your cover off or figure out how to keep it on without the noise?

 

 

Paul.

 

P.S. I shared the info and showed the Service manager the noise and the apparent fix.

[Guest Riggs]

glad you got your truck fixed