LBZ: Trip to dealer goes SOUTH!

[twister773]

So i took my truck in a few months ago for wheel bearings, replaced under warranty and the guy said the valve cover gaskets are leaking and we replaced them too, i thought to my self, cool. So 3 months later and i take it in to the dealer yesterday cause my parking break doesn't catch, to fix an oil leak behind the engine, and a ticking noise. So i get a call 3 hours after i drop it off saying they have the parts to fix the oil leak and i ask what it was, and they say the parts came in for the valve covers!? Long story short they said they did it last time and never did, then i get a call this afternoon saying that the ticking noise and the oil they thought was valve covers, is a blown head gasket. They said it has been heavily modified although it was tuned to stock, nothing aftermarket on it but exhaust, i played stupid and said its been stock since ive had it. I dont know what ever came of people arguing whether efi life is noticeable or not but it obviouslt is.He said well we are waiting to here back from gm on whether they will cover it under warranty or not. Basically...:violin:

 

[brokentothemaxdiesel]

That sucks sir....... I hope it works out for you!! :thumb:

 

[JoshH]

And how do they know it was heavily modified? Also, most head gasket problems present themselves as pressurizing the coolant. I'd be a little suspicious of their diagnosis.

 

[Burn Down]

I think only the LMM ecm records how many times the tune gets changed....

 

[twister773]

The service manager guy called me and said it was heavily modified and probably wouldnt be warrantied, and that his computer or something told him that. I played dumb and said all it has is exhaust. And he said its never had a banks or anything on it, and i said no, been stock since ive had it. Then he said well we already sent the word into GM, so we will know by tomorrow around noon if they will cover it. I hate that he used the word "heavily" modified and im sure he said something like that to the people at GM. They first told me it was valve cover gaskets, now they are saying head gasket. And its not smoking or down on power, just the ticking noise and oil on around back of motor.

 

[Iceman56]

What a joke. Can you take it to another dealer?

 

[Big Block 88]

Find another dealer man, I just got done fighting our dealer on our 5th set of injectors on our LB7. They will make shit up like crazy, we were told our injector cups never needed and claim the cups had nothing to do with the leakage.

Anyway sorry for the OT, I wish you luck

 

[MACKIN]

If it's vin flagged it wont matter what dealer you go to. I doubt that you have a blown HG also which sucks because your warranty will probably be voided.

You don't have many options but bark up the ladder and make them prove their heavily modified findings to retain your warranty.

For the life of me although I DO NOT agree with warranty fraud why people don't have a spare ECM retaining their stock ECM. Again I don't condone warranty fraud

 

[Car RamRod]

I went through the same crap with a dealer over gauges. They said my gauges were a performance device....after having crap warranty service on two brand new GM vehicles, I won't buy another.

Just so you guys all know, Mackin does not condone warranty fraud

 

[MACKIN]

I went through the same crap with a dealer over gauges. They said my gauges were a performance device....after having crap warranty service on two brand new GM vehicles, I won't buy another.

Just so you guys all know, Mackin does not condone warranty fraud

Do you?

Sorry if I bother you with that comment but in my defense I think it gives a bad rap to us as I've seen some serious abuse. I don't agree with GM's or the dealers stance in this particular case but it's individuals that have abused warranty claims that make these horror stories, and like you and guages. Some dealers look for anything . I'm sure your aware dealers are individually owned and operated if they submit a warranty claim and it's denied payment they are stuck holding the bag or they will come after the owner for payment and can become a bitch between the customer and dealer. In this day and time of hot-rodding my guess is they're going to get prior approval for warranty service specially something like HG's.

A good repor with your dealer and service department works wonders and they'll work with you.

Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Cougar281]

If it's vin flagged it wont matter what dealer you go to. I doubt that you have a blown HG also which sucks because your warranty will probably be voided.

You don't have many options but bark up the ladder and make them prove their heavily modified findings to retain your warranty.

For the life of me although I DO NOT agree with warranty fraud why people don't have a spare ECM retaining their stock ECM. Again I don't condone warranty fraud

I don't condone fraud either, but the problem isn't so much the relatively few people that juice the heck out of the truck, grenade the motor and want GM to pay to fix it. The problem is the more common mild tuner such as a predator or PPE standard (which 99% of the time will have a REALLY hard time hurting the motor at all... Heck, I ran a PPE HOT+2 ET on 330 for at least a year and my shortblock is fine) and then having an injector go bad, or some other totally unrelated failure, then they get their waranty voided because they had a tuner, yet the failure is totally unrelated and in no way caused by the tuner.

Legally, they should not be able to just void the warranty because you've installed a tuner or other mod unless they can PROVE that the mod caused the failure, but they do... Unfortunately, fighting it is next to impossible.

The other problem is instances where a dealer makes a bad diagnosis and says you have a bad HG, when you most likely don't, and gets your warranty voided for a failure that didn't actually happen....

 

[Car RamRod]

Do you?

Sorry if I bother you with that comment but in my defense I think it gives a bad rap to us as I've seen some serious abuse. I don't agree with GM's or the dealers stance in this particular case but it's individuals that have abused warranty claims that make these horror stories, and like you and guages. Some dealers look for anything . I'm sure your aware dealers are individually owned and operated if they submit a warranty claim and it's denied payment they are stuck holding the bag or they will come after the owner for payment and can become a bitch between the customer and dealer. In this day and time of hot-rodding my guess is they're going to get prior approval for warranty service specially something like HG's.

A good repor with your dealer and service department works wonders and they'll work with you.

Take it for what it's worth.

No I do NOT, I completely agree with you bro. :thumb: You got me all wrong on that. I was just being a smartass repeating what you said since you said it like three times :hug:

 

[RENODMAX]

I agree with cougar it sucks the dealer will try to not put injectors in your truck because you have an exhaust. Twister why don't you do a compression test yourself to figure out if they're just trying to
hose you for a bog repair job.

 

[MACKIN]

I pretty much agree


Definitely getting a bad diagnose which is causing him or could cause him a major headache. Sucky part is people has caused this stance on warranty issues. I'm sure you've seen it many times were some don't care and do wahat they do and laugh that 'hey it's under warranty' so who cares.

I'm aware that all of this has nothing to do with this guys grief,well part of it does, but IMO I side with GM and warranty repair and caution. Might not be popular with some but if you are one to not expect GM to warranty your repair it shouldn't bother you.

These trucks are expensive to fix so therefore if you mod your truck you should expect possibly that you might become your own warranty station. IMO you shouldn't get pissed at General Motors . Put your self in their shoes. If you sold someone a product and they altered it you'd tell them go pound sand too.

There has no doubt people been ripped for warranty service but I'll bet GM has been ripped more. Does it make it right ? Probably not but how else is GM going to handle it? Sucks for many that some abuse the system

I'm not talking about the ridiculous crap like people with lifts getting power train warranty denial. Hopefully this guy gets his problem solved.

I would work with the service manger where the truck is at or go elsewhere. IF he has the warranty slip that they previously did the valve-cover gaskets I would bring that to their attention. The HG diagnose is BS get a second opinion.

What is the ticking?

 

[MACKIN]

No I do NOT, I completely agree with you bro. :thumb: You got me all wrong on that. I was just being a smartass repeating what you said since you said it like three times :hug:

It's all cool it's just a stickler with me (not this gent) but I've seen some people say and do some pretty dumb shit.

 

[SIKDMAX]

Tristan... call me later Ill go up there with you. The truck does NOT have bad headgaskets.

I just drove this truck 300 miles towing a trailer with my dmax on it and this thing has strong power. Me and Russ agreed, it has an exhaust manifold leak causing the classic typewriter noise.

I was going to help Tristan snug all the bolts up but Ive been down from my accident.

Its got leaky valve covers for sure, we need to get in there and pressure wash the motor and check things out.

Call me.

 

[Josh2002cc]

They pry say headgaskets because they already filed a warranty for a valve cover repair which they never did. I am saying, they charged GM for your valve cover repair that never happened and got paid so it would look bad if they file for it again.

 

[twister773]

I have a hard time believing them as well because last time i took it in the supposedly replaced the valve cover gaskets which they never did, and now this time they go to actually replace them were they said its leaking and not its a head gasket. I still have 15k miles left of warranty and if it gets voided because of BS claims or problems that dont exist i am not gonna be happy. This dealer that seemed ok has really just done a 180. I also feel like a parking brake not working should be warranty but they want 60 dollars to "adjust" it cause it doesnt catch. Ive talked to my dad and he said if they aren't gonna warranty it we will be doing the repairs ourselves. Reno, if they end up saying it is gonna be covered i will do a compression test. I should know by lunch if GM is gonna cover it, but thinking there is about a 1% chance.

 

[twister773]

Josh i was thinking the same thing...is it possible for me to call the dealer and talk to the lady in book keeping and have her fax me the invoice for the last repair...

 

[Josh2002cc]

Do a vin check here, it should show up. Trust me when I tell you this type of thing happens every day.