Interesting story, but not sure I'm going to believe the sky is falling based on her assessment either.
Look, we all know the LLT has had its fair share of issues (timing chain and disappearing oil) but there are just as many or more that have gone many many miles without needing major repair. Unfortunately this really doesn't instill confidence, but I sure as heck don't believe each and every engine is a bad one.
I've been on this site for a very long time and don't remember reading much at all about front covers leaking. Timing chains...yes that happens. But not much comes to mind about front seals leaking.
There are a couple threads active right now in both the LLT and LFX sections asking at what mileage the timing chains have gone out. In the LFX thread someone there mentioned that his tech told him that they noticed the timing chain issue happens mostly to drivers who tend to do lots of short trips in the car. I asked him about it and he said that to me. Here is what he originally said:
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Agreed. Furthermore, my understanding is that the timing chain issue was related to people who only drive their cars for short bursts and don't let the engine oil get to operating temperature. The LLT direct injected engines leak gas into the engine oil but the engineers thought it was OK because as soon as the engine oil gets to operating temp the gas is burned off. Well, in the case of people who are only traveling short distances on a regular basis the engine oil doesn't warm up hot enough to burn the gas off, the gas accumulates, and the timing chains and/or bearings start failing. I was told this was only with the LLT, the issues were corrected in the LFX.
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So there is another opinion of a GM tech.
As far as the LFX is concerned I don't feel like that engine is plagued by the same faults, or at least the same frequency as the LLT. LFX has been used in these cars going on 3 years now and I'm not sure I've read about one failure yet.
Anyways...yes sadly the LLT does make me a little nervous which really sucks since I do love this car, but have to be worried if its going to fail on me in the future. As for the LFX, if I had that engine I'd be all smiles.