LT V6 Motor is blown! With only 9,000 miles on the clock...need help!

[trm0002]

Originally Posted by fastball

Forward this thread to Fbodfather. Not sure what if anything he can do, but nonetheless he needs to be aware of this situation. Poor customer service by the dealer and unacceptable repair option by General Motors (as you are all well aware by now I support a full replacement of the OP's engine with a brand new one instead of simply "repairing" it).

DarkneSS I would not fault you for never buying a GM vehicle again.

He's got a LOT more patience than I do. No bull- I'd have had someone's ass after two weeks. That is ample time to either fix the engine or have a new/rebuilt/whatever installed. GM is really happy right now that it isn't my car...

[DarkneSS]

Originally Posted by fastball

Forward this thread to Fbodfather. Not sure what if anything he can do, but nonetheless he needs to be aware of this situation. Poor customer service by the dealer and unacceptable repair option by General Motors (as you are all well aware by now I support a full replacement of the OP's engine with a brand new one instead of simply "repairing" it).

DarkneSS I would not fault you for never buying a GM vehicle again.

Yeah I believe he is aware of it.

Sad thing is that there was such an easy solution to this situation.

They should have taken my motor out, packaged it up and sent it away to wherever GM tests their cars and motors. Let some engineers tear it down and figure out what exactly went wrong so it would not happen again.

In the meantime they should have ordered a new motor and put that in. It couldn't have taken more than two weeks total for them to do the motor swap. Then I drive away a satisfied customer happy I was taken care of and happy with a new motor.

All that would have cost GM is a new motor and two weeks worth of a rental.

NOW they have to pay 6 weeks worth of rental fees, new parts, warranty labor for the swap, and now two months of payments to an angry customer. Not only that but the dealer has my car sitting on their lift so they are unable to use it for any work. Additionally this poor mechanic has to tear down a motor he has probably never built before and rebuild the entire thing and hope he doesn't mess up on one of the thousands of things that go wrong.

Not only that but if when I get the car the rebuild did not go properly and the car doesn't run correctly I'm instantly bringing it in and contacting a lawyer to move forward with enacting my rights under the lemon law. GM will then have to offer up and report the car as a lemon and provide me with a new vehicle. And not to mention if I am angry enough I can just get a full refund and take my business to a different company.

ALL of this could have been avoided by just giving me a new motor, instead all they have managed to do is severely anger a customer and make way too many people's lives difficult.


:mad0 260:

[firestone_ss]

i feel kinda bad for you but damn dude you act like your the only one this has ever happened to,my camaro was rear ended back in june 2009,i had the car for 2 weeks,there were no parts i was out of my car for over 60 days,let me say that again 60 days.Now its time to put your big boy pants on stop your crying and deal with it.I was not happy but i worked constantly to try and get the lack of parts issue resolved as quickly as possible,but as the saying goes you cant get blood from a turnip.Theres also the saying when life give you lemons make lemonade and thats what i had to do.Instead of trying to fight the battle of parts availibilty i went a different route which was to have gm make my car payments for me until my car was completed.I simply took all my anger and frustration and called gm,not the dealer,but gm and made my case without crying,yelling or threatning to hire a lawyer and you would be amazed at how far that will get you.Im not saying the dealer is right in the way your being treated there not,but its the dealer not gm.They should have parts availible for any car they sell period but we dont live in a perfect world so sometimes we get screwd.Hit them where it hurts,the pocket book,rental cars<loaner cars> and car payments are an excellent way to get the dealer to move a little faster.This seemed to work for me and maybe you already tried this but for god sakes quit acting like your the only one this has happened too,and i really do hope you get your car back soon and have no further problems.

[Sax1031]

Originally Posted by firestone_ss

i feel kinda bad for you but damn dude you act like your the only one this has ever happened to,my camaro was rear ended back in june 2009,i had the car for 2 weeks,there were no parts i was out of my car for over 60 days,let me say that again 60 days.Now its time to put your big boy pants on stop your crying and deal with it.I was not happy but i worked constantly to try and get the lack of parts issue resolved as quickly as possible,but as the saying goes you cant get blood from a turnip.Theres also the saying when life give you lemons make lemonade and thats what i had to do.Instead of trying to fight the battle of parts availibilty i went a different route which was to have gm make my car payments for me until my car was completed.I simply took all my anger and frustration and called gm,not the dealer,but gm and made my case without crying,yelling or threatning to hire a lawyer and you would be amazed at how far that will get you.Im not saying the dealer is right in the way your being treated there not,but its the dealer not gm.They should have parts availible for any car they sell period but we dont live in a perfect world so sometimes we get screwd.Hit them where it hurts,the pocket book,rental cars<loaner cars> and car payments are an excellent way to get the dealer to move a little faster.This seemed to work for me and maybe you already tried this but for god sakes quit acting like your the only one this has happened too,and i really do hope you get your car back soon and have no further problems.

two totally different scenarios. your scenario is someone else's fault. the op's scenario is the manufacturer's fault.

[King Sun]

It amazes me how people try to make the situation seem okay In this thread.

[trm0002]

Originally Posted by firestone_ss

i feel kinda bad for you but damn dude you act like your the only one this has ever happened to,my camaro was rear ended back in june 2009,i had the car for 2 weeks,there were no parts i was out of my car for over 60 days,let me say that again 60 days.Now its time to put your big boy pants on stop your crying and deal with it.I was not happy but i worked constantly to try and get the lack of parts issue resolved as quickly as possible,but as the saying goes you cant get blood from a turnip.Theres also the saying when life give you lemons make lemonade and thats what i had to do.Instead of trying to fight the battle of parts availibilty i went a different route which was to have gm make my car payments for me until my car was completed.I simply took all my anger and frustration and called gm,not the dealer,but gm and made my case without crying,yelling or threatning to hire a lawyer and you would be amazed at how far that will get you.Im not saying the dealer is right in the way your being treated there not,but its the dealer not gm.They should have parts availible for any car they sell period but we dont live in a perfect world so sometimes we get screwd.Hit them where it hurts,the pocket book,rental cars<loaner cars> and car payments are an excellent way to get the dealer to move a little faster.This seemed to work for me and maybe you already tried this but for god sakes quit acting like your the only one this has happened too,and i really do hope you get your car back soon and have no further problems.

Originally Posted by King Sun

It amazes me how people try to make the situation seem okay In this thread.

Look, what's wrong with the situation is the lack of any urgency in it being handled. Shit breaks- I fully understand that; the engine taking a crap at 9000 miles isn't the real problem.

The "parts aren't available" line is horseshit as far as I'm concerned. They may not be available at the main GM parts depot because of the JIT (just in time) order scheduling but come on, this isn't an engine with internal parts that have never been made before for another engine. If there was going to be an unfortunate delay this long I would have gone to NAPA, bought the parts off the shelf and gave them the damn bill... I know that's not the way it works but it's the way it should work.

[DarkneSS]

Originally Posted by trm0002

Look, what's wrong with the situation is the lack of any urgency in it being handled. Shit breaks- I fully understand that; the engine taking a crap at 9000 miles isn't the real problem.

The "parts aren't available" line is horseshit as far as I'm concerned. They may not be available at the main GM parts depot because of the JIT (just in time) order scheduling but come on, this isn't an engine with internal parts that have never been made before for another engine. If there was going to be an unfortunate delay this long I would have gone to NAPA, bought the parts off the shelf and gave them the damn bill... I know that's not the way it works but it's the way it should work.

There is definitely a massive infrastructural problem within GM for something like this to happen. It should have been known immediately that new parts were going to take over a month to get in. The next best solution should have been carried out at that time, which is a new motor. A new motor would have been cheaper for GM, quicker, and kept a customer happy.

At 20 years old I have a lot of future car purchases to go, in terms of longevity I'm the last type of customer you want to ruin a relationship with. My mom had huge problems when she was my age, she bought a Chevy Citation that kept having electrical problems they could never fix.

Ever since then she has been a loyal Nissan customer and to my knowledge has purchased 3 brand new maximas since then. Those could easily have been Malibus or even CTS's had GM not had she not had a bad experience with them.

I feel like the same thing is happening to me, in five years which will I be more likely to buy, a new Camaro or whatever hot import sports car is out at the time?

[tokyov]

Originally Posted by DarkneSS

Yeah I believe he is aware of it.

Sad thing is that there was such an easy solution to this situation.

They should have taken my motor out, packaged it up and sent it away to wherever GM tests their cars and motors. Let some engineers tear it down and figure out what exactly went wrong so it would not happen again.

In the meantime they should have ordered a new motor and put that in. It couldn't have taken more than two weeks total for them to do the motor swap. Then I drive away a satisfied customer happy I was taken care of and happy with a new motor.

All that would have cost GM is a new motor and two weeks worth of a rental.

NOW they have to pay 6 weeks worth of rental fees, new parts, warranty labor for the swap, and now two months of payments to an angry customer. Not only that but the dealer has my car sitting on their lift so they are unable to use it for any work. Additionally this poor mechanic has to tear down a motor he has probably never built before and rebuild the entire thing and hope he doesn't mess up on one of the thousands of things that go wrong.

Not only that but if when I get the car the rebuild did not go properly and the car doesn't run correctly I'm instantly bringing it in and contacting a lawyer to move forward with enacting my rights under the lemon law. GM will then have to offer up and report the car as a lemon and provide me with a new vehicle. And not to mention if I am angry enough I can just get a full refund and take my business to a different company.

ALL of this could have been avoided by just giving me a new motor, instead all they have managed to do is severely anger a customer and make way too many people's lives difficult.


:mad0 260:

You might wanna check the lemon laws in your state right now. In Florida at least, if your car is out of commission for 15 or more days, you are automatically entitled to a substantially similar vehicle or your money back. You just gotta fill out the paperwork. Im sure your State has similar lemon law statutes.

Just my 2 cents, but I'd rather have a new car then a completely rebuilt engine which has hundreds of components, each of which has to be built correctly.


Edit:
After reading that your car has been out of commission for over 40 days, you really need to get a lawyer now. I can almost guarantee that you'll be given a new car.

[jimmyh]

Originally Posted by DarkneSS

a rebuilt motor is no longer a new motor and it will probably have problems again down the road. The car has been in for 22 days so I'll be contacting a lawyer shortly to review my rights in terms of the lemon law.

What's wrong with a rebuilt motor? Your brand new motor from the factory blew, so what is to keep another new motor from blowing?

And I dont think the lemon law is going to help unless you blow the motor two more times. I have a friend whose 3000GT was at the dealer for 6 months, and lemon law did not apply.

They are fixing it under warranty, n'est pas? Sounds like they are doing what they are supposed to. Don't get yourself worked up. There are way more important things in life than a car.

[squat]

Originally Posted by jimmyh

What's wrong with a rebuilt motor? Your brand new motor from the factory blew, so what is to keep another new motor from blowing?

A rebuilt motor is rebuilt by a mechanic that works on sensors and exhausts and all kinds of other stuff for a living. Almost a certainty that he's never built/rebuilt a 3.6 DI motor.

This isn't like back in the 60s when motors were pretty simple, there's a ton of shit that has to be carefully calibrated for this motor to work right. There's a great chance that the mechanic will **** something up along the way.

A brand new motor would be built by people/machines that only build this motor for a living. A very good chance that a new motor will have nothing wrong with it.

The failure of his new motor wasn't because it was built incorrectly, but because his motor is one of the very few that had a part with a flaw in it (impurity in the metal, for example) that reared it's head after little use. There would be very little chance that his new motor would have the same issue.

Quit apologizing for GM here, they are ****ing up bad and should have either given him his money back, a new car, or a new motor. Going 40+ days w/o your car because of a manufacturer defect is ridiculous.

[King Sun]

Originally Posted by squat

A rebuilt motor is rebuilt by a mechanic that works on sensors and exhausts and all kinds of other stuff for a living. Almost a certainty that he's never built/rebuilt a 3.6 DI motor.

This isn't like back in the 60s when motors were pretty simple, there's a ton of shit that has to be carefully calibrated for this motor to work right. There's a great chance that the mechanic will **** something up along the way.

A brand new motor would be built by people/machines that only build this motor for a living. A very good chance that a new motor will have nothing wrong with it.

The failure of his new motor wasn't because it was built incorrectly, but because his motor is one of the very few that had a part with a flaw in it (impurity in the metal, for example) that reared it's head after little use. There would be very little chance that his new motor would have the same issue.

Quit apologizing for GM here, they are ****ing up bad and should have either given him his money back, a new car, or a new motor. Going 40+ days w/o your car because of a manufacturer defect is ridiculous.

then come to account the people that brought and financed the car brand new? its not like the car had 20,000 miles on it with good wear its 9,000 miles on the clock. he still played for a brand new car which he's still paying a monthly price for not a new car with a rebuilt engine. What if he had to sell the car for whatever reason and if he has rebuilt engine with that low miles on the car the value will go down significantly. Look I know things break but if you buy a brand new car and something breaks on it you should be able to have brand new parts especially at 9,000 mi period. Imo if you going to go ahead and just offer to rebuild a engine on a new car like that you should renegotiate the loan to make up for the difference.

[greenrail]

Sorry, but would you please reconcile the statement you made that you "had no car for 44 days" and then later on you say that GM is paying for a rental car for six weeks?

I fully sympathize with a faulty engine. I understand that. But, you make all the bluster in the world here and then you demand and complain about this and that.

You are being provided a vehicle while your car is in the shop. A lot of folks need to quit botching about not being provided a suitable vehicle. Everyone thinks they are deserving of a 'vette, Cadillac, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, ... What ever.

Sorry about the rant... But it's time for some folks to get a grip.

For better or worse, the Camaro is a mass produced, mass market automobile. It isn't a Rolls, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini or other vehicle of similar ilk.

Nothing more nothing less. BMW, MERCEDES, Toyota, Acrua, Honda, Infiniti, or _____________(insert mass market brand of your choice), would be doing the same thing.

[camarorick]

Originally Posted by greenrail

Sorry, but would you please reconcile the statement you made that you "had no car for 44 days" and then later on you say that GM is paying for a rental car for six weeks?

I fully sympathize with a faulty engine. I understand that. But, you make all the bluster in the world here and then you demand and complain about this and that.

You are being provided a vehicle while your car is in the shop. A lot of folks need to quit botching about not being provided a suitable vehicle. Everyone thinks they are deserving of a 'vette, Cadillac, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, ... What ever.

Sorry about the rant... But it's time for some folks to get a grip.

For better or worse, the Camaro is a mass produced, mass market automobile. It isn't a Rolls, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini or other vehicle of similar ilk.

Nothing more nothing less. BMW, MERCEDES, Toyota, Acrua, Honda, Infiniti, or _____________(insert mass market brand of your choice), would be doing the same thing.

So, you think it's acceptable for the dealer/GM to take 44 days to repair an engine ?... I bet you'd be singing another tune had it been you.... Just sayin'...

Let's hope the mechanic working on this engine is better than the one who worked on camarodriver's.

[greenrail]

Originally Posted by camarorick

So, you think it's acceptable for the dealer/GM to take 44 days to repair an engine ?... I bet you'd be singing another tune had it been you.... Just sayin'...

Let's hope the mechanic working on this engine is better than the one who worked on camarodriver's.

I didn't say that. However, saying you don't have a car when you have been provided one. Doesn't quite square.

Add to that all the bluster about new engine versus rebuilt and diminished value, and it just seems a bit over the top at times i here.

Regardless, it's time to quit the over the top bluster about how intrinsically valuable these cars are. It is a mass produced mass market auto. It won't gain any value for about 30-40 years from now, if ever.

And yes i do understand the frustration. My Camaro was laid up for over two weeks, instead of running around demanding the moon and the stars, I waited to have it fixed. I expected Nd received the treatment which I had agreed to when I bought the car. My main disappointment was that the problem (split open trans oil cooler), happened at 1800 miles.

My position all along here has been that the Manufacturer and consumer enter into an agreement for warrantee repairs at the time of purchase. Regardless of whether you are in Canada or the U.S.

Yes the fact that the car has been out of services is not right. But, the end result is that there has been a vehicle provided for the owner here. That is hardly an inconvenience.

Ask yourself this.... Do the other Manufacturers do this? Does Toyota? Honda? Nissan? Chrysler? Ford? I honestly don't know Since I own a Camaro and a used Chrysler that is out of warrantee.

I do agree however that there is a lot of work needed by all the Manufacturers and suppliers, regardless of make for ensuring timely supply of parts and replacements.

Pardon any typos here. I am typing this on my Ipad.