so back in july i decide to buy a newer car for my girl, the main idea for this was me wanting a car that if something breaks she can take it to the dealer and have it fixed under warantee and i do not have to fix anything. so we ended up buying a very nice white 2005 impala ls. so i few months later it starts having a ticking noise upon start up. so as a suspected the dealer tells me its a lifter but even if they fixed it they thought it would be back in 30-40,000 miles but keep a eye on it. so since then it developed a fuel leak and i was pretty sure it was the pressure regulator. so we take it in to the dealer on monday and they have it over night, call me tuesday and they tell me they can smell gas but cant find the leak but the intake gasket is shot BUT the warantee wont cover either item. so this makes me very mad so after looking over the warantee it says plain as day "gaskets and seals" so i call them and tell them, they are like "oh yea i guess that is covered" so i told them that while they are in there i want the lifter fixed. they listen to it and try to tell me that it is piston clap, i am 99% sure that this is not the issue but their "tech" tells me it is and is a common issue. so i look it up, it was a common issue up until 2003 and gm was in a class action lawsuit to correct the issue. so i tell them that if it is piston clap they have even bigger issues and i want it fixed! so they tell me that they can not repair it, it is normal and is more of a anoyance.... a anoyance?!?!? WTF i pay all this money and get a car with a warantee but i have to listen to a tick everytime i start it? hell no! i want this fixed, so i start researching all of this stuff and sending them faxes about it and now they tell me they are going to have to do some research, now i have them thinking! now ihave to wait till friday to hear back. if i dont get this all fixed then i am not ever going to buy a newer vehicle like this again, my daily driver is a 90 cadillac, i have 2 of them actually and they dont tick or make noises when i start them and they both have over 100,000 more miles then my impala! i am not happy, the fuel regulator is fine, i will do that myself but a internal engine noise not covered? thats b.s. and if they dont fix it i am going to tell everyone i can about my experiance with gm, the dealer and the gm powertrain warantee and how worthless it is! to top it all of my buddy has a 2009 h3 hummer that we drove to st louis a couple weeks back, a 2009 that had 8k on it when we left, half way to st louis the heater core goes out! and tehn the service engine light comes on and we find out the transmission is having issues! gm, what is up with this crap???!??!?!?!?!?!?
i am mad at gm and the dealer! maybe gm should go under???
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unfortunately GM is known for annoying problems that can be "ignored". it comes from the lousy job done assembling the cars.
however it sounds like your biggest problem is the dealership. some of them are masters of ripping you off. just make sure that any and all complaints are documented, this way even if they're not fixed by the end of the warranty it's still covered. that and find a new dealer.
however it sounds like your biggest problem is the dealership. some of them are masters of ripping you off. just make sure that any and all complaints are documented, this way even if they're not fixed by the end of the warranty it's still covered. that and find a new dealer.
trust me, i am documenting all of this. i am making the dealer have everything in writing and have the supervisor sign it and then i am taing it to another dealer and seeing what they have to say about my issues i am having. if that fails then i am going higher! how can gm ignore these issues? if they can not produce a quality product and back up their warantee then they can go ahead and fall apart! i own 8 gm cars, im a hard core gm guy but this is making me think twice!
Its not gm only i have worked at a nissan and ford dealer ships as a tech.We was told to ignore things tell they get really bad.And on warranty work it has to be fully broke before we replace it.Recalls we fixed fine and the tech service bulletin was saved for when it came in is something they goofed on making them but not a recall yet.The biggest b*tch i had about gm there fwd cars the alt they use is junk i replace 2 of them a week still.I'd never buy a new car i hate payments and after seeing how some of them really are built i rather spend the money on a older car they are cheaper to fix.I have seen some shotty repairs done at dealer ships sam swope turned rotors too thin and they busted on my uncles grand am he had to sue them to get his car fixed.
i think it may be time to sell the car? maybe i can get her to drive my cutlass i was going to sell.......
I would make sure it is not a bad intake manifold too. Newer cars (Malibus are notorious for it as are some Ford mod motors) with the plastic intakes tend to have cracked or warped intakes with a disturbing amount of regularity. Unfortunately, GM builds cars to be good enough to outlast the warranty, but not much longer than that. I am also a little wary of new Nissans now that Renault owns the company. They are known for shaving costs a little too well since the French took over. I love my Nissan, but it will probably be the last new one I own for a while. The sad thing is, I like having a brand new car, but I can't find one that I like enough to make payments on and trust that it will outlast the payment book.
the 3.0 and 3.4l v6 were notorious for bad intakes, but i'm pretty sure that they no longer use that design. the 3800's (which i believe came in the impalas) were pretty good though. the problem with the intakes was poor torqueing at the plant and running the EGR system (ie very hot gas) throught the plastic around the throttle body.
Unfortunately the ticking is common on 3800 Series II motors. The original motor in my GP had done it every so often, however the Series III that I have in my car now(long story) does not do it. GM won't cover anything like that, it's just something to live with, good ol' GM!!!
Definitely check back with the bad lower intake manifold gasket though.
Definitely check back with the bad lower intake manifold gasket though.
find some techs who dont have thier heads lodged in thier asses. (read as a new dealership)
buy honda next time.
buy honda next time.
My grandma went through stuff like this with the '96 Caprice she bought new, and is now owned by me.
At about 15K miles, the check engine light came on, and she took it to the dealer. Their techs checked it out, and couldn't find the problem. She took it back, still no luck. She took it back again, and still nothing. It was an emissions related code, but the people working on it could only scan the computer, and had no idea how to address any of the possible proplems. She tried one more time, and the best thing they came up with was carbon build up. What a load of sh*t. I bought the car with 30K miles on it in '03. I scanned the computer at school, and simply chose to ignore it. The car still ran perfect, and got 23 mpg, so I didn't give a hoot.
The car has 118K on it now, and the damn light is still on. The low coolant light burned out in a couple months, but that check engine light was still on till this summer when I swapped out the digital instrument cluster for a Z28 one. Now, instead of a check engine light being on, my service engine soon light is on... Oh well.
The bottom line is that dealers don't want to do your warranty work because there's no money in it, and they will put it off as long as they can, letting small problems become big problems. The stealership will avoid it like the plague, like when they lied and said that your gaskets weren't covered. Most people would've just shrugged and said "ok, I'll pay you to do it." instead of taking the time to look into it like you did.
At about 15K miles, the check engine light came on, and she took it to the dealer. Their techs checked it out, and couldn't find the problem. She took it back, still no luck. She took it back again, and still nothing. It was an emissions related code, but the people working on it could only scan the computer, and had no idea how to address any of the possible proplems. She tried one more time, and the best thing they came up with was carbon build up. What a load of sh*t. I bought the car with 30K miles on it in '03. I scanned the computer at school, and simply chose to ignore it. The car still ran perfect, and got 23 mpg, so I didn't give a hoot.
The car has 118K on it now, and the damn light is still on. The low coolant light burned out in a couple months, but that check engine light was still on till this summer when I swapped out the digital instrument cluster for a Z28 one. Now, instead of a check engine light being on, my service engine soon light is on... Oh well.
The bottom line is that dealers don't want to do your warranty work because there's no money in it, and they will put it off as long as they can, letting small problems become big problems. The stealership will avoid it like the plague, like when they lied and said that your gaskets weren't covered. Most people would've just shrugged and said "ok, I'll pay you to do it." instead of taking the time to look into it like you did.
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