BREAKING: GM is officially recalling the L87

[Scagsdale]

Because, as i have alluded to in earlier posts, most who are purchasing vehicles have no desire (and/OR know-how) to work on them.. hence why they are buying new vehicles. You’d be hard pressed to even find a grease monkey that will turn wrenches on a new vehicle under warranty other than an oil change maybe.

Agree. When I was in my 30s I decided to rebuild the V8 on a 77 Ford F-150. I enjoyed doing it, but with working full time it took me three months. Hahahaha. And then my wife got pregnant with twins (children 3 and 4) and that was the end of that truck. Needed a bigger car. Too bad, it ran sweet. 400 ci.

 

[Scagsdale]

Yes. And the technology is nowhere near as well-documented and accessible for DIY repair as the mechanical bits. There is a big opportunity for a company to start reverse engineering and documenting the technology in these, and help facilitate DIY repairs to it. Right now, it's all black boxes to most of us.

YouTube is pretty helpful. The last job I did was replacing a leaky intake manifold gasket on my 2001 Pontiac GTP… rebuilt the supercharger at the same time. YouTube had videos for all of it. It was fun, but I couldn’t get the cruise control working after that… I screwed something up. Hahahaha. Drove it cross country a few weeks after I finished the job. Fast little v6 with that supercharger. Passed it on to one of my sons eventually.

 

[cornicekurt]

I had my oil changed a couple of weeks ago and my dealer put in Mobil 1 0W-40 Supercar oil per the recall (but didn't perform the recall since it hasn't been released yet). That cost me an extra $37 or so more than normal. I had them take a sample of the 0W-20 that they drained out, and I sent it to Blackstone for my own peace of mind. For reference, my Yukon XL has 50k miles on it and this was the 10th oil change. I had the first one done at 600 miles and then changed it roughly every 5-6k miles since.

I've attached my analysis. Thankfully all of the numbers look good and there's no sign of bearing wear. Maybe that'll help reassure some of you with higher mileage engines. But seeing how several people aren't getting any warnings before failure, I'm still a bit concerned. Especially after seeing Vladimir's post today .

Not that I don’t trust GM on this, but I’m planning on having an independent oil change shop pull a pint out to send in for analysis.

 

[cornicekurt]

2. More likely that GM thinks the thicker oil will DELAY this catastrophe til after 150,000 miles.
The number of these engines that fail before 200,000 miles will be either telling or damning.

I’ve said that in an earlier post. All of my vehicles have run strong well into the 200’s. Spending 25k to replace a motor in a vehicle I paid 100k for at 150 doesn’t sit well with me. I believe they’re going to be replacing all of these engines.

 

[cornicekurt]

All engines? Sure, at what mileage, 500K? Unless there is a 100% defect rate on the suspect parts, there will be millions of these engines still chugging along years from now.

I’m not betting on your prediction. These things are all going down inside of 200k.

 

[Vladimir2306]

Whether it’s a truck, a boat or a house, here in America the majority of people who spend the money on a higher end product are usually not the ones maintaining or fixing that product.
The more expensive the vehicle, boat or house the less likely the owner is going to be working on fixing or maintaining it.

It's not about changing the engine or changing the oil yourself. For example, I also do not serve the Yukon itself. The point here is to understand what they are doing in the service, and if they are doing it, then for what purpose, what are the consequences. And if you understand that they seem to be deceiving you, then you will think about changing the service

 

[Vladimir2306]

Out of curiosity : how much is a good mechanic's labor per hour in Russia? Around here it's around $150-200 from what I can tell based on my past invoices and quotes (Toyota, Chevy). To clarify: that's not what the mechanic earns - that's what dealer/services charges the customer

$150-$200 per service per hour, are you sure? I have seen several mentions here in the forum that changing the oil to 0-40 costs 150-160 USD, this is together with the cost of the oil. For example, we have an oil service, this is when you just change the oil in the engine and the oil filter, and that's it, nothing else. It costs about $ 250 with the cost of oil. If you evaluate this work separately, then the purely work of the oil change service costs about $ 80.
If you come, for example, with your spare parts, oil, filters, as I do. Then the work of the service for me comes out to be about $ 300, this is purely the work of the service for changing the oil, replacing the air filter, cabin filter, checking the car, updating the software, something else to do, well, there, lubricating the doors or sunroof, so for a trifle runs up to $ 300. And I'm talking about a service that is not an official dealer.
In the service that used to be an official GM dealer, car maintenance comes out about 600-700 dollars, which is about the same as I have for 300.
Here's another example, now the work on replacing the engine will cost me about 30 thousand dollars, and the work on removing the old one, revising the new one, installing a new one, plus new radiators, oil pipes and the rest will come out to about 4 thousand dollars. I don't know how much this job will cost in the United States.
In general, the salary of a mechanic, and people in general, is a very delicate topic and it is not customary for us to discuss it at all or ask a person a question about his income. But I can suspect that the mechanic in the service where I service the Yukon receives about $ 2500 a month. But this is Moscow, the capital of Russia, most likely, the farther to the regions, the lower the salary. I'm telling you this as a CFO, as a person who understands a little more about economics than an ordinary person).
However, I have a friend who has a factory, so they could not find a good locksmith for a metalworking machine, and they hardly found a very good specialist and pay him about $ 4500 per month. But it works very well, and a lot.
Recently, we have had a strong imbalance in technical specialties. Everyone wants to be a blogger and, it, lawyers. No one wants to go to learn how to twist the screws. Therefore, there is a strong shortage of specialists in this area.
And yes, in Russia, we count net earnings per month, after paying all taxes, how much a person receives on the account. Because the employer pays all taxes on wages for us

 

[Marky Dissod]

I believe they’re going to be replacing all of these engines.

I’m not betting on your prediction. These things are all going down inside of 200k.

Your 2nd statement is more accurate, but ...
I believe they - GM - are trying to get out of replacing as many of these engines as possible.
That's why they skipped over motor oil good enough for an L8T (Dexos 5W30),
and decided on Dexos 0W40, exactly what GM specs for the very nearly identical 6.2L LT1.

GM is HOPING these L87s are are all going down AFTER 150,001 miles.
Otherwise they'd not have bothered with changing the spec from 0W20 to 0W40.

The fact that this forum likes brobdingnagian threads crosses my eyes.

 

[BacDoc]

Your 2nd statement is more accurate, but ...
I believe they - GM - are trying to get out of replacing as many of these engines as possible.
That's why they skipped over motor oil good enough for an L8T (Dexos 5W30),
and decided on Dexos 0W40, exactly what GM specs for the very nearly identical 6.2L LT1.

GM is HOPING these L87s are are all going down AFTER 150,001 miles.
Otherwise they'd not have bothered with changing the spec from 0W20 to 0W40.

The fact that this forum likes brobdingnagian threads crosses my eyes.

Crossing your eyes is better than crossing your threads if you are twisting the screws - pun intended

 

[Silverado4x4]

$150-$200 per service per hour, are you sure? I have seen several mentions here in the forum that changing the oil to 0-40 costs 150-160 USD, this is together with the cost of the oil. For example, we have an oil service, this is when you just change the oil in the engine and the oil filter, and that's it, nothing else. It costs about $ 250 with the cost of oil. If you evaluate this work separately, then the purely work of the oil change service costs about $ 80.
If you come, for example, with your spare parts, oil, filters, as I do. Then the work of the service for me comes out to be about $ 300, this is purely the work of the service for changing the oil, replacing the air filter, cabin filter, checking the car, updating the software, something else to do, well, there, lubricating the doors or sunroof, so for a trifle runs up to $ 300. And I'm talking about a service that is not an official dealer.
In the service that used to be an official GM dealer, car maintenance comes out about 600-700 dollars, which is about the same as I have for 300.
Here's another example, now the work on replacing the engine will cost me about 30 thousand dollars, and the work on removing the old one, revising the new one, installing a new one, plus new radiators, oil pipes and the rest will come out to about 4 thousand dollars. I don't know how much this job will cost in the United States.
In general, the salary of a mechanic, and people in general, is a very delicate topic and it is not customary for us to discuss it at all or ask a person a question about his income. But I can suspect that the mechanic in the service where I service the Yukon receives about $ 2500 a month. But this is Moscow, the capital of Russia, most likely, the farther to the regions, the lower the salary. I'm telling you this as a CFO, as a person who understands a little more about economics than an ordinary person).
However, I have a friend who has a factory, so they could not find a good locksmith for a metalworking machine, and they hardly found a very good specialist and pay him about $ 4500 per month. But it works very well, and a lot.
Recently, we have had a strong imbalance in technical specialties. Everyone wants to be a blogger and, it, lawyers. No one wants to go to learn how to twist the screws. Therefore, there is a strong shortage of specialists in this area.
And yes, in Russia, we count net earnings per month, after paying all taxes, how much a person receives on the account. Because the employer pays all taxes on wages for us

Vald did you get the Yukon back on the road yet?