Is it GM or the dealer calling the tire flat spot fix?

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jbussey754

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I’ve only posted once before here but have enjoyed following others. I apologize in advance for this long post. I drove a 1996 Tahoe LT for 21 years and in late January, I purchased a new 2022 Yukon SLT 3.0 turbo diesel. The vehicle build date was in May (8 months on the lot in Texas). I soon noticed a vibration like a wheel balance issue like what has been described here by others in my situation. How this dealer has handled this issue seems to be different from others and I’m trying to understand why?

Like others, my dealer's first solution was to balance the tires concluding on the service ticket, "TEST DROVE. vehicle no longer has vibration."

When I asked why they had not road force balance tested the tires as we had previously discussed, the service advisor said he is limited to what work GM will authorize under warranty and that we had to take "baby steps". But if the problem persists, to bring it back. I thought, since I was still under 500 miles he had to do this per GM. But then I was surprised to notice that he had exaggerated the mileage on the ticket by 200 miles to put me over 500. On the way home I could still feel a vibration at 40 mph.

Here’s where the script changes. When I dropped the vehicle off a week later (now legitimately over 500 miles), the service advisor stated that the ride quality might be the Continental tires and suggested that if he can get GM to participate, he might be able to get me Michelin Defenders for a modest charge. I told him I would like to change to the Michelins but at their expense. Later that day, he said the tires failed the road force balance test and kept the vehicle overnight to install the tires the next day. He said that he had to replace the tires with Continentals per GM mandate to replace with the same part so long as it was available, and the Michelins weren’t an option.

No call the following day! On the afternoon of day 3, I get the vehicle back with only 3 new Continental tires. The rear passenger tire was not changed. The service advisor said that GM made him remount the tires and retest. He said three failed but the fourth one passed.

The next day I could still feel a vibration, so I had my local tire company check the original tire and it failed the road force balance test (48 lbs). So I’m going back to the dealer on Monday to see what they say and what they’ll do.

I’m trying to understand why the dealer is being so resistant to resolving this obvious defect which could have been resolved with one 4-hour service visit. Is GM directing and dragging out the process (now 3 trips/5 days in the shop over a months’ time) hoping that I’ll accept it? Or is the dealer dragging it out to earn more money from GM’s warranty? Seems like poor customer relations all the way around.
 

Whitt

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Seem like very good questions. Whether its GM or the dealer it seems to me they should take the long view and create a happy customer who will buy another vehicle from them down the road and recommend them to friends, neighbor, and family. People love to be treated ”right”.
 

Blackcar

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Check date code on tires so you can keep track of what's going on. If they are same, they just rotated tires to change position. This dealer is not being straight forward.
Usually tire manufacture warrantees the tires but being tires have taken a set from setting for 8 months I'm guessing GM might have to foot bill on tires.
 
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jbussey754

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I now have 4 round tires that are all manufactured in '23. What I learned today is that the dealers have to get authorization from GM with proof of a road force balance test of over 24 lbs. for Tahoes/Yukons/Escalades and light duty trucks to replace the tires. They have to remount the tires in the optimum position on the wheels and retest to make sure it fails again. For whatever reason one of the four tires after remounting didn't "fail" even though it failed at my tire guy and today at the dealer. The failed tires are sent back to GM where they test them again to hold the dealer accountable.
 

StephenPT

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You probably read my story in a different thread on this forum... we have nearly the same story, but I decided to have an independent shop (good friend works there) take care of the warranty directly through Michelin. As far as why the dealer would be so hesitant to just take care of it the first time - I am becoming increasingly convinced that dealers are incentivized to avoid as much warranty work as possible. In another thread someone mentioned that they learned the service advisor at their dealership was on a vacation in Hawaii because his dealership had one of the lowest warranty claim rates in the country - vacation sponsored by GM. If it's an issue they have to fix, i.e. failed lifters then they don't have any "baby steps" they can take and hope you don't come back. In the case of the tires, for both you and I they did a basic spin balance - added some weights and sent us on our way hoping that we wouldn't come back.
 
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jbussey754

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You probably read my story in a different thread on this forum... we have nearly the same story, but I decided to have an independent shop (good friend works there) take care of the warranty directly through Michelin. As far as why the dealer would be so hesitant to just take care of it the first time - I am becoming increasingly convinced that dealers are incentivized to avoid as much warranty work as possible. In another thread someone mentioned that they learned the service advisor at their dealership was on a vacation in Hawaii because his dealership had one of the lowest warranty claim rates in the country - vacation sponsored by GM. If it's an issue they have to fix, i.e. failed lifters then they don't have any "baby steps" they can take and hope you don't come back. In the case of the tires, for both you and I they did a basic spin balance - added some weights and sent us on our way hoping that we wouldn't come back.
I'm sorry to say that I think you are on to something here. Thank you for sharing your experience because it helped me understand the problem and solution - it just took me a month and multiple trips. I love the vehicle and I now also love the smooth ride!
 

Baja_Bob

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GM has been trying to cut costs since the start of the year by eliminating salaried positions and layoffs of others. Of coarse they are going to try to delay and deny any warranty work they see unnecessary or too expensive
 

Stbentoak

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How do you go from needing people to willing to drop tens of thousands of white collar people at the drop of a hat?
 

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