Pivot
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- Joined
- Jul 2, 2017
- Posts
- 191
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Hi, all - so just wanted to share my recent story with you all in hopes of... well, just getting it off my chest. I love my Denali, so this was a trying six weeks. Pardon the length........
Soooooo, claim number one. In early June, I started to get a wooga-wooga upon shifting. It was very slight at first, then quickly got bad. "Quickly" in this case means about three days of driving about 15 miles per day. Took it to my local dealer and as expected, it was the torque converter. Powertrain warranty covered it. June 19, $1700 repair. My cost: $0. Good to go.
Claim number two. Taking the fam to Boston from DC on the 8th - I get about 3.5 hours into the trip and in the mountainy area, all of a sudden POW a loud, freewheeling whirring sound, not unlike that of a toothless or disengaged starter, only crazy loud. And at 80mph. Lost engine power. Truck shuts off. Texts from OnStar. I pull over, and start the truck back up. I know that it is clearly broken, but it moved smoothly on the shoulder forward and backward, so since it is SUNDAY AFTERNOON, I figured I'll be no less stranded here than if I push it some more and it happens again. So I did, in hopes of getting someplace safe to pull off anf figure out life. 10 minutes later, same sound. Same re-start and subsequent 'test'. So we took off again. I need to stress that I know my truck is broken, and since it's under Powertrain warranty, it was worth the risk of getting someplace safe. Well, this time, it drove fine for two hours! Then of course, it does the same thing again. All this time I expected something transmission related, since I just had the TC done two weeks prior. Sooooooo it craps out this third and final time, this time just before a rest area. Not the type with a service station and rest rooms, a Roy Rogers and a slew of other delectable culinary works of art, but a rest area with parking spaces. This time, the truck moves as though I put it into 4L, so I immediately change my professional diagnosis to the txfr case. So, that was the end of our journey. Got it towed as far as OnStar would take me to the dealer closest to our destination and dropped the keys in the drop box. After the initial diagnosis, they called and said my loaner was approved, and my gf and I took the $100 Uber ride to go back and pick up our shiny new 4-banger base Acadia, of which I was abundantly thankful. Got us around for the rest of the trip, even though on the way back, we were SIX deep, and six people's worth of stuff. Fun fact: I did the math - we were AT weight capacity, and bottomed out a couple of times on the six hour drive back home a couple of days later. So when I got home, the loaner sat in my driveway, rotors oxidizing, while I drove my Infiniti over the next two weeks. Turns out the transfer case did in fact blow up, and they literally replaced everything because when the clutch went out it took the rest out with it. Powertrain warranty covered it. Picked up July 28th. $3000 repair. My cost: $0.
And just to put some sprinkles on this s
, we drove the loaner back up to pick up my truck on the 28th, and all was well... until they brought my truck out front. AC was blowing HOT. My high blew quicker than my transfer case. So I asked them if they did anything that in any way impacted my AC since it was 100% icy as we sat on the side of the road with a blown out transfer case, the last time I touched my truck. He said 'nope, sure didn't'. He got side eye from me and my gf both, as I initially became suspicious that they were trying to okeydoke me, but then he told me about a TSB for the AC Condenser. They couldn't do it on the spot, but he refilled it to get us home so I could take it to my dealer to do it. Took it there yesterday and they did the dye test and even kept it overnight - no leak! It was just in need of a recharge. Good stuff, but uhhhhh..... 50,000 miles and AC was empty??? I've run triple that before needing a recharge. Advisor said not uncommon in these trucks. Learned something new that day. Oh, and they didn't charge me for the recharge.
In the end, all is well, and I still love my truck. I just reeeeeeallllyy hope that this was the last of the shenanigans, warranty or otherwise. All that said, both dealers were a great experience, and it's nice to be back in my truck again.
Thanks for reading.
Soooooo, claim number one. In early June, I started to get a wooga-wooga upon shifting. It was very slight at first, then quickly got bad. "Quickly" in this case means about three days of driving about 15 miles per day. Took it to my local dealer and as expected, it was the torque converter. Powertrain warranty covered it. June 19, $1700 repair. My cost: $0. Good to go.
Claim number two. Taking the fam to Boston from DC on the 8th - I get about 3.5 hours into the trip and in the mountainy area, all of a sudden POW a loud, freewheeling whirring sound, not unlike that of a toothless or disengaged starter, only crazy loud. And at 80mph. Lost engine power. Truck shuts off. Texts from OnStar. I pull over, and start the truck back up. I know that it is clearly broken, but it moved smoothly on the shoulder forward and backward, so since it is SUNDAY AFTERNOON, I figured I'll be no less stranded here than if I push it some more and it happens again. So I did, in hopes of getting someplace safe to pull off anf figure out life. 10 minutes later, same sound. Same re-start and subsequent 'test'. So we took off again. I need to stress that I know my truck is broken, and since it's under Powertrain warranty, it was worth the risk of getting someplace safe. Well, this time, it drove fine for two hours! Then of course, it does the same thing again. All this time I expected something transmission related, since I just had the TC done two weeks prior. Sooooooo it craps out this third and final time, this time just before a rest area. Not the type with a service station and rest rooms, a Roy Rogers and a slew of other delectable culinary works of art, but a rest area with parking spaces. This time, the truck moves as though I put it into 4L, so I immediately change my professional diagnosis to the txfr case. So, that was the end of our journey. Got it towed as far as OnStar would take me to the dealer closest to our destination and dropped the keys in the drop box. After the initial diagnosis, they called and said my loaner was approved, and my gf and I took the $100 Uber ride to go back and pick up our shiny new 4-banger base Acadia, of which I was abundantly thankful. Got us around for the rest of the trip, even though on the way back, we were SIX deep, and six people's worth of stuff. Fun fact: I did the math - we were AT weight capacity, and bottomed out a couple of times on the six hour drive back home a couple of days later. So when I got home, the loaner sat in my driveway, rotors oxidizing, while I drove my Infiniti over the next two weeks. Turns out the transfer case did in fact blow up, and they literally replaced everything because when the clutch went out it took the rest out with it. Powertrain warranty covered it. Picked up July 28th. $3000 repair. My cost: $0.
And just to put some sprinkles on this s
, we drove the loaner back up to pick up my truck on the 28th, and all was well... until they brought my truck out front. AC was blowing HOT. My high blew quicker than my transfer case. So I asked them if they did anything that in any way impacted my AC since it was 100% icy as we sat on the side of the road with a blown out transfer case, the last time I touched my truck. He said 'nope, sure didn't'. He got side eye from me and my gf both, as I initially became suspicious that they were trying to okeydoke me, but then he told me about a TSB for the AC Condenser. They couldn't do it on the spot, but he refilled it to get us home so I could take it to my dealer to do it. Took it there yesterday and they did the dye test and even kept it overnight - no leak! It was just in need of a recharge. Good stuff, but uhhhhh..... 50,000 miles and AC was empty??? I've run triple that before needing a recharge. Advisor said not uncommon in these trucks. Learned something new that day. Oh, and they didn't charge me for the recharge. In the end, all is well, and I still love my truck. I just reeeeeeallllyy hope that this was the last of the shenanigans, warranty or otherwise. All that said, both dealers were a great experience, and it's nice to be back in my truck again.
Thanks for reading.
