I POSTED THIS ON ANOTHER BOARD ABOUT A WEEK AGO:

Currently having some Warranty problems with my truck at Hummer of Orlando. Hoping someone can give me advice.

9k miles ago my 2007 H3 was at Hummer of Orlando for transmission work (it wasn''t shifting correctly.) They ultimately replaced the entire transmission and covered it all under warranty.

Last week I got a check engine light followed by the transmission not coming out of 3rd gear while in D. So I took it in and had them diagnose it. They cam back with an error code telling them that the Speed Sensor (or something along those lines) had a short in the harness. The service advisor told me that this harness runs inside the transmission. He explained to me that his tranny tech had already gone home for the day and that there wasn't anyone else who could run the DTC code with Hummer Warranty. He charged me $100 (refundable if this falls under warranty) for the diagnosis and told me that he would follow up with me when the tranny tech came in the next day.

The next day I was pleased to hear that this WILL be covered under warranty. So, I dropped the truxk off monday for the work to be done. Last night, the advisor calls me and tells me that there are more problems than he initially thought. He told me that I will now have to come up with $4100 for the work!!! What the hell?!?!?

He claims that my Radiator (which he says also has a built in trans cooler) has mixed coolant and ATF fluid. He says that this caused the tranny to overheat. Now he says that I need the following:

Radiator
2-4 band
Torque Converter
Speed Sensor Harness

He says that the total is around $6300 and that Hummer will only cover $2100 of that because of the "nature of the tranny failure."

My truck has around 63000 miles on it. So I am on power train warranty now and not bumper to bumper.

I seriously don't want to fork out that kind of coin on a 2 year old truck. Does anyone have any advise or think anything about the dealer sounds funny.

The other thing I should point out is that Hummer of Orlando (owned by Classic Auto) closed it's facility. So my truck is actually at the Classic Chevy service center (same owners, but all different people). Maybe these guys mis-diagnosed this because this isn't their area of expertise...i don't know.

Thanks for any input guys!

 

Well...I spoke with the rep from HUMMER's GM executive office today. It's NOT GOOD!

He pretty much backed up the dealer by saying that my truck is out of bumper to bumper warranty on miles, but not on time (still have 16 months left). They're not wanting to cover the cost of this repair because they claim the radiator was the culprit. What the hell?!?! I guess everyday common driving causes a new tranny to go down the tubes in less than 10k miles...yeah, right!!

Anyway, he said that HUMMER is willing to pay the same portion they initially offered. I declined. I told him that I had no interest in covering any part of this repair. I told him what a shame I thought it was for GM to mis-treat loyal customers (I have owned 7 GM vehicles in the last 12 years). He said he was sorry and that was his final offer.

I really believed they would assume responsibility for this and correct it. When they did not, I was a quite shocked and completely forgot to ask him about the "one time courtesy" that was suggested by someone else. I tried calling back to pursue that option and ended up in their voicemail...still waiting on a call back.

I know everyone that I have talked to on here and locally all seem to think this down right wrong. But, I am having a hard time convincing HUMMER of that. Any advice on how to pull these guys from the dark side???

 

Sorry to hear that Kris G.

I did a quicky search on E-Bay, and a used transmission is going for around $750. I would check around and see if you could get a good used one (some come with warenty's) or a remanufactured one. Four thoughts on your situation stick out:
1) The price they are giving you seems a bit steep to me.
2) Uder normal operating conditions, You should not have radiator issues at only 2 years / 63000 miles.
3) I would have thought that if the mechanic needed to open up the transmission to work on the harness he/she should of noticed the coolent in the transmission the first time.
4) Since the transmission cooler (which is located inside the radiator) was seeping coolent into the transmission, then we can expect that transmission fluid seeped into the radiator, thus into the engine. Now I know for a fact that transmission fluid and Dexcool does not play well with each other. The entire engine will need to be flushed out. They will not be able to just put in a new radiator, connect the hoses and top it off. If that is not on the quote, It should be.

With GM getting ready to file for some type of bankrupsy, I don't think many of the dealers are going to be willing to cut their customers any slack. Its sad, because many people have been turned off by GM due to poor service.

 

I would imagine a lot of dealers are being very defensive not sure if they are going to be getting reimbursement from GM. I also think you should try another dealer and see if they diagnose the same problem

 

That sounds like a drive train problem to me! I'd keep pushing w/ the arguement it wasn't fixed right the first time.

 

drive into theyre lot and hit every car you see then say your sorry you bought a lemon, you didn't mean to put him out of biz, it was an accident, that'll get some attention. good luck

 

Some dealers just don't get the customer satisfaction thing. Anyways, I would try and move around and maybe call a few dealers and let them know the problems you are having and maybe you can get lucky with a dealer who still understands customer satisfaction.

I haven't really heard of this problem in Hummers, so it sounds like a rare case, but a serious one nonetheless.

 

He's already contacted GM's executive office. I'm not sure what good shopping around dealer service bays is going to do him at this point. Looks like they are blaming the radiator for the damage and not considering the radiator to be under whatever warranty you have left. They are considering the transmission collateral damage. I'd read over the warranty for any loopholes. I think it sucks, but your only option may be filing a lawsuit to try to get the transmission covered. Other than that, do the repairs yourself if you're capable. Your dealership should at least give you a comprehensive parts list that you can shop for parts elsewhere. I hope this radiator flaw is an isolated incident. Sheesh! What a nightmare.

 

I had the same problem with the radiator failure and mixed trans oil and coolant! the dealer here in saudi arabia changed the radiator and the full transmision all under warranty but i have only got 25k miles so still under bumper to bumper waranty. i dont think the fault with the radiator is an isolated incident. why not try and say the original repair was the reason for this failure therfore still covered under the original waranty???

 

Well, I finally got my truck back from the dealer.

Didn't go as smooth as I had hoped. I had several people from GM making all sorts of HIGH offers to which I declined.

In the end, the dealer fixed the transmission under their Good Will program and made me pay for the radiator. This set me back $1050 + plus the $100 diagnostic that I was originally charged. That really pissed me off because they said it would be applied to any work that wasn't covered....LIE!!! And to top it off... The dealer actually wants me to pay for the $675 rental car that they put me in "under warranty"...wtf?!?!

Also, I should point out that in the final hours before I went to pick up my truck from the dealer, I called 3 other dealerships. I was trying to determine whether or not my truck was mis-diagnosed initially. All 3 service managers said that there was absolutely no way that the dealership could have claimed that my truck would be fully covered under warranty WITHOUT a tranny tech present at the time of diagnosis.

All 3 service managers also stated that my issue should have been handled much quicker and more seamlessly. They all said that the Radiator should have been covered under their God Will policy and that the transmission should have been covered by the 100k mile power train warranty. I explained the whole "nature of the failure" thing regarding the tranny and was told that it didn't matter.

***The only thing for others to keep in mind if pursuing this is that the God Will Claim can only be made at the dealership that sold you the truck***

I still have a pending case file with GM to get them to cover the car rental bill that remains outstanding. I should know more on that in the next few days. I'll report back with any news.