Pass on it!! take advise from someone who is extremely sorry he ever puchased a piece of crap like this,send mwe your fax number and I will fax you all the problem I have had..do your blood pressure a favor..stay away from this junkonox!!!
The scariest thing on earth, don't even think about it, life is to short. If I'd send you all the issues and repairs I had to do on my 05 Equinox (bought new) you would have to read my post for a entire day. One year after the warranty was over, I traded it in for a 2010 HHR 2LT Funny...some folks calls them "Junkonox" I called mine "The Equijunk". Take our word for it, unless you like the smell of GM dealers cause you'll be there most of the time rather than on the road.
By the way...my HHR is the best vehicule I owned in 36 yrs. Always have been a loyal GM car owner. My three favorites vehicule that I owned...1994 Blazer S-10, my 1999 Venture (Van) and the winner...my 2010 HHR 2LT
This is the worst Vehicle GM Chevy has made.Worst than the Yugo I think .I have tried to work with chevy,i even spent$4000 of my own money and Chevy-gm-chevy equinox customer service has donated nothing. The Government put out bad press on Toyotas,so we bought this piece of rap,The Lemonox.Chevy-GMC Customer Service will and won't address issues with the multiple concerning this vehcile.Stay Clear of any Chevy equinoxes. It want drive your blood pressure up and you will be actual dribving!!!
After 5 years of paying as much in car repairs as my car payments I finally got a dealership in St. George, Utah explain what is happening. Water leaks in from the roof area somehow and leaks in over the wiring under the stearing wheel area. Funny how it only leaks in right where the wiring is so it will short out everything you can think of that will prevent you from using what you pay for, reliable transportation. Had to spend my down payment on a house for my family to fix my car every week to 2 weeks. Dealership CERTIFIED MECHANICS for GM are an outright joke. Took it to Riverton Motors in Salt Lake City, Utah over and over again for years for problem after problem and unfortuanately their extended warranty they talked me into does not cover anything like they showed me.
Ex-GM mechanic quote: I can't believe the treatment to you, they use to care. This is an obvious flaw in the design and should be a recall issue.
I feel good about being able to talk others out of supporting a company that does not back up their product and is only interested in the amount they can make on repairs of their vehicles. I guess in an economy like this they had no choice but to intentionally build vehicles that they can make enough money on repairs and parts to make up the difference they are losing in the sell of new vehicles.
My '93' Ford Explorer with almost 200,000 miles I bought for using in the desert and for four wheel drive terrain is my most reliable transportation.
If you dislike someone suggest a CHEVY. You will have a good laugh out of it.
Look for my pictures of us on the back of a tow truck going to California for Spring Break. That is the only way you will get to your destination in a CHEVY.
Make sure you have AAA if you own a CHEVY because you will definitely need it. AAA was the only right decision I made for that Driveway statue of a car.
skieven1, I apologize for your frustrations. Can you please email me your VIN, contact information including address and good number to reach you, involved dealer and current mileage? I look forward to your response. Christina GM Customer Service
i wasn;t going to write back but now what ever. as i started awhile ago. i fixed the problem, very costly, and than drive it to toyota and traded it in on a new toyota. that will be the last gm car i buy, after 45+ yrs of buying gm, this way something that could have been and easy recall, and not costly if done early, so i don't know what else i can tell you....
hi sorry you had this happen to your car, but as you know by now you're alone. as i have said from some time ago, go to comsumer affair.com put in your car and year and you will see all the info on this problem, good luck
Please note i have been,fighting with Gm-Chvey about your my junkonox for the past few years.They have done little or nothing to solve or make a settlement so that I may fix this vehicle at a reputable garage not at their dealer,where they charge excessive fees for diagnosis. wanted Gm to have this diagnose for free and solve this problem. This vehicle is truly a lemon,but can be fixed if done by an independent source. i currently deal with their customer service at 1-800-222-1020.This unit does nothing and have buried their heads in the sand. Do yourself a favor.Please stay away from t his vehicle...Mr. Cleveland Ward.I have referred this matter to National Highway safety Adminstration and they are reviewing tis issue.Any further informatio of copies of all the repair reocrds i hjave please e-mail me at cward3@partners.org :lemon:
I bought a gold 2005 Chevorlet Equinox at a used car dealership this February. It was blind love. The dealership said to me "It is a good car, and the good thing is the head gasket has already been replaced which is a common issue with this vehicle..." I should have ran.
2 weeks after owning the vehicle, I used the limited warranty and had the front shocks replaced as there was a grinding sound in the front.
Several weeks later I needed to add coolant to the vehicle because the engine was over heating...ecspecially when idle. This appeared to take care of this issue, so I did not think much of it.
May 14th 2011 21 ish days out of Limited Warranty time...We are 45 minutes away from home and the speedometer goes crazy. The radio gets loud and then fades. The power of the vehicle suddenly ceases and we are forced to pull over (in an area with no cell reception or stores) We shut the vehicle off, unplug the cell phone from charging and turn down the radio.
We turn the car back on and drive 1 mile down the road, thinking this might have fixed the issue until it starts again and again we lose power and have to pull over. AAA towed our car to the closest auto mechanic that was recommended by him. The mechanic diagnosed it as the "Transmision Modulator" and encouraged a new part to avoid this problem in the near future. It took me a few weeks to save for the part (I just purchased this vehicle a couple months before, so had no extra) Got the part to the mechanic in June maybe early July. He repaired it a week or so later however the vehicle still did the same thing. He said that he is pretty good at Dx cars but does not understand what is wrong with this :lemon: I called Chevy and the dealership I bought it from...I have a case number #71-969320012 they said to bring it to Chevy. I opted to have the mechanic finish his business with the car and see if he could solve the issue before towing it to Chevy. Yesterday on 8.2 I got the call saying the car runs!!! I said "really it really works!?" The guy agreed. He said he test drove it several times and beleives it works...I beleive him. I drove it home and it worked for teh first 60 or so miles. Now it is acting all whacky again. The speedometer started to freak out and it has acted like it was going to stall several times. I now have 74,109 miles on it, last I read. I still owe close to 11k on the vehciel and I think I am going to cry. I called Chevy yesterday and willing that the death trap does not kill me on my way to the dealership, they are going to look at it on Friday. I now wonder since it was raining yesterday if the problem is the electrical being damaged by the car design.
Does any of the problems mentioned above seem familar to you owners of this :lemon: ? I wonder how we can all merge together and get compensated for this vehcile. I am so tired of spending my hard earned money on something that will not safely take me anywheres.
As you can see there are a number of 05 Equinox's that seem to have head or head gasket problems. I am also a member of this group. I had mine done two years ago. Now I have the same symptoms again. What is Chevrolet going to do about the significant number of compliants on this issue? There are several websites dedicated to car complaints, I have been to two of them. They have a significant number of head gasket issues. One site had 14 regarding head gaskets, and 7 more regarding the replacement issue.
I realize that you can only do so much and you have a supervisor to report to. One website I was on had 25 complaints and subsequent comments that stated they will never buy another Chevrolet, can you afford to have that many unhappy customers over the same issue?
hi, just so you know, i have a friend who builts custom engine to a die check on one of the 05 engines, it had cracks all over it. it;s from the dexcool, and since the government bailed out gm, they do not have to fix or recall anything, and ford is the same, my say in this is get rid of the car, buy toyota or bmw, i did after being a gm man for 40+ yrs.
So far, wife and I put 74,000miles on our Equinox since purchased Jan 2005. Still looks good, runs and drives great! No problems to date other than regular maintenance. My brother currently has almost 200,000 miles on his 3.4L, 94' Camaro. It is a good engine design, that's easy to work on, and has a timing chain which lasts the life of the engine. The best part is I save $500+ every 60,000 miles, since I don't have replace a timingbelt/waterpump. I also think that GM did a nice job with mating nice smooth [non-permissible content removed] transmission with the 3.4L.
Also, there are a lot of Equinox's running around the Chicagoland suburbs here by us. After I saw this blog stating "common" head gasket problems, I started to ask around.
I do my own car repairs and I've talked to a lot of mechanics at independent shops and GM dealerships in my area. According to them, this is not a large scale problem. None of the Dealerships or Auto Shops in my area have seen an Equinox with this "common head-gasket problem".
Therefore just because you own an Equinox, doesn't mean you own a "head-ache" (A little Nox humor!) So far, the Equinox is a keeper for us. jd
So I'm back after continuing to get notifications from the board regarding issues with this vehicle. Once again (albeit, normally it's a heat/cool issue, this year it's turned into an overheating issue)!
This car is a piece of **it! We are looking to trade it in as we speak. About a week ago, it started to overheat and then the air went out on it. It went back into the shop and it was recommended to us for the 4th time to change the thermostat. Yup, we've already changed the thermostat 3 times. On top of replacing the thermostat it was recommended that we change the head gasket. Our local mechanic ran a test on the head gasket and said that it was losing anything so he's not sure why they've recommended replacing it!
GM is a joke these days and I will be so happy to get rid of this headache because that's exactly what it is! Never again, will I purchase another GM vehicle after being treated like this. They just put a band aid on the problem while it was under warranty and now that it's out and still having the same problem, they won't touch it!
hi, sorry about your car, i know only to well, i had the same one, and it;s a dexcool problem, this stuff cracks the heads, and anything else it goes through, and since the government did the payout on gm, they don;t have to recall, so after being a gm guy for 40+ yrs i;am driving a toyota, sell you car and move on, good luck
hi, i wish you luck, no it;s not just me, if you go to comsumer affair.com and type in you car and year you will see all the others, it;s the dexcool this coolant if you look at the tank where it goes in, see if it looks brown, it almost turns to mud, maybe when they did the waterpump, they got rid of it, i;ll bet it was one of the problems that lead to the pump . but it;s not just me, there are states looking into trying to get a class action going. i wish you luck, maybe it won;t happen to you....but check out the tank if it;s a blue color they changed it.. if not you may want to flush the system good...
I won the Equinox lotto...bad abs, bad hub, badd wiring harness, squeeky left front, grinding...the triple knock that sounds like a flat tire and to top it off...a bad heater core with cracked casing. First bround of repairs two months ago cost me over $1500.00 and this one is up to $1900, while I still owe $9500 on the used 2005 Equinox that I purchased with no problems. It ran great til it hit 100K...and now it is the biggest LEMON i have ever owned....I had a chevy malibu that was a terd too...its really sad that our American Made cars have no long term stability....I don't have the money to keep fixing this car and I can't trade right now because its upside down. GM and Chevy won't back their product...so what to do?
Sorry to bust you worldly none factual bubble, but my wife and I are totally happy with our Equinox, as well as a lot of other Equinox owners I have talked to. (Details on my previous thread)
I just love how this "Social Media World" attacks people who have something good to say about American products.
Here is a car factoid for you that the social media doesn't talk about:
There were 3.3 million 1997 through 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles with 3.0-liter, V-6, or 2.2-liter four-cylinder engines, that owners where notified about the sludge issue.
Just letting the American public know I'm having good luck with my Equinox as well as other people too.
And to keep to the menu, I do want to let the Equinox people know that they should replace the spark plug wires at around 50K miles. The symptoms of spark plug wires going bad is poor acceleration, hesitation, and misdiagnosed transmission problems.
I took the vehicle to Emerson Chevorlet in Auburn Maine. It stalled x1 while driving there. A couple of days after dropping it off to them, I called to check in. They were astonished that we were able to drive it there, as now it does not drive more then 30 feet without losing power. They initially said it was the transmission, however they were asking for more time to look at it. I approved. It was the transmission. I brought up my concerns with rain affecting the drivability and they replied they were not sure because the car would not work long enough for them to check into this. I called the dealership where I bought the vehicle from asking for them to give me a different vehicle and take the lemon back. They dragged their feet (I do not blame them..I do not want it either) I just paid 145 dollars to chevy to release it from their garage to have it transfered to a place to replace the transmission.
The dealership paid for the tow and has agreed to pay 1/2 the cost of fixing the vehicle.
I continue to pay the payments and the full coverage insurance on this vehicle that I have not had since May. At this point in time, I am unhappy with the dealership and with GM.
If my car does not run safely and I have to continue to pay for it I am going to invest in a lot of yellow baloons and go on a campaign.
hi, sorry you are having problems with your car, i did last year so i traded it in for a toyota, i know there are alot of site where people want to go after gm, but all this happened when the government did the big buyout aid, and so since it was a government own the car companies, at the time, they don;t have to do a recall, nice trick, wish you luck...
So my husband and I decided one last ditch effort to have our Equinox fixed by GM. The car is out of warranty (has 104K miles on it). The extended warranty that I purchased ran out at 75K miles, but as of August, we started having issues with the car overheating again and the air not working, which was the first time that the air didn't work. In the past, it had always been the heat.
I had been going rounds with the same dealer for almost 3 years to get it fixed since the same problem has been happening since it was under the regular 3/36 warranty. I spoke to multiple GM people and eventually got no where. After talking with a mechanic friend, he suggested we try and take it to a different dealer, which we did.
We took ever single maintenance record that we had, including any notes from the first 2 dealers to look at it (I say 2 dealers because the first dealer was bought out) Actually, We only had on record in our personal files. We had to hound the dealer to hand over all of the records from work that had been done on the car. They didn't want to turn them over and tried talking their way out of it a couple of times.
In the meantime, the new dealer, which we have never done business with before looked at the car and diagnosed that the head and the gasket were bad. Not only did he say that is was due to the first 2 chevy dealerships flushing the system and replacing the thermostat multiple times, but that they were just putting a bandaid on the actual problem and it in turn made it worse. So within 24 hours of having the vehicle, this new service manager received GM's approval to basically rebuild the entire engine for FREE. No JOKE, I'm at a loss for words!
He had to price it out for GM and we were told it would have cost us $3400 to have it fixed if we would have had to pay out of pocket. This guy had the vehicle for 24 hours and totally took care of us, the other dealer was trying to screw us. We don't have the Equinox back yet as they said it would take a week, but the moral of my story is to keep trying.
My husband and I were at our breaking point, we decided that we were going to pay a $85 diagnostic fee one last time in hopes of this dealer actually agreeing with us or trade it in. We almost bit the bullet on a 2011 Mazda CX9 three weeks ago, but I'm so glad we didn't because I really don't want the car payment!
BE persistent, try another dealer....We knew we had the "Evidence" if you will to make a case, but clearly the other dealership was not in the business of helping people!
hi, i;a, sorry you are having this problem, but i know what you are going through, i had the same, and it all comes from the dexcool they used, it totally killed everything it went through, so that means engine, heat and cooling systems. if you look on comsumer affairs.com and put in our car and year you will see how many others have the same things, some states are trying to get a class action going, as for me i went with toyota, one i know you keep up on what needs to be done, it run forever, good luck
So after my last post about finding a dealer that would cover the head gaskets, the drama continues.
He did in fact receive the gaskets in to replace under warranty, but then realize upon further investigation that the problem was stemming from the engine block. He realized that if he changed the gaskets, they may blow again in 3 months due to the problem.
He got the approval from GM to order a BRAND NEW motor, which was replaced 2 weeks ago. After driving the car home that day, we still had NO Heat so the heating/cooling issue we've had for 4 years didn't get fixed by the replacement of the new engine.
He went again and got GM to approve coverage on a part that he thought would help the heater core since that is what he believed to be the problem. The part was replaced today and guess what, STILL NO HEAT or AIR. Now, he wants to replace the heater core, but GM will only cover 25% of the core.
I don't believe we should pay for the core. Clearly, they agree that there is an issue that should have been fixed correctly teh first time or they wouldn't have replaced the engine nor would have ordered a part to try and fix the core first.
I'm not sure where to go from here! SO FRUSTRATING! Albeit, we have a new engine.
I’m sorry to hear that the series of repairs has not resolved your heat concern. We’d like to follow up with you and your dealership – please email Christina your name, contact info, VIN, mileage, and the name of your dealership.
So this will be my last post on this thread, I wanted to update to let you all know what the final outcome was because quite frankly, I'm done being upset over the situation.
We ended up paying $550ish to have the heater core replaced and that was with GM discount and the dealer taking some additional money off.
After getting a follow up email from "Christina" the GM rep from this site, I was put in contact with another GM customer service rep that looked futher into our case. Her "research" results were as follows:
- The engine was replaced because it was a prodcution flaw and only for that reason.
- Any work that a GM dealer did on the vehicle up until now was "good willed," which I find funny because it was all done while under warranty, thus nothing was GOOD WILLED. GM owed that to us.
- She was extremely sorry that the first dearler that we took the vehicle to didn't "dig deep enough" to uncover the problem while it was under warranty, but that's not GM's fault, thus they won't cover any additional costs for replacing the heater core.
I do want to point out that the last dealer and service manager that we dealt with was fabulous and if we were going to purchase another GM vehicle, it would definitely be from him.
That being said, when driving this weekend it was warmer out and I was hot so I turned on the air and guess what........IT DOESN'T WORK. GM can kiss my backside and can kiss the $30-35K that we're planning to spend on purchasing a new vehicle in the next six months good bye.
As I've said in previous posts, we've always been GM people and have owned multiple GM vehicles, but after being treated the way we have with this vehicle, I'm done and if I'm done, then my husband is done as well and I can guarantee that!
My 05 Equinox just locked itself!!! With the key inside! Any ideas how do get in??? I have a spare ignition key but no "opener" I'd be greatful for any ideas! Thanks!
call a locksmith and get the door opened. Make sure he checks the key (the ignition key will work in the door, as long as it hasn't corroded, which it likely has). Once he gets it working again, use that key every week at least once to keep the lock functional.
Bought my Great American Chevrolet Equinox ,Great car body.. it had 50,000 miles ran great looked nice with the exception of the paint coming off the consule, at 53,000 troubles started..smell of antifreeze in car, oily film on windshield(heater coil) Vibrations in front end (break roters and calipers) car over heating (miss diagnosed by dealer as bad thermostat even though I asked a check of head gasket) (resurfaced heads and replaced head gaskets) now transmission clunks when starting to drive. What did the dealership say when I asked them if they had any of these troubles ..Oh no! these problems are unique to my car. When I mentioned this site..oh their just a few people that would complain even if the lighter not working was the problem.....Offer to help with costs, none coming..Did I mention I never go more than 10 miles over the speed limit? Chevrolet Representitives Have no more integrity than Ford or Congress ..I have the feeling I live in a mushroom house...
i know how you feel , as i said many times on this site, it;s in the dexcool they use as a coolant, and it puts cracks in the block, and heads, and since this car was made when the government did there buy outs, gm does not have to do a recall, or say anything. it will cost alot to fix, and if you do trade it in on something else, i did , i;am now will own onlt toyota..
Engine stalls when at a stop sign and going down the road at 55, the check engine lt. comes on and it takes 3 or 4 tries cranking it over for it to start and when it does start the check eng. lt. isn't on. I brought in a chev. dealer and they couldn't find any thing wrong because the check engine lt. wasn't on and no codes showed up. I brought it to a different mechanic and he said the same thing accept he cleaned the throttle body. There is 60,000 miles on the ......
I'm sorry to hear that your Equinox stalled on you. Has this happened again? There are times when our dealerships need to be able to duplicate the problem in order to diagnose.
I am having a similar problem!! Except, luckily for me, the car doesn't stall while driving (knock on wood). It just doesn't seem to catch when turning the key to start it. I have to give it gas to get it to start properly. Otherwise when I turn the key it just stalls. My check engine light came on as well and when I took it to get inspected - same thing about no codes! He put in some injector fluid but the problem has continued... I wish I knew what it was and how it could be fixed? Let me know if you find out anything about what is the cause of this problem.
Yes it has almost every time I drive it, if the dealer needs to duplicate the problem who is going to pay for 1,2,or 3 hours labor it takes theme to do this?
My mechanic is at his wits end. We put car in garage to fix problem with temperature spiking, when traveling temperature gauge goes to normal and at stop lights - it begins to spike. We have replaced the thermostat, water pump and radiator. He says head gaskets are still in good shape. Does anyone have any other suggestions? It continues to do the same and he has placed a call to Chevy dealer service manager.
Sounds exactly like what ours was doing, to a T. I think we replaced the thermostat like 4 times. You can go back and read my drama on here, but what our mechanic ended up finding was that there is or was a problem with the engine block from the get go. Every other GM dealer we brought it to failed to figure this out. They were initially going to replace the gaskets, but then realized in doing so, we'd end up right where we started since the gaskets weren't the problem, it was the engine. They ended up putting in a brand new engine.
Honestly, we were having identical problems (over a 3-4 year span). I'm not sure what the actual diagnosis was or how they figured it out, but I do know it was a faulty engine block from the get go.
hi, sorry to hear about the car, but i had the same problem, that is why i sold it, the dex cool they use, causes the head to crack all over, i had one checked with dye, and it was loaded with cracks, gm don;t have to recall any of these, becuase it was during the time the government had gm, under the buy out, it will cost you around a few thousand to if, and thats not saying something else won;t be wrong too, good luck,
I have lost hope for my equinox... My story is above in a couple of segments , but with diagnostic time, money for repairs and continued break down of parts the short story is I have paid for a car for the last year and have not driven it enough to even warrant an oil change.. 72000 miles when I bought it and now sitting at a shop waiting for a drive train at 74000 miles.... Makes me sick!!!! New transmission, transmission modulator, shocks.... Head gasket.. Chipped stero and heating issues that have not been resolved. I feel like I need to drive the dang thing on a pillow with "fragile, easily broken." it makes me cry.
My equinox did something similar and it ended up being the transmission. It did not always do it, but seemed to be affected more in the rain. Heard it happened to someone else after a car wash ... My car had a little over 72000 miles. It is sickening huh? My thoughts are with you... :lemon:
hi, sorry for all the problems you sre having, i know how you feel i was in the same boat two yrs ago. i did alot of checking and had some friends who build engines for race cars check, and it all came back to the dexcool they use as a coolant. it turns to something thick like mud, it cracks the heads, and i seen one that had a dye check, and there were alot of cracks, and from there anyplace the coolant run through could have a problem, like the heater etc, you can also check on comsumer afffair.com type in car and year, and see more info from people, as for me was was alway and gm guy, i now own a toyota.. good luck
For owners of the older Equinox, suggest you check your maintenance schedule for required frequency of coolant system flushing and dexcool replacement.
Comments
If I'd send you all the issues and repairs I had to do on my 05 Equinox (bought new) you would have to read my post for a entire day.
One year after the warranty was over, I traded it in for a 2010 HHR 2LT
Funny...some folks calls them "Junkonox" I called mine "The Equijunk".
Take our word for it, unless you like the smell of GM dealers cause you'll be there most of the time rather than on the road.
By the way...my HHR is the best vehicule I owned in 36 yrs. Always have been a loyal GM car owner.
My three favorites vehicule that I owned...1994 Blazer S-10, my 1999 Venture (Van) and the winner...my 2010 HHR 2LT
Ex-GM mechanic quote: I can't believe the treatment to you, they use to care. This is an obvious flaw in the design and should be a recall issue.
I feel good about being able to talk others out of supporting a company that does not back up their product and is only interested in the amount they can make on repairs of their vehicles. I guess in an economy like this they had no choice but to intentionally build vehicles that they can make enough money on repairs and parts to make up the difference they are losing in the sell of new vehicles.
My '93' Ford Explorer with almost 200,000 miles I bought for using in the desert and for four wheel drive terrain is my most reliable transportation.
If you dislike someone suggest a CHEVY. You will have a good laugh out of it.
Look for my pictures of us on the back of a tow truck going to California for Spring Break. That is the only way you will get to your destination in a CHEVY.
Make sure you have AAA if you own a CHEVY because you will definitely need it. AAA was the only right decision I made for that Driveway statue of a car.
I apologize for your frustration. Can you please send me your case number? I would like to look at your case.
Christina
GM Customer Service
I apologize for your frustrations. Can you please email me your VIN, contact information including address and good number to reach you, involved dealer and current mileage? I look forward to your response.
Christina
GM Customer Service
2 weeks after owning the vehicle, I used the limited warranty and had the front shocks replaced as there was a grinding sound in the front.
Several weeks later I needed to add coolant to the vehicle because the engine was over heating...ecspecially when idle. This appeared to take care of this issue, so I did not think much of it.
May 14th 2011 21 ish days out of Limited Warranty time...We are 45 minutes away from home and the speedometer goes crazy. The radio gets loud and then fades. The power of the vehicle suddenly ceases and we are forced to pull over (in an area with no cell reception or stores) We shut the vehicle off, unplug the cell phone from charging and turn down the radio.
We turn the car back on and drive 1 mile down the road, thinking this might have fixed the issue until it starts again and again we lose power and have to pull over. AAA towed our car to the closest auto mechanic that was recommended by him. The mechanic diagnosed it as the "Transmision Modulator" and encouraged a new part to avoid this problem in the near future.
It took me a few weeks to save for the part (I just purchased this vehicle a couple months before, so had no extra) Got the part to the mechanic in June maybe early July. He repaired it a week or so later however the vehicle still did the same thing. He said that he is pretty good at Dx cars but does not understand what is wrong with this :lemon: I called Chevy and the dealership I bought it from...I have a case number #71-969320012 they said to bring it to Chevy. I opted to have the mechanic finish his business with the car and see if he could solve the issue before towing it to Chevy. Yesterday on 8.2 I got the call saying the car runs!!! I said "really it really works!?" The guy agreed. He said he test drove it several times and beleives it works...I beleive him. I drove it home and it worked for teh first 60 or so miles. Now it is acting all whacky again. The speedometer started to freak out and it has acted like it was going to stall several times. I now have 74,109 miles on it, last I read. I still owe close to 11k on the vehciel and I think I am going to cry.
I called Chevy yesterday and willing that the death trap does not kill me on my way to the dealership, they are going to look at it on Friday. I now wonder since it was raining yesterday if the problem is the electrical being damaged by the car design.
Does any of the problems mentioned above seem familar to you owners of this :lemon: ?
I wonder how we can all merge together and get compensated for this vehcile. I am so tired of spending my hard earned money on something that will not safely take me anywheres.
As you can see there are a number of 05 Equinox's that seem to have head or head gasket problems. I am also a member of this group. I had mine done two years ago. Now I have the same symptoms again. What is Chevrolet going to do about the significant number of compliants on this issue? There are several websites dedicated to car complaints, I have been to two of them. They have a significant number of head gasket issues. One site had 14 regarding head gaskets, and 7 more regarding the replacement issue.
I realize that you can only do so much and you have a supervisor to report to. One website I was on had 25 complaints and subsequent comments that stated they will never buy another Chevrolet, can you afford to have that many unhappy customers over the same issue?
My brother currently has almost 200,000 miles on his 3.4L, 94' Camaro. It is a good engine design, that's easy to work on, and has a timing chain which lasts the life of the engine.
The best part is I save $500+ every 60,000 miles, since I don't have replace a timingbelt/waterpump.
I also think that GM did a nice job with mating nice smooth [non-permissible content removed] transmission with
the 3.4L.
Also, there are a lot of Equinox's running around the Chicagoland suburbs here by us.
After I saw this blog stating "common" head gasket problems, I started to ask around.
I do my own car repairs and I've talked to a lot of mechanics at independent shops and GM dealerships in my area. According to them, this is not a large scale problem. None of the Dealerships or Auto Shops in my area have seen an Equinox with this "common head-gasket problem".
Therefore just because you own an Equinox, doesn't mean you own a "head-ache"
(A little Nox humor!)
So far, the Equinox is a keeper for us.
jd
This car is a piece of **it! We are looking to trade it in as we speak. About a week ago, it started to overheat and then the air went out on it. It went back into the shop and it was recommended to us for the 4th time to change the thermostat. Yup, we've already changed the thermostat 3 times. On top of replacing the thermostat it was recommended that we change the head gasket. Our local mechanic ran a test on the head gasket and said that it was losing anything so he's not sure why they've recommended replacing it!
GM is a joke these days and I will be so happy to get rid of this headache because that's exactly what it is! Never again, will I purchase another GM vehicle after being treated like this. They just put a band aid on the problem while it was under warranty and now that it's out and still having the same problem, they won't touch it!
I just love how this "Social Media World" attacks people who have something good to say about American products.
Here is a car factoid for you that the social media doesn't talk about:
There were 3.3 million 1997 through 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles with 3.0-liter, V-6, or 2.2-liter four-cylinder engines, that owners where notified about the sludge issue.
http://yotarepair.com/Sludge_Zone.html
I had no problems with getting 200,000 miles on my GM cars with a push-rod engine.
Having a "Toyota Sludge" engine is a different story.
jd
But this discussion is about Equinox problems - please note the title.
Check out the main Chevrolet Equinox discussion for general talk about the Nox, good and not so good.
How are you doing, it has been awhile!
Boy, You jump on this pretty quick!
Just letting the American public know I'm having good luck with my Equinox as well as other people too.
And to keep to the menu, I do want to let the Equinox people know that they should replace the spark plug wires at around 50K miles. The symptoms of spark plug wires going bad is poor acceleration, hesitation, and misdiagnosed transmission problems.
Have a nice day!
Jim Dandy
They initially said it was the transmission, however they were asking for more time to look at it. I approved. It was the transmission. I brought up my concerns with rain affecting the drivability and they replied they were not sure because the car would not work long enough for them to check into this. I called the dealership where I bought the vehicle from asking for them to give me a different vehicle and take the lemon back. They dragged their feet (I do not blame them..I do not want it either)
I just paid 145 dollars to chevy to release it from their garage to have it transfered to a place to replace the transmission.
The dealership paid for the tow and has agreed to pay 1/2 the cost of fixing the vehicle.
I continue to pay the payments and the full coverage insurance on this vehicle that I have not had since May. At this point in time, I am unhappy with the dealership and with GM.
If my car does not run safely and I have to continue to pay for it I am going to invest in a lot of yellow baloons and go on a campaign.
I had been going rounds with the same dealer for almost 3 years to get it fixed since the same problem has been happening since it was under the regular 3/36 warranty. I spoke to multiple GM people and eventually got no where. After talking with a mechanic friend, he suggested we try and take it to a different dealer, which we did.
We took ever single maintenance record that we had, including any notes from the first 2 dealers to look at it (I say 2 dealers because the first dealer was bought out) Actually, We only had on record in our personal files. We had to hound the dealer to hand over all of the records from work that had been done on the car. They didn't want to turn them over and tried talking their way out of it a couple of times.
In the meantime, the new dealer, which we have never done business with before looked at the car and diagnosed that the head and the gasket were bad. Not only did he say that is was due to the first 2 chevy dealerships flushing the system and replacing the thermostat multiple times, but that they were just putting a bandaid on the actual problem and it in turn made it worse. So within 24 hours of having the vehicle, this new service manager received GM's approval to basically rebuild the entire engine for FREE. No JOKE, I'm at a loss for words!
He had to price it out for GM and we were told it would have cost us $3400 to have it fixed if we would have had to pay out of pocket. This guy had the vehicle for 24 hours and totally took care of us, the other dealer was trying to screw us. We don't have the Equinox back yet as they said it would take a week, but the moral of my story is to keep trying.
My husband and I were at our breaking point, we decided that we were going to pay a $85 diagnostic fee one last time in hopes of this dealer actually agreeing with us or trade it in. We almost bit the bullet on a 2011 Mazda CX9 three weeks ago, but I'm so glad we didn't because I really don't want the car payment!
BE persistent, try another dealer....We knew we had the "Evidence" if you will to make a case, but clearly the other dealership was not in the business of helping people!
He did in fact receive the gaskets in to replace under warranty, but then realize upon further investigation that the problem was stemming from the engine block. He realized that if he changed the gaskets, they may blow again in 3 months due to the problem.
He got the approval from GM to order a BRAND NEW motor, which was replaced 2 weeks ago. After driving the car home that day, we still had NO Heat so the heating/cooling issue we've had for 4 years didn't get fixed by the replacement of the new engine.
He went again and got GM to approve coverage on a part that he thought would help the heater core since that is what he believed to be the problem. The part was replaced today and guess what, STILL NO HEAT or AIR. Now, he wants to replace the heater core, but GM will only cover 25% of the core.
I don't believe we should pay for the core. Clearly, they agree that there is an issue that should have been fixed correctly teh first time or they wouldn't have replaced the engine nor would have ordered a part to try and fix the core first.
I'm not sure where to go from here! SO FRUSTRATING! Albeit, we have a new engine.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Christina is a GM Customer Service Representative, and she can be reached at socialmedia@gm.com
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
We ended up paying $550ish to have the heater core replaced and that was with GM discount and the dealer taking some additional money off.
After getting a follow up email from "Christina" the GM rep from this site, I was put in contact with another GM customer service rep that looked futher into our case. Her "research" results were as follows:
- The engine was replaced because it was a prodcution flaw and only for that reason.
- Any work that a GM dealer did on the vehicle up until now was "good willed," which I find funny because it was all done while under warranty, thus nothing was GOOD WILLED. GM owed that to us.
- She was extremely sorry that the first dearler that we took the vehicle to didn't "dig deep enough" to uncover the problem while it was under warranty, but that's not GM's fault, thus they won't cover any additional costs for replacing the heater core.
I do want to point out that the last dealer and service manager that we dealt with was fabulous and if we were going to purchase another GM vehicle, it would definitely be from him.
That being said, when driving this weekend it was warmer out and I was hot so I turned on the air and guess what........IT DOESN'T WORK.
GM can kiss my backside and can kiss the $30-35K that we're planning to spend on purchasing a new vehicle in the next six months good bye.
As I've said in previous posts, we've always been GM people and have owned multiple GM vehicles, but after being treated the way we have with this vehicle, I'm done and if I'm done, then my husband is done as well and I can guarantee that!
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Honestly, we were having identical problems (over a 3-4 year span). I'm not sure what the actual diagnosis was or how they figured it out, but I do know it was a faulty engine block from the get go.