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GM spent 2.5% of their product revenue last year on warranty claims. Auto Warranty vs. Quality
Not if the Asians deny warranty claims saying it's the owners fault.
Needless to say and trying to stay on topic. The new GMT 900 platform is light years ahead of the GMT 800 in terms of ride and cab quietness. But wait, they are still using the 5.3, 6.0 and the 4L60E. What was GM thinking on that one now?
Now that is completely BS. I've only owned two foreign vehicles a VW Jetta and a Nissan Pathfinder. While both were excellent requiring very little service, I've never had any issues with warranty claims. The Pathfinder was an '01 which was the first year for Nissan's 3.5v6. They had O2 sensor problems in 2001, which mine needed replaced at 28k miles. No problems, they fixed it.
I've never had a dealer not honor a warranty issue within the stated warranty claim regardless of make. In my experience, when a vehicle is under warranty they are more than happy to perform warranty work.
Now you can say that Ford, GM, and Chrysler are more than willing to pay for items out of warranty, which I've never have had luck with. GMs powertain warranty going to 100k will surely effect warranty costs.
That would be legitimate since most of those paid claim were on vehicles well beyond the original warranty period.
What about all the 3.8 head gaskets Ford replaced out of warranty and they offered extended warranties to 100k on those engines. No different.
It doesn't bother me that GM didn't use a rear IRS to allow for 3rd row fold down seats, but no 6 speed in the 1/2 tons is a deal buster for me. Since I tow with my SUV, the extra ratios are really needed. I've read a few tow tests between the Expedition and Suburban. W/O a load the Suburban can hold it's own, but once 5,000 are added, the Expe with a little more torque and the 6 speed will pretty much smoke the Suburban.
Truck Trend did a tow test of the 5.4 6 speed Expe EL and a 6.0L Suburban (4speed, 4.10 gears), the with a trailer, the Expe ran to 60 nearly two second quicker and was able to run over 10 mph faster up the grade portion of the test. Yet, w/o a trailer, the Suburban was almost a second quicker to 60.
Not that anyone drag races with a trailer, but the point is the extra gearing makes towing more pleasant. Trying to merge into 70 mph traffic can be hairy sometimes and adding a heavy trailer can make it real interesting.
Did you mean the 3.0 head gaskets that Toyota replaced out of warranty?
Back to topic I don't ever remember GM having head gasket problems except maybe that coolant issue that eroded the head gaskets but that way long ago.
What I'm surprised about is the fact that Honda is now getting a free ride from CR when in fact Toyota used to but because of the 2007 Camry and 2007 Tundra they no longer are issued free pass around GO and no $200.
In the case of GM I can't remember ever that they were even considered for a free pass. In all fairness though a good mag would never let it publicly be known about free passes.
The thing that bugs me though, is that my uncle's Silverado is just a 2wd 4.3, so it's not like it has a strong V-8 straining it. And he's never towed anything with it. Also never hauled anything very heavy in the bed.
In contrast, I know my '85 Silverado has seen plenty of abuse over its 23 year lifespan. It just has a 305 and a THM350C tranny, and is just a half-ton truck, but I know I've had over a ton in the bed on several occasions. And my Mom & stepdad used to pull a boat with it. I'm not sure, but I think the boat might be about 4,000 lb. Currently at around 126,000 miles, and still the original tranny. Maybe they really DON'T build 'em like they used to!
Just out of curiosity, is it feasible to swap in the 4L80E tranny in place of the 4L60E? At one time, my uncle talked about getting a new truck and actually offered to give me his old one, so I could retire my '85. His '97 is a pretty nice truck, but that tranny just bothers me. After seeing the tranny fail twice already, it doesn't exactly give me that Genuine GM Feeling. It's more economical than my Silverado, but an $1800 tranny rebuild can buy you an awful lot of gas!
Spring Carlisle is coming up in just a few short weeks. Maybe we can find you a nice 70's/80's GM beater.
4L60E to 4L80E swap
Getting back to topic, the new ZR-1 is hands down a better car that the previous C6. I was amazed by the revival of the 427 specifically for the vette. Makes it really tempting to trade that old C5 in.
I was not the most popular dad when I wouldn't tow the trailer for campouts with my '95 Suburban. I knew too many folks with failed transmissions - this one has held up for 140k, and I'm about to sell it, before it dies on me.
Well, it's not THAT 427, but a larger version of the current block, right?
Hand assembled.
LS7
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. You read the same trans failures on the Trailblazer forum and the 4.2 has no where near the torque of the 5.3.
Hopefully my current rebuild will hold up. The owner of the trans shop that rebuilt mine said he used the best available updated components for my rebuild and he gave me a 3 year unlimited mile warranty. I've hit 3 years so the warranty is gone. So far it's been rock solid. I'd like to get another year before I look for a new SUV. Probably will look for a used Denali with the 6.2/6speed or save some $$ and get a used '07 or newer Expedition with 6speed.
Do you think people will be asking more realistic prices for their rides at Carlisle or are they still living in B-J fantansyland despite a crappy economy and psychopathic pump prices?
Do you think people will be asking more realistic prices for their rides at Carlisle or are they still living in B-J fantansyland despite a crappy economy and psychopathic pump prices?
I thought Hillary said everyone is content in PA.
If the car does die, I'm not out much other than an emotional loss. I would like to find another one like it.
Nothing a little black tape can't fix.
Oh, I think the initial asking prices will still be pretty ridiculous. However, I bet those prices will be a lot more negotiable than in the past. I hear that Sunday is usually the day the people cut their prices to rock bottom, especially if they don't want to lug their car back home.
One thing you'll probably notice this time around, is more signs on the windshield trying to upsell a 6-cyl engine as an advantage, and touting some totally unrealistic fuel economy claim. Prepare to see plenty of Dart, Valiant, Chevy II, Falcon type cars with "30+ mpg" written on the windshield!
I remember at the Chrysler show last July, some guy was trying to pawn off a 1979 Chrysler Newport with a slant six. Now he only wanted $495 for it, but he was bragging about what a desireable car it was because the slant six was so rare! Umm, there's a reason it's so rare...that's not enough engine to power that much car, so nobody bought them that way! It had originally been a dark, forest-type green, but it was brush-painted white and had cheesy police car signage on it. I think it also had a big dent in the rear quarter. I couldn't tell how much rust it had on it, but a heavy-handed paintbrush job can easily hide bondo and rust...for a time, at least.
I think that car was down to $395 the next day.
FWIW, once you get to cars that big, sometimes a V-8 will actually get better fuel economy! I'm not sure what the EPA ratings were on these big old boats, but I know the 318-2bbl had a 2.45:1 axle ratio, while the 225 slant six, which had a 2-bbl in these cars in 1979, had a 2.94:1 axle. If you drove it like a little old lady, the slant six might get better economy, but I imagine in most "normal" driving, the 318 would get better economy, especially out on the highway.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
And yeah, the slant six was pretty bad by that time. In 1979, there was a 1-bbl with 100 hp or a 2-bbl with 110. The 2-bbl was standard in the R-body. For 1980, they only offered a 1-bbl, with 85 hp. I'm sure back in the day, a Diesel Rabbit or an automatic tranny Civic would've given one a run for its money!
A friend has a '95 Impala SS bought new back in the day. After 13 years in the sun, his hood, roof, and trunk has no clearcoat, no paint, and no primer. Just a beautiful sheetmetal grey. His A/C no longer works and his windows stopped working. He drives to and from work (3 miles one way) in over 100 degrees since he can't roll down his windows. Why?
He thinks because it's an SS its worth money. Still has a sign $4K or offer in his window. That price has been slashed from $15K so the $4K is really small. I told him so shoot it and have it donated to the Kidney Foundation.
I'm sure there are plenty of clubs out there devoted to the Impala SS. Heck, I usually see 20-30 or more of them at the GM Nationals in Carlisle, PA. Maybe if your friend tried soliciting to one of these clubs, he might have some luck?
Also, if your friend only has to drive 3 miles to work, then driving a beater like that isn't a big deal. I have a 1985 Silverado with non-working a/c, and a failed driver's side power window. With a vinyl seat, it can get to be a real hothouse. But I only have to drive 3.5 miles to and from work. Even in the worst of summer, it's usually bearable on the way in to work. And going home, I can usually put up with it. Luckily, the passenger side window still works. Plus, it has a rear window I can open, and vent windows, so that helps it cool down fairly quickly.
It was my main source of transportation from around June 2006 through October 2007. And both summer '06 and summer '07 were pretty brutal around here. :sick:
If a constantly glowing CEL indicates a pollution problem, will I have trouble when I go for emissions/inspection later this summer? Is it a bad catalytic converter? If it was pollution-related, I'm surprised the local mechanic didn't catch it. Maybe I need to go to the dealer for a diagnosis, but I don't want to spend big bucks if the repair wouldn't be cost-effective.
My guess is you'll fail the emissions inspection if the tech sees your CEL is on regardless of whether your engine can pas the actual pollution test.
The CEL is pretty much strictly emissions related. Since your Park Ave is pre '95 w/o OBII diagnostics, I don't know what all your CEL monitors.
I doubt it's the converter, usually you have serious drivability issues when converters go bad.
In Dallas it would be a problem, but I don't know about where you are, and whether a car that age would be exempt.
He has when I last talked to him about 47K miles on the car. If the exterior was any indication, the interior leather is shredded and dash a little warped from the sun. If you're planning to do a complete restoration it may be a good project car. Guess no one in this area is motivated enough to take on his car as a project.
One thing for sure is stripping the paint to bare metal won't be that hard to do.
Y'know, I can't recall at this point. I think the bumpers are actually slightly different on the New Yorker compared to the Newport and other cars. The front header panel and plastic trim in the back is also definitely different. And the rear decklid is about the only piece of sheetmetal that they actually changed for the New Yorker. It's a bit more squared off on the NYer, and slightly more sloping on the others.
Most of the interior stuff probably would have been useless. For one thing, it was a light green, and would look kinda clashy with midnight blue or two-tone creme! Some stuff though, like the dash gauges, HVAC controls, radio, etc, would still be useful. I wonder how hard it is to dye vinyl?
I have to get the emissions test done by June 4. Nowadays, in Maryland, with an OBD-II car they don't even put it on the treadmill anymore. They just hook up to the OBD-II port and scan it for codes. And if your check engine light is on, they'll refuse to test the car.
Lemko, if your emissions station still makes your car go on the treadmill, or does the old fashioned tailpipe test where they just rev the engine in park, you might be able to get by with just disconnecting the bulb that illuminates the check engine light...if it's something you can get to easily.
The problem with those check engine lights is that they can be so universal. On my uncle's '03 Corolla, it came on when the catalytic converter went bad. When my roommate had his 1998 Tracker, the light came on because the lockup on the torque converter didn't engage. And it would also come on occasionally because of some intermittent problem with the EGR valve.
I remember on my '86 Monte Carlo, if you took a paper clip and unbent it, and shoved each end in the correct slot of this big RS232-looking port under the dash, you could get the check engine light to start flashing error messages in code. Each error would be a two digit number, with each digit ranging from 1-5. So you could have error codes ranging from 11 to 55, and if you had a reference chart you'd be able to look them up.
My '79 New Yorkers have a similar looking interface under the hood, but I'm not about to shove anything in them lest I short something out!
My '88 LeBaron was kinda cool where you just had to turn the ignition key a few times...on-off-on-off-on, and the light would flash in code. The only code I remember though is "55" was "end of codes".
See my email to your address in profile for more info on doing that.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The carburetor and pcv valve had a lot to do with emissions as well as the honeycombed catalytic converters which killed HP back in the day.
I would say a good mechanic would be able to troubleshoot the CEL though he would have to be both "good" and "older" to remember how to pull the codes. These new generation of OBD-II mechanics would have no clue where to begin.
Actually the numbers having one of two intake gasket issues are probably lower than getting a sludgemobile from another company of the same era. Only a fraction of the 3800s have the EGR heat deterioration. The DexCool nylon 66 gasket deterioration occured early in DexCool but the formula was changed and the antioxidant in the new formula doesn't deteriorate the nylon gasket.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Under dash by steering wheel.
Connect A and B with a paper clip. Turn key to ON.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
LaCrosse will have the 3800 - will this engine ever go away?
Enclave gets DI
The gasket "repair" usually consisted of replacing the gasket and failed upper manifold with OEM parts, not addressing the design flaws that led to the failure in the first place. There are aftermarket manifolds and gaskets that claim to remedy the flaws in the stock design, but who knows if they really work or not. Best thing to do is get a 1994 or earlier car, or a later supercharged model if you're willing to risk the Dexcool problems.
I was under the impression that the issue with those plastic intakes was pretty much solved by around 2000? It really ran that long?
I've also often wondered, is it Dexcool specifically that's troublesome, or just any long-life coolant? My Intrepid uses long-life coolant, that pinkish-orange stuff. Is Mopar's a different blend or something? I've never had any issues with the stuff, but I've also never let it go for 5 years. I bought the car in 11/99, and had the first coolant change around 8/03, at ~86,000 miles. The mechanic said that if you do it a little early, you can get away without changing the hoses, too. I had coolant change #2 around 4/07, and maybe 131,000 miles. This time, he said the hoses still looked fine, but I didn't want to take any chances. He kept insisting that the hoses really do last a lot longer these days, but I still figure'd I'd rather pay a little extra and have them done, than risk blowing that expensive 2.7 engine and totaling the car.