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About the only other thing I can think of is the fact that there is a wire bundle along the front of the oil pan. When the oil filter was changed, it might have been bumped or damaged? I know my wife's 04 Rendezvous was serviced at Wal-Mart while we were waiting for our house to be built and I was without a garage.
The first oil change I did after we got into the house, that wire bundle was LOADED with oil which had dripped onto it and into the split loom protector. I spent at least an hour cleaning it up, but never had an engine light come on.
By the way, we've had over $8000 worth of major repairs made (gas gasket, condenser, transmission) and $4000 for regular maintenance over the time we've had it. Fortunately, Buick paid for the majority of the major repairs because I think they realize the 2002 Rendezvous is a lemon!
Any suggestions?
Note: The speaker was probably left unplugged on the last service work as you suspected.
Gembo
Bearings (of course). 1st one covered under warrenty (right front). Second one not covered(left front) 362 dollars to replace. GM covered the cost a year later through good will program (fall of 2006)
AC condensor - warrenty
body control module - warrenty
Interior trim falling off and or cracking - warrenty
rear ball joints - recall
rear seal rupture (awd system) - due to rear ball joint replacement. Therefore if you have awd keep a close eye on the rear differential for leaking after the replacement. This was fixed at GM expense.
minor leaking into interior due to dirty rubber seal around sun roof glass. So please keep it clean or she leaks. (i.e., minor water stains around window door posts)
Brakes - rear brakes desolved at 54 k km. I did replacement myself 100 bucks for rotors and pucks
Front Brakes - 80 k km 100 bucks front rotors and pucks. I did myself.
Tires wore out at 80 k km need replacing. I use winter tires in the off season. I have around 15 k km on them
replaced all chrome wheels due to pitting and pealling. Under warrenty
intake manifold gasket replaced 95 k km. GM picked up the cost for replacement 1200 bucks, but charged me engine flush, coolent flush and engine wash 300 bucks. GM good will program (I guess to counter act the class action law suite in Canada)
Recall on rear tail gate
The last item is hudge for me. At 99 k km i took my RVD in for transmission filter replacement and fluid change to a garage since GM only wanted to flush the system and no filter change (they wanted to charge 300 bucks just for that). Guess what I found. Chunks of metal in the pan. Not happy about this (it appears that my gears are desolving). My transmission is currently being rebuilt (lock up torque converter, gears, seals, drum, clutch plates, fluid flush everything done) costing me 3000 to 3500 bucks. GM quoted me 5000 plus and GM head office offered no garrantees for assistance since I am long outside warrenty. However, this is a major issue with these vehicles and a trany should not go after 60 k miles or 100 k km. GM wanted 500 bucks just to assess the problem. What is to assess when you see chunks of metal and shortly after the filter change a minor grinding noice the trany is gone. The mechanic told me this a major defect and not associated with not changing your trany fluid and filter (I was doing just that). This is a major defect. GM does have a service bulletin about this problem and will not do anything about it. I am not expecting GM to fix my car forever, but man when things ware out long before they are due (trany problems I can expect maybe at 250 k km plus) it goes to show how crappy GM cars are made. I thought by buying a buick I might escape the crappier quality issues; I guess I was wrong. My wife and I are considering getting rid of the vehicle because it is unreliable and in my opinion NOT SAFE. I love my RVD (style and design), but its built like a dinky toy and GM will not stand by their product.
I guess if GM does not come forward and soon to say you know what we did something wrong here and took measures to correct it and build customer confidence, I guess no more GM products for me and my family. This was my first GM product and it will probably be my last. I guess Toyota and Nissan and Honda here I come.
If you have any comments or ideas how to get GM to support customers in regards to faulty components (i.e., trany) let me know.
Thanks for listening :sick:
James
In any event, this isn't the right discussion, so please take it over to Automotive News & Views.
Just venting a little :mad: But its true. Their your best friend until they get your money.
James
The GM good will program was good for a while (gas tank, gasket, condensor), but for them to baulk on the transmission issue only after 70,000 miles is criminal. :mad:
I should make one minor correction. I did purchase a GM product once a Saturn in 1991 but at the time Saturn was not part of GM persay, They were a seperate company based out of Spring Hill Tenesse. And you know what that car lasted 12 years and 250,000 km (no major issues or problems) and the customer service was the best ever. At 6 years old (3 years outside warrenty 120,000 km) all my doors cracked and were falling off. I phoned Saturn head quarters in spring hill and you know what they replaced all the door pannels, painted the whole car at their expense and appologized for such a defect (5500 dollars)and they knew of the problem and are correcting it on newer models. Know Saturn is under the fold of GM so know you talk to GM not Saturn and as result no more costumer service or happy people and understanding people to talk too. I also liked the car washes and tire cleaning the Saturn dealer did with every oil change. Know I may not even consider buying a Saturn since it is fully under GM, so sad and for that matter any other product line GM pushes (Saab, Hummer ...etc).
Maybe in a few years if all our complaints start to mean something GM will do something or someone dies on the highway because of one these issues with RDV, GM will do something. Thanks again for your support. This vehicle cost me 47,500 with tax and when I sell I am going to take a bath big time. But best to be safe then sorry. I should of bought the MDX which at the time cost a few grand more.
James :sick:
I will not be posting again because I think enough has been said.
James :sick: RDV
Im definitely planning on a coolant flush.
now my question is what should i do other than the flush.
do you guys think i should just replace the gaskets before the coolant starts leaking into the oil. and also has anyone replaced the gaskets themself.
Im a noob, as this is my first car, but im a person that has lots of patience. and im trying to get my hands on the techline manual, i would not start with out it. guess the question is has anyone done it to tell me the difficulty of this operation. what are some possible pitfalls/ warnings.
oh yes. i would also like to hear any suggestions for preventative maintenance. btw the car runs great and the message console says my millage economy is 21.7MPG, which sounds about right.
oh one more thing. is there a rendezvous online community homepage on the net where the mechanic heads hang out?
:shades: ahh one more thing, i live in canada. at 122km does anyone think GM will cover this. I heard GM is on a good will mission in Canada.
Thanks, hope its not too much all at once.
There's not much out there about power flushing a cooling system like there is with transmissions (many people think a "power" flush of a tranny can do more harm than good). There is some stuff about the need for a power flush on some GM engines with aluminum heads but often times the biggest push for power flushing seems to come from the companies that make the machines.
Check out Got a Quick, Technical Question? - Shifty and his friends can give you some good tips.
Tracy
Medford, OR
oh ya. i dont think i have a coolant leak into the engine. the manuals say that if i did the exhaust would appear as white smoke that smells like the coolant. I do have lots of white smoke but its from water condensation, i didnt smell any coolant in the exhaust yet.
ok enough babble
I can see some stains on the engine block beside the gaskets which could indicate im leaking to the outside of the engine. I also see a lot of rust on some of the components under the hood. the question is,
Do you guys think it would be enough to simply re-torque the head gasket, and intake manifold bolts?
I bet due to the slight corrosion, the bolts lost some material which decreased the compressive strength on the gaskets. it sounds like a reasonable thing to do at this stage. just wondering if there is anything im missing or should look out for.
Thanks again,
Also, because of the stretch factor of the bolts, once they are taken out or loosened, they have to be replaced with NEW bolts.
GM only offered the good will program up till 100k or 5 years on the intake manifold gasket. To have GM replace the intake manifold gasket 1200 bucks, to get a private garage to do it 700 bucks. As for the head gasket it would cost around 1500 bucks, but to do both intake and head gasket should not cost 2400 bucks maybe 1800 at the most since your taking the engine apart anyway to get at the intake and head gasket at once.
Did you get any garantee with the vehicle at all. GM is out of the picture on this one. Also I understand expect to replace the intake manifold gasket and head gasket again at 200 k plus. According to my mechanic GM has made no improvements to these replacement parts (cheap plastic) expect them to go again and again. GM keeps him in business and is Honda and Toyota's best salesman.
Sorry to here about your troubles
:sick: :sick:
James
Im wondering what other potential problems im looking at in the future. I heard some people say their transmission had crumbled for them. Is this a common problem on the 03 Rendezvous.
I have the 2003 Rendezvous FWD with traction control. 3.4L engine Automatic.
Im looking for some expert advice here. I really fell in love with the car, i dont want to get rid of it just because of FAULTY gaskets gm put in them. But again im not made out of money, its my first car and I just graduated 2 weeks ago from school. the garage told me that the replacement parts have a 100,000 KM warranty on them.
I would recommend taking the car back to the dealer. There should be a 30 day warrenty on the vehicle and as such the dealer should cover the cost of the gasket replacements (if it was a GM dealer it is garanteed through their so called GMC used car policy). If they do not (and want to be &&?%%$$$??& about it) you can always take them to small claims court (and write GM directly about how poor the dealer was) and you would win hands down (just time and headache on your part). At least you would recover your cost. I dought the dealer will take the vehicle back based on the problems it has, but it might. Good Luck with that.
As for the transmission I just had mine replaced (2002 RDV) and with AWD cost 3500 through an independent (turns out they do all the repairs for GM anyway in my area) GM quoted me 5300 bucks. It appears these transmissions are hit and miss (planetary gears break up due to a faulty drive shaft coming lose and causing the gears to cross). This was in all RDV up till 2004 when they replaced the drive shaft with a more robust one (welded instead of preasure fit to the main control gear). So do a filter and fuild change every 50 k km but it will go eventually but this may have it last longer before the part prematurely fails completely.
Anyway for your first vehicle it may have been wiser to investigate a little before purchasing the RDV, because like most GM products it can be expensive to maintain and be unreliable. Current GM products do offer 160 k km warrenties which is allot better, but it does not solve your current problem.
Anyway takecare and good luck :sick:
James
Man this vehicle has some serious quality issues.
Regards
James
oh ya. I thought the corrosion warranty was 5 years or 160,000Km. At least thats what carfax says under its warranty check thing.
This is about it for know :P
James
Thanks
James :confuse:
James