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Will you email me your case number?
Christina
GM Customer Service
We talked to the service dept, they said car wasn't covered, buy a new one and they would put it in, so for $500 and a crappy attitude they sent me over to Holmes-Tuttle Ford. No deal reached that day for the 2011 F-150 XLT Super Crew, but GM has knocked themselves out of my truck shopping. The Silverado/Sierra transmission problems weren't giving me warm fuzzy feelings either.
Sorry GM if this is how you stand behind your customers over a safety issue, No Thanks. I realize this car has 45k miles, but if GM won't make them well enough to last until you are ready to trade them in, why bother?
DGM
I apologize for the problems you have experienced with your vehicle. Does your boyfriend currently have a case set up with GM Customer Assistance? If so, could you please email us the case number? I would like to look further into your situation.
Thank you,
Caron, GM Customer Service
First, the Customer Service department will insist you go to a Chevy dealer to have the problem "diagnosed." The dealer wanted $120 to do the "sweep test" Realize this is a 6-10 minute test where the dash is put through a test sequence and they can see if the needles react correctly. The "Executive Office Customer Care" said they would "try" to help once I got it diagnosed. Of course the result was "defective instrument panel cluster" After many e-mails, phone calls, trips to dealerships and time wasted the Executive Customer Service Agent stated that there was nothing GM would do. :mad: Luckily I have a choice in my next vehicle purchase.
I apologize for the problems you are experiencing with your vehicle. Could you please email me your case number? I would like to look further into your situation.
Thank you,
Caron, GM Customer Service
started acting up and it was sometimes interfering with shifting as well.
I ordered a Trans./Speedometer sensor and it fixed my problem. I think the
sensor was $53.00, im in Mi. GM should definetly make it right for this design prob.
I took my 2004 Tahoe in, while still under warranty, to my local dealer here in Santa Clarita CA to have the problem fixed. The dealer said they would need my car for the day. Not a big deal considering they were going to fix the problem under warranty, or so I thought.
They had my car for a full day, then phoned and informed me that they did not have the part in stock. I was told that I would have to bring the Tahoe back once they had the part in stock. I got a call from the dealer about a week later informing me that the part was in stock and I should bring the car in for the repair. Great, I thought. I no longer will need to use my GPS as my Speedometer. I scheduled my Tahoe for the repair and dropped it off. Another full day goes by and I get a call from the dealer informing me that they no longer have my part and will have to reorder it. I will have to bring the Tahoe back for a third time once they get the part in again.
As most of you can understand, at this point I really feel I am getting the run around. I have taken time out of my busy day to get the car down to their facility for repair, but yet nothing gets done.
As life would have it, I started a new job. Great to be working, but now I have no time whatsoever. Working 50 plus hours a week and every other Saturday has my schedule full.
While driving to work one day, I notice that my tachometer is no longer working. So first the speedometer and now the tachometer, great! Okay, I better get this fixed before the rest of the gauges stop working. What next the fuel or temp gauge? Then I am really screwed!!!
Off to the dealer once again for repairs. Once I get they, the service department informs me that they will no longer cover the repair under warranty due to the fact my car has over 100K miles on it. I explain to the service person what has taken place and that the Tahoe has been in several times before for this issue, but they never fixed it, all within the warranty period. He looked up my service records and saw that I was telling the truth.
After reviewing my service records, and seeing my Tahoe had been in before for this issue, while under warranty, the service department tells me that I will have to pay $150 for the repair and there is nothing they can do about it due to the fact the car is now out of warranty. Seems a bit unfair to me. They should have fixed the problem when I first brought the Tahoe in, while it was still under warranty, rather then give me the run around they did.
So now what? Is there anyone I can contact at GM or Chevy to get this issued resolved? Am I stuck paying the $150? Can I just get the part and have it installed elsewhere or even do it myself?
This whole thing has got me wondering what other recalls are out there from my Tahoe. Not having a working speedometer seems like a real safety issue to me. Are there other safety issues I should be concerned about that Chevy has not informed me of? Is Chevy going to use the same excuse on other recalls saying the car is out or warranty? I guess I will see soon enough.
Once last thing Chevy, providing your listening
Treating your customer base poorly and not standing behind your product is really going to affect your bottom line. I know in the next year when I am ready to purchase another SUV I will be considering your competition. In these ever so difficult times with an economy that doesn’t allow us to make financial mistakes I will be looking for a car company that stands proudly behind its product and warranty. I need to have confidence in the products I purchase and quite frankly it’s not currently with you.
What is really disappointing is that my Dad was corporate counsel/secretary of GM for 25 yrs and when I (and all my sibs) try to remain faithful to the GM brand, this is how we get treated (GIVE ME YOUR MONEY). There is an obvious problem with the speedometers in this vehicle, it is not just a coincidence, yet the dealer just wants money. Guess we'll have to rethink what we are going to purchase next, but I'll keep my Z06, for now - the Suburban on the other hand...??? I have three MORE kids to get into vehicles too - - GM? Not unless someone wants to fix this problem. Sad since this is all we grew up with.
These clusters are the easiest to remove that I have ever seen, based on a 04 Yukon versus others on other brand vehicles that I have removed. The large bezzel that covers the radio and AC controls also, comes off by just pulling firmly at key points with your fingers. To remove the instrument cluster, now exposed, remove the 4 hex head screws (7 mm or 9/32" socket). There are no multiple electrical connectors, just one to disconnect. No speedo cable to disconnect. No light switch to remove the knob on.
The reason dealers can't do this for you cheaply is that they need to tie up your vehicle while they outsource the cluster to an electronic service company. You can also outsource it yourself for $50 per gauge plus shipping, if you don't want to do the soldering yourself. See link below.
See my detailed post at:
ryanengel, "05 GMC Sierra Speedometer Doesn't work" #1, 9 Jul 2011 9:14 am
Posts 3 and 6
I got the $5.90 + shipping part at:
http://tiny.cc/tv110
Once you get everything in the cluster separated, you have to pull the needles off all the gauges. Mark where they were when you started. (Once reassembled, the speedo needle will probably be in the wrong spot, so reconnect it before you fully reassemble it, turn the ignition on, mark where the needle is, remove, take apart, and adjust the wrong location back to zero speed).
To pull the needles off, get two pieces of 1.5" by 2.5" thin cardboard rectangles, something about .015 to .025 inch thick (traditional shirt cardboard thickness). Put one on each side of each needle, and one by one, lift the needles with a fork, but instead of prying, use the compression force of the fork between the bottom of the needle pivot center, and the cardboard. The needle will eventually pop off the stepper motor shaft, but it takes quite a bit of force. Be gentle. Almost any other method will damage something, given the force required.
Here is a video below on how to solder the new stepper motor in. I used a 25 watt soldering iron, a cheap one from Home Depot. Just heat the 4 solder points and then pop the stepper motor off. It can only go on one way due to the indexed plastic bumps. Of course you only have to replace the speedo stepper motor if it's the only one not working right. Position, then solder the new one in. I recommend reviewing your solder joints when you are done with a magnifying glass to make sure you got a good solder weld.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5UWf955Jqs&NR=1
Hope this helps. The problem with the dash gauges is a small and cheap item called a "stepper" motor. It is a small electrical device that resides behind the dash cluster and actually moves the needles. There is a guy on e-bay that sells them individually for 3 dollars or so. You need to have soldering skills to replace them your self. He also will replace them for you, for a fee, if you send him your cluster. I will look for his site and repost later. Great fix for an idiotic problem GM should have fixed years ago. Good luck.
Thank you very much. I will start here and get back to you if this took care of the problem.
After a day of troubleshooting I found three resistors needed resolder. The resistors are black at the 2 o'clock of the speed stepper motor, SSW of two silver 50V capacitors, they have 240 written on them.
A way to check, is to hook the circuit board up to the truck, turn the key on (but don't start the truck), and with a pencil press on these resistors and you should hear a buzzing and/or the cluster will turn on. be careful not to short the board to ground on the truck.
That fixed my cluster.
let me know if it works for anyone else
I was so ticked off I went home and started to type "2003 Chevy Suburban Instrument Cluster Issues" in the Google bar and before I finished the thread I got about 8 million hits. I discovered that just about every 2003 and later GM truck owner experienced the same issue and all were so fed up with GM that they said it would be their last (I have to agree). Anyway I found one posting mentioning the stepper motor problem and that you can buy the GM replacement motors on eBay and replace them yourself. I found a guy in Winona, MN selling the motors for $4 each so I ordered 6 - one for each of the gauges in my cluster - since all 6 use the same motor.
All you have to do to get the cluster out is pop off the bezel around your dash/radio and remove the four screws that hold the cluster in the dash. You can disassemble the cluster be unsnapping the clear front lens from the back of the assembly. To get to the stepper motors you have to remove the indicator needles from the gauge (mark their position first on a piece of tape affixed to the front of the cluster). If you can solder you can replace the stepper motors. The fix took me less than an hour to R&R the cluster and re-calibrate the speedo.
Well that fixed my problem for a couple years. Then this summer my speedo started acting erratically. I originally only changed the stepper for my oil gauge, since all the rest were working fine. I had the remaining 5 steppers from a couple years ago, so I thought I could just go back "in" and fix the speedo. Turns out I don't have the equipment or skills to un-solder and then re-solder the stepper motor for the speedo to the PC Board. It's just in an area that you need to be very precise in order to perform the soldering.
I called the guy in Winona, MN that I previously bought the motors from. He said I could send him the entire cluster and he would replace all 6 stepper motors and re-program the entire cluster with updated programming for $100, including return UPS shipping. I live in the Twin Cities so UPS Ground is next-day to Winona. I was w/o the cluster for 2 whole days, then the repaired cluster showed up and I had it back in my truck w/in 10 minutes.
The dealer wanted about $500 to repair the cluster. I swear they have actuaries on staff that calculate how many vehicles are on the road with less than 70K miles before they issue the recall, knowing that the hit to them will be minimal.
I'm done with GM!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5UWf955Jqs&NR=1
I posted helpful YouTube, stepper motor purchase info, and forum locations a while back on this thread. I'd love to help you if you only lived near Knoxville, Tn. Good luck.
$102.50 for each software upgrade needed for my suburban.
All I ask for was to have the XM function turned on for my Bose system...
I gave them my VIN nu,mber and they said I need over 2K in software upgrade to the computer system before the port can be activated.. but I would have to buy th the package also.l
Thanks
Travis
As far as my speedometer, some of the other gauges work but the oil gauges does not. I believe the rest work, although they could be fooling me by showing a good reading. The speedometer may work at times (rarely and then quits) or it will read 0 or 120. I enjoyed taking a pic at 120 and put a pic of my vette next to it. Fooled some. lol
It is a shame that GM does not fix the problem with the speedometer - guess the Gov.t was in charge when the suit was originally filed... or at least contact all with the issue and help. I am curious as to someone $7.00 fix. Wonder if I can fix it myself...
Husband disabled (thanks UPS) had we adopted two children from foster care (before disability) and had three of our own... When we purchased this expensive vehicle, we sure weren't thinking "what problems will we have." Guess this is the reason people by Toyota/Honda.
Meg
Thanks, Meg
Thanks,
Rory
I can't tell you specifically who to buy them from, but go to ebay and type in stepper motors. They ar e about 6.00 each, he will give you detailed instructions, or you can even send it to him.
It is possible to drive your car without the gauge box in the car, looks really funny, I did it for a day while my hubby took mine to work and fixed it.
Super easy
Buy American made cars...one day there might not be any. Just last month, Carrier said they are closing another plant in Tx. My neighbor had to put his house on the market. Now what are they going to do? I hardly think the citizens of Mexico (where the plant is headed, btw), are going to start buying air conditioning units.
- Headliner came loose over drivers door and rear window
-all 4 factory batteries failed (30 days out of warranty)
-drivers seat cushion ripped
- speedo and odometer failed
When 2 identical trucks have the exact same failures within 30 days of each other, it's obviously a manufacturinig defect/planned obsolescence issue. Neither of my trucks were in the serial number range and although they had the eaxct same faileure within the allotted mileage chevy denied responsibility. Best of all they never notified anyone about the speedo failure because Chevy deemed it wasn't a "safety issue". Are you kidding me, coming off the interstate with a loaded trailer to a 180 degree turn and a speed limit warning isn't a safety issue.
It's no wonder chevy needed the govt to bail them out!
Our local dealer (Cox Chevrolet) wouldn't do a thing about any of the problems other than quote inflated repair prices, so I researched it on my own and found a number of guys on eBay that will repair the speedometer cluster with non-OEM parts for less than $100. Repairs by Chevy are done with the exact OEM parts that fialed to start with.
Check it out on ebay and save yourself a ton. I've repaired one of my trucks and it worked fine.
the 36,000 mi and the dealer repaired it free of charge. now my new speedometer is reading past 120 mph @64,805 mi. and it's not likely to be free of charge this time round. I have had this problem twice