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I'm INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

BigOrange90Jimmy

BigOrange90Jimmy

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I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

The following story takes place on my g/f's 96 Pontiac Grand Am GT.

My girlfriends car breaks down. She calls me and I go to look at it. Ask her to fire it up. When she does, oil POURS, and I STRESS pours out of the throttle body. Immediately I know the rings in the engine are shot because there is NO WAY the oil can travel backwards through the intake unless something is FUBAR'd. Also the motor is skipping. Plugs are fouled and the ignition housing is cracked.

Long story short...it gets towed to local GM *dealershit*. I bitch and complain to her and her parents not to have the car towed there. Well, they take it there anyway and those mechanics "fix" the problem. I beg to let me go talk to dealership and tell them what is going on since I actually know what I'm talking about. My g/f wouldn't let me. Well, the skip is gone. That was the easy part. They then proceed to tell my g/f's parents that they put the car on their little magic machine and it tells them that nothing MAJOR happened to the engine. RIGHT... Last time I checked, broken piston rings IS major damage. They did a compression test on the engine and AMAZINGLY found that it was a little lower than a normal engine should run. NO FAWKING [darn]! The car only has 156 FAWKING thousand miles on it.

Well, the dealership said that the oil leak would EVENTUALLY go away and that it would stop smoking shortly.

Anyone see any red lights yet?

The car STILL smokes and only burns about a quart of oil in 20 MILES!

I think it's time ol Ash pays a visit. Not only did they not fix the problem, but they proceeded to falsely diagnose the problem, then have to nerve to charge her parents $300 to replace 4 spark plugs and an ignition housing.

What is your opinion on this matter? I think her parents should be reimbursed or at least get a discount on replacing the engine. I've already found one for $600 with 68K miles on it.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

typical dealership...round here there is only one i would take it to for major work, and 2 that i would take for painting.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

For oil to come out the intake your would need more then broken rings, You would also have to have lost a timing belt, or a valve.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

heres a great, magic idea...first off call your towns BBB (Better business bureau), then write a letter to the newspaper..then put the new 600$ motor in yourself, and stay far away from that dealership, and disassociate everyone you know with it..
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

an oil pump went out on my brothers TA once, it was still under warranty so he took it to the stealer to get it fixed, they told him that his catback exhaust caused it to fail and they won't do it, lol.

so don't feel too bad, they do that crap regurarly.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

geeze i dont know what dealership you guys deal with but at the dealership I work at we goodwill a lot of stuff for the customers. I know for a fact that if the customer has most of his service work done at the dealer and something major fails, like a tranny going out or an engine dieing, we will either get GM to warranty it out of warranty or we will give the customer a serious discount and pay for the labor. Just something to think about, not all dealerships are bad. /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

Neither was the dealership I worked at when I was a youngin a long long time ago in a galaxy far far awaw. Anyways, I think I might just camp myself in the service department of said dealership until you are dealt with in a fair way. Failing that, I would do the triple B route (it's effective, trust me). Good luck to y'all and Merry Christmas!!

Allan
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

Ash,

Sorry to hear about that one. There's a Chevy dealer here in town that is good, and another one that'll pi&& on your back and tell you it's raining.

I'd call BBB and go talk to the service manager. Be polite and if you don't get satisfaction, tell EVERYONE that you know locally what happened and send a letter to the paper.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

Thanks for the advice guys. I just don't think the newspaper and telling people that the place is bad would work. The owner of the dealership has a chip on his shoulder and looks at everyone like peons. He doesn't care...

I talked to her dad today. He said he called twice about the car and they couldn't tell him anything, but they said they would call him back after his first call. He says he's going to call the bank and stop payment on that check.

On a side note, my mom told me not to get involved in it. I asked why. She said because someday dad might need to take his truck over there to get it serviced. I told her straight up that if he EVER takes his truck over there, he might as well park it in the back yard and part it out.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

yeah, not all dealerships are scam artists, our dealership warranties some [darn] due to the sheer stupidity of the managers, like the 2004 mustang gt with 8,000 miles on it..guy brings it in last week with no 2nd gear, comes back this week, and magically the drag radials are off the back and the short shifter that was mis-adjusted is out of the car..whoda thunk?? oh and it got a clutch too..
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

/forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif @ dealerships. My girls moms 2001 escape with 35000 miles on it, brake light is on as is the low coolant light (been on since 10000 miles drinks about a quart a week) . Being that I am a tech I checked it out before she took it in so they didnt get screwed. (like their 687$ front brake job @ 15k miles) So I popped the hood and find the booster completely soaked and empty, ok that was easy needs a master cylinder. Take it in and they say it was a bad seal on the brake fluid resivor cap, now I just cant see how thats gonna allow the resivor to be dry and brake fluid to be running down the booster. Then the coolant light, they top it off and say they couldnt find a leak. 1 week later they call back and say "hey can you bring your car back we want to look at the coolant leak again" So she takes it back in and when she goes to pick it up they say that it was a bad coolant level sensor, thats fine where did the cooalnt go every week. So get it home and I decide to check something, sure as $hit when you cycle the key every dash light comes on except the low coolant, they pulled the bulb. /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif Im real close to opening the petcock draingin it and having her drive it around before it hits 36k.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

no, loosen the service manager's oil filter....fawkers. i hate stealerships. 2 new PCMs and $800 later, "oh, we replaced the O2 sensor, and its all better. guess we shoulda done that in the first place, haha." /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif you would think that they would have the sense to at least check that before they replace the whole damn computer. hell, i assumed they had, because its the solution to damn near every check engine light /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

[ QUOTE ]
Loosen the oil filter instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif They took out thelow coolant bulb not the low oil one
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

i think he means so the engine will seize, you can blame it on bad work by the stealership, and then sue
 
Youthfull Testosterone based ignorance ****RANT****

[ QUOTE ]
What is your opinion on this matter?

[/ QUOTE ]

I fail to understand why you are up-set with the "Dealershits" repair work.
It would appear to me, from what has been written here, that the problem was in-fact correctly diaged and repaired (an engine miss, or "skip" as you put it).

[ QUOTE ]
They did a compression test on the engine and AMAZINGLY found that it was a little lower than a normal engine should run. NO FAWKING [darn]! The car only has 156 FAWKING thousand miles on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

The vehicle in question, a '96 Grand Grand Am w/156,000 miles (72,000 above the average miles for the age of the car). High miles + a youthfull right foot = worn rings, not "broken".
If there were a "broken" ring, the engine miss-fire would still be present due to the low compression in that cyl, regardless of wether or not the plug was fireing.
Furthermore, worn-rings and the related blow-by gasses that would be present, could indeed lead to exsissive engine oil accumulation in the intake manifold - via the Crank-Case-Ventalation system. And if, the car was cranked repetedly, without ever building sufficiant vacume (or stable vacume) for correct PCV operation- then, it would not be difficult to imagine finding engine oil (alot of it) in the intake.

Again, where did the dealership go wrong here ?
They repaired the car as per the customer's request. (which I assume was something like, "repair to run" or "check for miss-fire")

[ QUOTE ]
Not only did they not fix the problem, but they proceeded to falsely diagnose the problem

[/ QUOTE ]
They did ?
Didn't you just state that the engine "skip" is gone ?
And, exactly, what would you have them do ? Reccomend replacing an engine in a car that's resale value simply could not justify the cost ?

I think:
Your Testosterone based diagnosicts procedures appear to be flawed.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

Hey Ash,
Sorry to hear about the crappy dealship misfortune. If your interested I have a 1994 Chevy Beretta you could buy for 1k and all it needs now is a new CatConverter which I would gladly replace for free. Sound interesting?? YEAH YEAH this should go in the 4-sale forum just thought I would through that out at you. Good luck though with the car..
 
Re: Youthfull Testosterone based ignorance ****RANT****

I'm with Twiz... The dealership did what they were instructed to do, and fixed the "skip". They also ran diagnostic tests, including a compression test, which would likely find any cylinder with faulty rings. The "skip" was fixed, which would have been an ignition related problem. Is the car really using that much oil? One quart every 20 miles would produce more smoke than a tire fire. Do you have any actual proof that any of the rings are damaged? Did you see the spark plugs or read the results of the compression test? Finally, how does any of this earn your G/F the right to a discount on a new engine, if that is indeed the problem at hand? Do you really think that a dealership is going to install a used engine? If you don't like what you heard, take the car elsewhere and get a second opinion. Fighting with the dealership is not going to get you anywhere.
 
Re: I\'m INSANELY PISSED at my local GM dealership! ****RANT****

escape with a coolant light on..i seriously doubt they pulled the bulb, instead they may have reprogrammed the pcm, or replaced the coolant level sensor..you could send me a PM with the vin and id gladly check it out for you through fords OASIS system at work..actually i can do that from home..if you're interested to know what the warranty claim was on it..id be glad to try and help...not EVERY dealership is a stealership..we are the nations largest single point ford dealer, and VERY fair with customers..
$678 for a front brake job is disgusting, i can do front and rears on most any ford under a super duty for less than that, using ford parts..not aftermarkets..that should have been a disputed claim..
 
Re: Youthfull Testosterone based ignorance ****RANT****

[ QUOTE ]
I'm with Twiz... The dealership did what they were instructed to do, and fixed the "skip". They also ran diagnostic tests, including a compression test, which would likely find any cylinder with faulty rings. The "skip" was fixed, which would have been an ignition related problem. Is the car really using that much oil? One quart every 20 miles would produce more smoke than a tire fire. Do you have any actual proof that any of the rings are damaged? Did you see the spark plugs or read the results of the compression test? Finally, how does any of this earn your G/F the right to a discount on a new engine, if that is indeed the problem at hand? Do you really think that a dealership is going to install a used engine? If you don't like what you heard, take the car elsewhere and get a second opinion. Fighting with the dealership is not going to get you anywhere.

[/ QUOTE ]

The dealership was instructed to figure out why the car would no longer pass 20 MPH and why it smoked like a mutha. It didn't just creep up on her. It just happened. She does not have a "youthful" foot like it seems that every older person has this mental image of.

Yes, the dealership will install used engines, but they will not warranty the engine. They will, however, warranty everything else done in that process.

I saw nothing of what was broken. The dealership threw all of the old parts away and wouldn't release the documentation of the diagnosis or results of the scan.

Anyway, her dad called up there and fussed at them for not fixing the problem that it was really taken up there for, the smoke problem. The fouled spark plugs were the result of being doused in so much oil. They offered to return his money or knock $300 off the price of a new engine. He got his money back.
 
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