So far this has not cost me anything other than a very painful and scary experience that could have cost me my life where I was stranded for almost an hour before anybody came (also in the 20s outside at the time).
We are still waiting for Citgo. I might have to apy for 2 days car rental but not sure. The injection system was about $2,000 total and the week for that car rental. Then the engine and labor and rental are going to be approximately $8-9,000. So we will see. So far I think it is about $10-11,000.
OLM makes me wonder now, one engine needs lower mileage oil changes to prevent chain wear.
I think I will stick with my 5000 mile oil changes I used for my last car.
I talked with OnStar today and they said the warranty for the new engine now falls under the parts warranty. I am going to clarify that because I was told by the dealership I would get another 100,000 mile warranty on the new engine (power train, cam shaft, crank shaft, etc.)
99% of the time, when a component is replaced under warranty, the part is then covered until the warranty expires. So if your Traverse has a 5 year, 100k mile warranty, and you engine fails in year 3, at 40k miles, you have 2 years or 60k miles left for that new engine to break.
If you had purchased an extended warranty when you bought the truck, say one that is good for 10 years, 150k miles, then your new engine would be good for 7 years, or 110k more miles.
Now, if your warranty had already expired, and you paid for the new engine out of pocket, the new engine would have its own warranty on it. Lets say that would be 2 years, 24k miles.
Since this is a warranty replacement, whatever is left on your vehicle and power train warranty for your Traverse is how much longer your new engine is covered for.
Fluids are cheap…engines that’s a different story. Look at gms track record with the coolant that they deemed never to need replacing and the problems it caused. Don’t rely on sensors and stick to basic rules. You need to change your oil every 3 months for average driving and if you drive less it won’t hurt. 4 oil changes a year compared to 2 is nothing compared to replacing an engine. If you got the document try to go after gm. Good luck but don’t hold your breath.
igerge- It was covered 100%- this post is very interesting to read all the way through. I know it is hard but you are coming into this post way too far to wish me luck. I appreciate it but there is no such thing as luck- it is when opportunity meets preparedness and with those, we were given a good will warranty to get e on the road but in addition to that GM and Citgo and the dealearship are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong to learn from all this. And my car is one of those early models that had timing chain problems. My car VIN# appears to have been on a list that is being circulating. We’ll see. Final jury is still out.
Anne; thanks for being so helpful and interactive with info which allowed us to be collectively helpful. Not many threads last as long or stay as focused as this one (most original posters soon “disappear”) but this post has taught most of us a lot about the good and bad of OLM systems.
Hope you have learned as much as we did, and I agree that “luck is the residue of planning”.
Thanks Docnick. Yes I do believe there is much to learn in this interactive post. I do thank all for being so diligent with thier focus and research to allow all of us in on what thoughts people had about the situation as it unfolded. At the same time during this post, there were also GM announcements and yes, not many people would go to the lengths I did to offer as truthful a picture of the situation as I did so we could all respond with some factual data. So I do appreciate all responses. And will follow up with the outcome. I figure it will probably be about 2 weeks and this post will become an archive–albeit an informative one for others to read about, learn from and be alert to possibilities and probabilities.
I am at 94% OLM in my Traverse and I am checking under the hood tomorrow after 820 miles on this new engine. I’ll let you know. Okay all you that told me to check under the hood. I have monitored the OLM like before- exactly like before. I have not reached the 3000 miles yet which is my “well visit” with the dealership but that is next. I got my first Onstar email and they said everything was running smoothly. I have not got my reminder for my mileage based service responsibilities. But here is one thing. Onstar sais there is no way to start the miles over. So if I have 42,000 miles on the car but a brand new engine, then at the odometer reading monitored by Onstar in 8,000 miles I am going to be reminded that I have a 50,000 total checkup due on my engine. That is going to be a little bit of a nusiance to compare it to the manula and make the necessary adjustments but the dealership also said they would put me on their reminder list of the correct service needed. So nothing is ever perfect except that it will be perfectly okay if I get all these reminders!
For those who have been diligently following this post. GM this week updated a Bulletin 10287 to 10287-A that list involved vehicles in a GM GlobalConnection Recall Report. My dealership informed me today my vehicle Vin # is on that list of cars with a timing chainwear and a reprogram control engine module dictate. Basically, under certain driving conditions, and with extended oil change intervals, the timing chain could wear prematurely and cause the illumination of the Serivce Engine Soon light.Timing chain can be affected by the age of the engine oil and driving conditions. Courtesy transportation is intended to minimize customer inconvenience when vehicle requires repair that is covered by the New Vehicle LImited Warranties. All unsold new vehicles are subject to this program and must be withheld until inspected or reparied. Dealers are to service all vehicles subject to this program at no charge to cutomers, regardless of mielage, age of vehicle, or wonership, through February 28, 2013. So all my costs were covered under that program exceeding $10,000. Saga ends today- I hope!
Yes, that Bulletin means that old used engines get their timing chain inspected/replaced, the computer controls for activating the variable valve timing get adjusted so that less wear occurs to the chain in the future, AND the Oil Life Monitor gets reprogrammed on any engine with Direct Fuel Injection in it, do to the oil being broken down early due to fuel contamination in under 4k miles.
I am glad GM got your engine replaced, and that you are back on the road.