Problems with my 2004 Silverado 2500HD

[riverbasher]

Well I thought I would start this just to pass the word and see what happens here in the coming days. I bought my truck 33 days ago. It has the Vortec 6.0 and automatic tranny.

My new truck has 3100 miles on it and the transmission went out on me when I was driving home from Hinckley at 2:30 in the morning. I called the Chevrolet 24 hour roadside assistance and they sent a tow truck out no problem. Here's where my beef starts........first of all they would only tow it 30 miles so I couldn't have it towed to a dealer close my house to get the warranty work done. Second, being as all the rental car agencies are closed at 2:30am, the only options I had to get home were either to call a taxi, or have someone come pick me up. I can't believe Chevrolet was willing to leave me stranded in Pine City like that. Luckily I was able to get hold of my brother and he came and got me at 3am. Now I have to figure out how I'm going to get my truck back from the dealer in Pine City once it's done. I'm hoping I can either have them deliver it or the dealer I bought it from will do something. I mean come on.........i spend 24,000 and change on a new truck........and then they want to leave me stranded in Pine City more than 60 miles from my home........sounds pretty rediculous to me. Has anyone else out there ever had to use the Chevrolet roadside assistance.....i'm curious.

Jeremy Hinton

[Moved to Equipment Forum]

[This message has been edited by Rick (edited 06-28-2004).]

[bart simpson]

Make sure you let the dealer know what happened. If he wants your future business he will do whatever is needed to make you happy.

I had a similar problem with a Dodge Ram once and when Chrysler was hemming and hawing at getting me a rental the dealer took care of the situation. Prolly was a ploy to make the dealer look good, but as long as you get what you want who cares?

Nick

[Guest]

Like Chev says "they'll be there 24/7" Buy a Dodge with a Cummins and you won't need roadside assistance! LOL

[Ole1855]

Mr. Big,

Just a question, I thought Dodge lost their contract with Cummin's, can you still buy a Dodge with a Cummin's in it?

Ole

[Benny]

When the feul pump went out in my new Ford they said the same thing.Only towed it to Aitkin from Malmo, it was Memoreal day weekend so no loaner till Tueday.Ford did say they would put me up in local hotel for one night if I needed it as it was late and a holiday.

I did get a loaner, but I had my brother bring a car down from his dealership in Grand Rapids so I could get back to the cities.
Montavones only charged me half day rate , but I still had to pay.

I was just happy to get back home, but I sure let Ford red carpet lease know what I thought about the deal.

All I got was a letter say they were sorry for my trouble and an oil change cupon.

Have the dealer doing the work keep all the documentation on that work.If it happens again you will have proof it went out before.
If they don't give you the proof they can say they have no preivious record and not cover it again.

Benny

[riverbasher]

Alright so here is what has happened so far today. The dealer where the truck is being fixed called me and said they woud get to working on the truck today. No estimated fix time yet. They also DELIVERED a loaner car to my house, even though it's a tin can Daewoo. At least I have something. So I guess I am definitely impressed at the service so far from the dealer standpoint. I'll keep ya posted

Jeremy

[riverbasher]

Oh you can bet I'm gonna keep paperwork on it. No doubt about that. Alright so here's the deal. The service manager called me yesterday to inform me the transmissions are back ordered for 1-2 weeks. Evidently there was a bunch of them put out with bad trannies and mine was one of them. So for now I'm driving this little tin can of a loaner car until the transmission is replaced. What else can I do????

Jeremy

[Gissert]

Dodge still has the Cummins. I think the contract runs thru 2007.

[Benny]

riverbasher, is the transmision one of those Allisons(sp?)?Or the standard Chevy?

I have a friend who has a 99 chevy with the v-6, his tranny went out three times so far with in the 165K he has on it.

Benny

[united jigsticker]

Here's a couple thoughts on this after reading through the threads:

#1: Chevy should do whatever it takes to rectify the situation. They know they have bad trannys out there, so there should be no hee-haw about it.

#2: Is there a recall on all these trannys??? If not, there obviously should be!

P.S. We own 2 Chevys, so I am not knocking them. Just stating that known issues should be addressed ASAP by the party at fault, in this case General Motors.

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[Rost]

Here is a story that will beat yours!

I have a friend with the same truck, only this one had 18k miles on it.

He was on his way to Spring Valley to fish the RCL when his tranny decided to go. There he was stuck 100 miles from the tournament site with his boat. This is where his roadside assistance kicked in! They offered him a sporty little Pontiac Sunbird to use while his truck was out. He ended up having to call another angler to drive and pick him and his boat up.

It gets better... Ten days later, after the tournament his truck was not done, so he drove the loaner CAR home (SD) leaving his boat behind. Finally, the truck was finished! They called and said come and pick it up! Since he was busy at work, he had one of his employees take the rental back down to pick his truck (and boat) up. Well, he picked it up and made it about 100 miles before the tranny went out again.

This time in Iowa City. Finally, after complaining enough, the local dealer here in SD allowed him to take their service truck down to atleast pick his employee and boat up. He left for Iowa city at 4 pm returned with boat and employee at 4 am.

The GMC finally put a new tranny in (instead of rebuilding it. And the local dealer picked the truck up from Iowa city.

Now that it is all said and done, it costed him a lot of money. First, he lost money by sending an employee of his (22 hr day) to pick the truck up. He also spent some cash on steaks for the guys that let him use their vehicles during the course of the tourney plus the major headache.

What an ugly mess! He said trying to contact a person at GMC that is high enough on the ladder to make a decision is like pulling teeth.

[cd3]

man this isnt something i wanna read when im just about decided on the 2500hd truck. are there more known tranny problems with this 1?

[vikes40for60]

All I would say is buyer beware. I did a quick google search and typed "Chevy Transmission Problems". Lets just say that they are not isolated. I found once site where four different people outlined that the transmissions were replaced 3-4 times before 100,000 miles.

[Gus]

Do the same search for Ford Transmission problems or Dodge Transmission problems and you will find the same thing. It seems like every manufacture has their problems at times. I'm on my third Chevy truck and have not had a single transmission problem. I know people with Fords who have not had a single problem either. I don't know too many dodge guys, but I'm sure they are out there with no problems. I seriously think it's about luck.....

[hawkeye43]

my chevy got 100000 miles, a duramax/allison tran. and not one problem at all. I have heard of very few troubles with that tranny. Part of the problem is G.M., they know that they have trouble with standard automatic transmisson, too lite a duty, but they fix as they fail to avoid a recall. Just like they did on the tailgate straps, then when enough people found out they were forced into a recall.

[riverbasher]

Benny,
It's the standard automatic transmission with the 6.0 litre engine. I demanded a loaner be DELIVERED to me and I had it before noon at my house on Monday. The dealer told me they are putting a new tranny in it so that tells me they aren't rebuilding the one I have. I'm kinda in the same situation with the loaner......it's a little tin can Daewoo......but at least it's getting me back and forth to work.

[riverbasher]

The Service Manager called me today and informed me the transmission is on its way from Lansing. He told me they are gonna get the new tranny installed early next week and it's possible that I could have my truck back as soon as Wednesday next week. The other good part is they are delivering the truck to me and picking up the rental car so I don't have to drive all the way to Pine City. Awful nice of them I think, but then again they SHOULD be nice with this situation. I'll keep ya posted if I have any future problems with this truck

Jeremy

[riverbasher]

I FINALLY got my truck back with the new tranny. The dealer in Pine City was kind enough to give me a copy of the service bulletin regarding the tranny issue. Turns out that trucks with the 4L80E trannies(Avalanche, Silverado, and several other vehicles) within a certain VIN range are not supposed to leave the dealer lot until the tranny is checked because Chevy did a design change to the tranny casting and found out a different pump is required otherwise the overdrive gear fails and of course then your whole tranny pretty much grenades. When I get home tonight I'll write up some quotes and VIN ranges from the service bulleting as an FYI for those of you who might be looking to buy a truck.