D4MN TRUCK (very long)

[wizkid]

<ANGRY VENT MODE>


Well, I'm starting to wonder if I got a lemon! My X#$%!%^ truck waited until I was 350 miles from home, and started dribbling diesel all over the road.

I'm very angry right now, and I feel like shooting someone. I was on vacation with my Brother/Sister and nephews. Our yearly camping trip is my only real chance to goof around with my nephews! GRRRRRR!

In the last thousand miles, I've had the following services done to my truck at the dealer:

About this time, the truck had about 4800 miles on it, I'm thinking I should change the oil soon. But I wait, cause I prefer doing it in warmer weather, and I don't drive the truck/camper much in winter.

Nov 2001: computer update, leveled with an alignment. Truck drives great, but slower off the line.

Second week of December: Got back from vacation, went to drive truck, dead battery. Called dealer, had it towed in. Got it back Wed. Couldn't find problem, they blamed Onstar, don't let the truck sit for 2 weeks (I'm getting suspicious). I ask them to make sure the (frozen) batteries are OK!

Third week of December: Went to start the Truck on Sat. Dead. Put truck on charger.
While on charger, I started tapping relays. The AC pump went clickty clack, and then was silent on further tapping. AH HA! Bad AC Relay! I took it back to the dealer, told them all about it. I ask them to make sure the (frozen) batteries are OK! They checked it out - They didn't see any failures, everything looks OK, I need to return the rental car, please pick up your truck, and check everything out. Got it home on Wed. They don't like me keeping rental cars for more than 3 days! They said GM get upset if they do. I go home, park it. It's OK a couple of days later.

Then, Dec 24, MERRY XMAS! TRUCK WON'T START! I go do Xmas, call dealer Dec. 26. Everything follows Third week scenario, accept that I tell them they haven't fixed the problem. They say they need definite proof.

I didn't drive the truck till January, very busy, Xmas and all. First week of Jan, Back to the dealer. I charged the truck and drove it in. I ask them to make sure the (thrice frozen) batteries are OK! They replaced some charging system parts, and said it's fixed.

Second week in Jan. DEAD TRUCK! I called GM customer Service, and described the situation. Ask them to help the Dealer fix the truck. HEY! THEY FOUND A BAD AC RELAY! What a stroke of genius! Batteries are OK! Tough batteries! I wonder how long there going to last. 1 year, maybe 2???

Truck is fixed, starts every-time, etc. It's between seasons, and I take the truck for a drive at least every other weekend, just to mix the oil up, etc.

Now it's the first week in June! My first camping trip of the year (finally), and we take of for Durango (Wed). This is the trip I do with my bro, etc as mentioned earlier. It's a task getting this scheduled for reasons I'm not going into here. We take off, and go to Durango. we get to Durango, and the (TransferFlow) tank is still reading full. It's Thursday, and after taking care of some family business we needed to do, I go to the Car Wash. (I don't want a dirty camper smile.gif ) While squirting it off, I smell diesel. Must be filling up the Gas Station pumps next door. I get back to the hotel, and I still smell diesel. The truck is dripping, but I'm suspicious. I go in, and after herding nephews for 15 Minutes, we get back out to the truck. All the water is gone, accept for the spot under the skid plate. I put everyone on hold, check it out. It's diesel. After searching around, I see where it's rolling off the engine/bell housing. I found out the GMC dealer is 4 blocks away, and went there the first thing the next morning.


NOTE: DON'T EVER WASTE YOUR TIME WITH PAT MURPHY GMC IN DURANGO! I know were not supposed to mention specific dealers in this forum, but these clowns are the worst excuse for a GM dealer I've ever seen. You guys/gals out there need to be warned. If you have problems, go to Farmington or Cortez. The shop I went to recommended them if I had to go to a local dealer. If you want more details than I'm posting here, let me know, and we'll take it up off-line. They had 50 trucks/SUV's on their lot, and 1 diesel mechanic that was on vacation. They were rude, while I was on my best behavior.

After talking to some of the locals, I found out that they will not do emergency repairs for vehicles they didn't sell, and will only work on cars/trucks they sold, unless they are out of work for the same. I've heard stories from the local people in town that they will let cars sit in there repair queue for a week or more, while working only on the cars they sold. I heard this from several different people. It was Friday, and they told us that they had trucks waiting for service since Monday because their diesel mechanic was out of town. I will be filing a complaint with GMC today or tomorrow. I'm waiting to cool down before I file a complaint to GM. I'm working hard on this message to keep it clean.

About 12:00 I went to a shop in town that was recommended by a local. Fortunately (Sort Of), my service contract was an aftermarket contract, and so I utilized it. They looked, and the engine valley (the area in the V) was covered with diesel. The Mechanic didn't see any loose fittings, and said that he was sure it's the injector pump. So I'm 360 miles from home, with a badly leaking injector pump. We decided our best bet was to make a run-for-home. Fortunately, diesel doesn't have as low a flash point as gas, and if it did, I wouldn't have considered this. We made it home OK, but the underside is coated with diesel. The camper is greasy also. I'm going to make sure that the dealer cleans this mess up. Oh, and to get to the dealer, I'm going to have to add fuel. Close to 50 gal. in 350 miles.

If I continue to have these problems, I may be forced into using the lemon law. One of the reasons I got this truck, is that I wanted a reliable camper that wouldn't break down a long way from home, and would be low maintenance. So far, it's been just the opposite. This is very frustrating. 5 trips to the dealer per thousand miles is ridiculous!

Some of you DURAMAX Mechanics out there, what do you think? Is there something up there besides the injection pump that can cause this leak?

</ANGRY VENT MODE>

[TopBanana 2500]

Wizkid...
It sounds like you are having more problems with the dealers, than you are with the truck. I know it's frustrating and (somewhat embarrising) to say the least, but things do go wrong on new and used vehicles! The A/C relay sounds really minor and the fuel leak has been a common problem on SOME Duramaxes. I believe, just those two things going wrong, will not touch the lemon law. I fell that you need to report some of these wannabe dealers! Unfortunately, some dealers must think that people that buy these vehicles, never leave their city limits! It's too bad we can't have the vehicle towed back all the way to it's origin, and bill the other party! That would straighten out their little attitudes!

[3176CATPOWER]

Wizkid, I would contact the BBB Autoline that should be listed in your warranty book.I do not know the lemon law for your state but the one for WI. where I live would have GM squirming in their boots.I went through a year of frustation with a dealer whose service dept. finally gave up on the problems with a 2001 gasser I bought knew and GM was terrified at the thought of the case going into arbitration. Result, buyback repurchase or offer of new replacement truck.No one should have to go through the crap GM or the dealers that represent GM gave you.At the very least the complaint you file with the BBB Autoline will get GM to take a serious look at what has transpired in the case of your problems that probably could have been resolved in short order.Calling GM customer service is just a link back to a dealer that likely is not going to resolve anything.

[FirstDiesel]

wizkid

Sounds like you've had some real frustrations with your truck but in reality it sounds more like an incompetant, uncaring dealer, than the truck.

I would definetly be complaining but I think you need to start by at least giving GM a chance to correct your issues. Don't break the chanin by jumping to complaining to an outside source. Follow the complaint chain and see if you can get it resolved. Definetly add a complaint about the dealer that wouldn't work on the truck for you.

[NickLeinonen]

i haven't written a formal letter to gm, but when the customer survay card comes in the mail, let them have it on that. at the dealer i purchased my tahoe from, when it was in for the headlight switch assembly [when broke, interior lights flicker on and off] the technicians also removed some stuff i had in my center console. i had like 7 packs of gum or so, and like $15 in change. when i got it back, i had 4 packs of gum and $10 in change. i was ****ed. when that survay came, because it went to gm, not the dealer, i told them everything that was taken. gm called me to confirm what i wrote on the survay.. week later the dealer had left like 5 messages on my machine at home pleading and appologizing and totally sounding like the were in deep $hit.

haven't gone back there other than an e-test [and even then i had to tell them how to do the test. they had never tested a diesel before]
not going to buy from there again, but that is not the dealers fault. my favorite samesman retired from there so not i have to shop around..

[wizkid]

I think you guys are right in the statement that my problem is more with the dealers then the truck. Alot of the mechanics out there are getting to be tech 2 mechanics. Plug the car into the computer, and replace the modules it says to. Then when they have to debug something, they haven't had the practice to figure out the problems. This is what happened with the relay problem.

I don't think I have enough for the lemon law right now either, but if the problems were to continue ....
Right now, the solution, IMHO is to contact GM and vent my frustrations there. I'll be able to do it and be much more polite and professional than the Durango Dealer. I like the dealer I'm using in denver, they've been polite and professional, although there diagnosis skills were lacking in the relay incident. Anyway, I have the aftermarket service contract with them, so I'm stuck with them even if I didn't like them. Lets hope that these are just little new truck break in issues, and not a developing trend. I've been happy with my truck, until this trip. Right now, I can only think of it as a smelly (with raw diesel) POS that ruined my vacation. When I get it back, and it doesn't smell like diesel anymore, and it doesn't break down again, I'll forgive my little indeglow.

[Wally]

Wiz,
I live in the Four Corners area and if you had tried to take it to the GMC dealer in Farmington I guarantee you would have gotten worse service than Durango. Probably the reason the Durango dealer is so hesitant to work on vehicles they didn't sell is because they get a lot of business from Farmington from people who are fed up with the local GMC dealer. I'm not sure Cortez has a GMC dealer. Aztec has a chevy dealer with a great service dept. but then you get into the whole deal of getting work done on a GMC at a Chevy dealer.
Sorry to hear about your troubles here. Being from Texas originally I'm still having a lot of trouble getting used to the crappy attitudes and lack of service that seems to dominate the merchants in this area. They tell me it's because of our proximity to the res. If this is true I can't imagine what it would be like to deal with the merchants and be a Navajo.

[deerhunter7]

I also had the dead battery blues. Dealer fixed first time in , also the AC relay . No fuel leaks
at 8700 miles.

[Amianthus]

I'm with 3176CATPOWER on this one (Dude, we so have to get together some time). Find out what arbitration laws you have on your side in this matter. Either that, or forsake your warranty completely and start doing your own repairs. At least then, you'd have better luck with the service manager and the technician.

[wizkid]

Hey Amianthus,
I like your sig, but I'll bet the diesel fumes your referring to are NOT raw diesel fumes! I had to contend with them all day Friday, when we made our dash back to Denver!

The truck is in the shop now. They also said that they would get every trace of diesel off the truck. You can't even touch the thing right now without having to wash the diesel off your hands.
Wiz

[mrgogh]

hey Wally, I bought a Dmax from that dealer your talking about in Farmington,NM. What did they do to you? where should I get my truck works on if needed? Thank for any input..
David :cool: :cool:

[wizkid]

Well, I got my truck back today. It still smells like raw diesel though. They replaced the Fuel Junction Block. The pressure switch was leaking. Fortunately, one of the other dealers in town ordered one and didn't need it, so it didn't have to come from out of town. After all the squacking I did to get them to clean it up, they cleaned the truck, but left a really nasty film of diesel covering the back of the camper. I squacked again, and they cleaned it. I don't know what to do about the smell of raw diesel in the cab. Hopefully, it will go away soon.

[Wally]

mrgogh,
I've never dealt with them personally but we have acquaintances who have and their experience was bad. Very bad! One couple spent over 1500 dollars, four weeks and three return trips for the same problem to repair an Isuzu Trooper that was only worth 2500 before they started. They were originally qouted 300 dollars to replace an alternator.
We also have a good friend who worked there as a salesperson and she quit after a few months because she could not handle their sleazy ethics. She is Navajo and she was encouraged to bypass customers who had good credit and focus on people from the res who have questionable credit. They specialize in using every fly by night credit company in the U.S. and will sell cars to families who end up paying 20+ percent interest for 72 months for a new vehicle.
Ever wonder why they have a "Fantastic One time only, Incredible Deals" at least twice a month?
When I was first looking for a truck I shopped their lot and had to go and get a salesman to talk to! How many of you have ever had that happen? They always promised me that they would talk to the sales manager about ordering a truck or doing a dealer search and would call me back. I never heard a word back!
A family of Navajos could drive up and the sales staff would sprint over there to them.
All in all the place gave me a very bad feeling.

[mrgogh]

Wally, Thanks for the info.. At this time I have had no reason to take my duramax in to get fixed or anything else for that matter. I ordered my truck from them and it took approx. 8 months to get it... but it was worth it for sure. all you guys here provide such a wide spectrum of information I can mostly do the work myself or one of my mechanic friends. thanks .. David

[Diesel to the MAX]

Wizkid, what part of the truck has the diesel fuel smell? Inside or outside of the truck? Or is it contained to the engine department? If it is from the engine area you could put some simple green in a garden sprayer and spray it on the contaminated areas and just hose it down afterwards. I could take weeks otherwise.

[wizkid]

Both

It's lingering in the cab. The engine compartment also stinks. I have some simple green, and was going to take it to the car wash (covering up the computer of course) and squirt it down carefully. Simple green is a good idea.

The smell in the cab is a different story. I'm thinking it might be caused by the fuel seeping in around the bolt/cable holes, and getting into the padding. Very little diesel will go a long ways if this has happened.

W.Kid