There seem to be a few folks here with some inside knowledge of GM practices.

Can you give us a synopsis of what happens when you have a recurring issue (under warranty)?

I know that even at the initial incident, GM technical people were contacted for input. I'm not sure how a problem gets tracked internally and if there is a prescribed internal escalation processes, or if it up to the customer to insist on additional GM involvement. Does GM ever send technical expertise to the dealer to assist with the trouble shooting and repair process?

Will GM eventually voluntarily give up trying to fix an issue, or will they continue on forever - leaving up to the customer to initiate some type of buy back action?

 

what is the issue? if there should be a TSB of the problem, they will rectify it.

 

I'd rather not go into the details of the issue until I can give a competent report.

The vehicle has no open TSBs - at least that is what I'm told.

I'm wondering if the same repair process is followed repeatedly, or if things get automatically escalated within the company when they aren't getting resolved.

I ran across some other posts that seemed to suggest there was an escalation process, but they didn't provide real details, so I'm not certain that is what was being described.

 

Have you called the 800 or 888 number in your owner's manual yet? As a former Mr. Goodpliers I have worked in many dealerships. Often times the dealer doesn't go very far to remedy the problem and lets the customer get real angry.

You can and should initiate an official record of your problem. This way it will be a tracked issue.

The folks there can and should provide much more detail to your questions.

 

Thanks Hillbilly - I haven't done that yet. I think I've come to my last breakdown and trip to the dealer without speaking directly to someone at GM.

I know that the service techs have spent an extensive amount of time getting input from GM engineers, but I don't know if anything internal to the repair process at GM automatically flags issues after 3 or 4 or 5 times and escalates them and tracks them.

Each time, technicians have "found an issue" and fixed it. I'm starting to get concerned that a brand new vehicle seems to have a full handful of different issues that cause it to stop dead in it's tracks.

Next breakdown will be the call directly to the 800 number. Thanks.

 

trust hillbilly, he has the gm connections!

 

whats the update??? im having the same problem.. the dealership tells me theres nothing wrong with it the two times i brought it in and i call GM, they tell me to take it in and the dealership will be working with the GM engineers but when i dropped it off the service manager told me all hes going to do is drive it for a few days and see if something happens. but after a few days when nothing happends i know they are going to give it right back to me??? what did you do?

 

what are your issues?

 

the vehicle shuts off. the two times its happened its been 95+ and we've had the A/C on full blast(not sure if that matters). stopped at a stop sign, give it gas to take off and the peddle goes to the floor an the car dies. it actually starts to take off so when its rolling and it dies... of course so does the power steering and breaks.. so i wrestle it to a stop. between 10 to 15 minutes later it starts right back up like nothing was wrong.

 

My issue involved three basic fixes.

First - the auxiliary wiring harness has chaffed and apparently shorting on the frame. This issue has apparently been seen on many of the hybrids - especially the pre-2010's. I believe they just wrapped the bared wires in some manner.

Problem not fixed - but somewhat different symptoms. They next replaced the pins that connect the auxiliary wiring harness to the electronic brake control module. This was done on two different visits - the second of which they replaced the EBCM too. When the problems persisted after this fix - the mechanic suggested wiggling the harness if I had more problems in the hope that the connection would be re-made long enough to get to a shop. The harness can be seen under the truck, under the driver's seat. It goes up into a hole by the transmission to the EBCM.

The third part of the fix was to replace the pins on the other end of this harness - apparently is connects someplace under the glove box? (the mechanic said he had to remove the air bag to make the repair).

Every time something went wrong, there were slightly different symptoms. Sometimes it would just shut down, other times it would run and buck. Other times it would run and complain. In all cases I got a Stabilitrack message and usually a brake message on the DIC. I'd turn off the traction control - don't know if that actually worked, but it seemed to help.

Since the last fix - it's been good.

You might suggest the mechanic wiggle both ends of the harness while monitoring the connectivity or messages over that bus. You could trace it under the vehicle yourself and see if it is cut anywhere.

Can't say if your trouble are related at all to this. I'm sure there are many failure modes - and apparently they are all pretty hard to diagnose properly. An experienced hybrid mechanic is gold!