turbocharged717

it may just be a thing with dealers. they see a car that's "top of the line" (ss/sc or tc, lancer evolution, sti, etc)or has modifications and they think "beaten, raced ,etc" which isn't always the case. But that is how they think about things.

emiller

There are tons of people with way more than stock power and no problems

LilHaile

Exactly!

emiller

Which is why they think abuse. Lots of miles. Clutch gone. Unless it peeled the clutch material off you can see their point. To find out they have to take everything apart before they determine anything other than the obvious choice of abuse. At least initially you would have to pay for that and hope they find it all peeled off.

LilHaile

If you looked at the first picture on original post you will see me holding the clutch material that separated from the disc and is scattered all through out my bell housing. What I was holding is simply what he was able to dig out by the flywheel. And if you look at the fibers they are perfectly fine.. not burnt or scorched a bit.

shroogis

iTrader: (1)

I have the GMPP in my Red Line and the stock clutch in my HHR SS. I bet the pressure plate is stronger, the clutch is MUCH stiffer in my Red Line compared to my HHR, hinting to a stronger PP.

LilHaile

Went and picked up my car from the dealership tonight. Wow never been treated that bad in a while. Lady at the check out window was extremely nice though, and even mentioned to me that she has never seen them charge a restocking fee ever. And my restocking fee for my parts were 35%. But I told her yeah well they are just mad at me right now, and i proceeded to pay her the 200 to get my car back and smiled and told her to have a wonderful day. Then I walked back out to get my keys from the service people and they asked the service manger were my keys were and he acted like he had no idea what they were talking about and then I chimed in with oh its the one that was abused, and then he just walked over and grabbed them and handed me my keys and was like its by the garage and left. So then me and my buddy had to walk around the entire garage/parking lot looking for my car cause apparently he was to lazy to show me where it was. Needless to say I'm not amused at all with how GM is handling any of this. I hate that I love my car so much, I'm afraid to ever take it back to a dealer to get any type of work done to it warranty or not cause it will just be blamed as abuse.

After dropping my car off to the performance shop and showed him the picture he was like wow.. yeah that shouldn't have happened. So he said he would take lots of pictures and then try and figure out what actually went wrong that caused it to do that. Now if ZZP would ship my clutch! lol.. Ordered it Monday night and it still hasn't shipped as of today. My flywheel however came in quickly from them.

CmplXty

Good luck, stubborn people are the bane of this country.

Maybe think of it as a good thing, now you know not to trust a dealership anymore, they are 99% liars.

Edubs

That's going overboard...

LilHaile

Yeah it all depends on the people working at the dealership. The one that use to be in my home town was awesome. And I could trust them 100%. I could take things in I didn't figure would be covered and they would cover it, and also if something called for them to take like 4 hrs and only took them 2 they only charged you 2. And if they ever charged me for stuff I didn't hesitate to pay them cause I knew I was getting screwed. But then the owner passed away and it got bought out and then ran into the ground

This whole situation I ran into with my car just seamed real fishy. Cause they told me it wasn't covered under warranty, but then turned around and told GM that is was covered. I'm thinking they were just going to pocket my money somehow and still turn the stuff in under as defective equipment. But either way I paid my 200 to get my car back from them and its now setting in a performance shop awaiting my stage 4 clutch to get in so he can install it. Screw letting that dealership get anymore money from me while that management is there.

07cobaltLScoupe

this sucks to read about man, the only dealer i will ever go to is where one of my buddies from high school works at and i've only been there once for the power steering recall. any other work that i can't do myself goes to a shop that's a family friends. it so shitty how dealers do this too

but my thoughts are to get your mechanic to fully document everything he does with pictures and notes and then send another email to GM and a copy to your lawyer friend, then see what happens

good luck man

LilHaile

Yeah, the guy that has my car now has put a few clutches and flywheels in cobalts around here. I showed him a picture of my clutch after telling him about what GM said and he just kinda laughed. He told me he would take lots of pictures of all the damage inside for me and try and figure what failed to cause that to happen.

And on the lawyer friend part. If he does indeed find something that was broke or that malfunctioned and that I couldn't have prevented then yes I will ask GM to refund me back the amount that they would normally charge for if they were to replace the clutch. Cause I don't think they should have to cover me upgrading my car due to this but at least pay me what they would have charged me for them to put there factory clutch and labor to do so. And I have the receipts from the dealership that shows only 1 hour of labor, and they claimed to have looked all through my car and saw that it was from abuse.... really 1hr to tear it apart and put it back together? Hate to say it but I call BS.

LilHaile

Just got my new flywheel and Clutch installed... Now I'm having to replace the clutch master cylinder cause apparently it is trashed. But I'm sure GM would just tell me that had nothing to do with my clutch obliterating... and still not cover it under it under warranty.

FasterIsBetter

Yep, pulled the same crap with me on the rear brakes man. Said "Its cause you take turns too fast and the ESC engages aggressively....", the dealers are a crock of ****.

Boosted4

To the OP, your situation sucks man. Of course I'm not there to look at your car so I can't comment on the exact causes of the clutch explosion though I will say this: I've worked as a tech at several dealerships and I can tell most dealerships will do anything to avoid warranty work because it doesn't pay as much as customer pay work. The manufacturer pays bare minimum labor times and the tech/dealership has to struggle most times just to break even. Sometimes, you lose money (time) doing a warranty repair.

bubba_jay

iTrader: (1)

Hence the reason I havent bought another GM, and refuse to ever do so.

Edubs

Typical ignorant statement from someone who will just get screwed by the dealer of their next auto manufacture choice...

nhanson

iTrader: (1)

They shouldnt necessarily pay for the new part but they should be liable for labor (or vice versa not quite sure).

Just get enough evidence to have a case hold up. Even bring the mechanic that did the clutch in as a witness.

emiller

Because GM is the only company not to just warranty everything no questions asked lol.

Bika

iTrader: (3)

Fanboy much?

Many people feel the same and have had the same experiences as the OP, and therefore have switched to other car manufacturers. It's not just a couple people feeling slighted by GM, so the logical conclusion is that there is something wrong with GM, NOT the consumers.

GM just doesn't get it. They got too big for their own good. Their philosophy of producing poor quality vehicles, innundating dealership lots, and expecting people to buy them because they're available, failed miserably. Re-badging vehicle platforms under multiple brand names. GMC trucks are still Chevy trucks with fancier trim.
GM looked like it was turning itself around recovering from bankruptcy, but beneath the glossy veneer of the "New GM" it's more of the same, just a couple less product lines (which were just rebadging anyways)
Since about 1995, GM quality has been going steadily downhill. I've seen it in every vehicle I've owned or driven in.

Hyundai...they get it. They are producing quality cars that people want, with warranties that inspire confidence from the buyers.
Ford is another company that has started to "get it."
Honda and Toyota have been doing it right for years.

I say this about GM, although I honestly do want the company to improve and succeed. My parent's live off a GM pension. That company helped afford my parents a very comfortable lifestyle for the past 25 years.

My immediate family has owned only GM cars for the past 20 years out of support/loyalty. We have been fortunate not to encounter dealerships that treat us like **** such as the OP's situation. Such dealerships can be found selling any brand of vehicle though.

/rant

emiller

Honda and toyota haven't been doing it right for years. Neither has great quality compared to competitors. Neither has a great warranty. Neither treats their customers any better than anyone else.

Both spent years hiding major issues and did nothing to even attempt to fix the problems.

Everybody badge engineers too. Most of them its pretty obvious too.

chris88z24

Figures. The new GM sucks when it comes to customer service and warranty work.

Bika

iTrader: (3)

Honda and Toyota have very high customer satisfaction and loyalty. not to mention resale values the blow GM vehicles out of the water.

Yes, Toyota had that fiasco with the accelerator which may or may not have been mostly ID10T error.

Engineers can only do so much with the constraints they must work within, both materially and financially. Design flaws aren't always the result of an engineers' ignorance.

emiller

What about years of sludged up engines? What about Honda automatic transmissions or ac problems? It might not have been engineers fault. It's still a known problem that was ignored.

LilHaile

Yeah.. and now my shifter cables are apparently junked. One of the clips is broke on them. Not real sure how that happened unless it was from trying to put it in gear and stuff after the clutch went out when I was trying to determine if it was my clutch or the tranny. Going to have to order them from the dealer tomorrow and have them shipped overnight, and what sucks is the dealer can't tell me how much the shipping will actually be until I am paying for the part when it gets here.. WTF?