Spoony

Been fighting with my dealer about this for about a month now and am wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem, I did a bit of searching but didn't find anything.

I took my car into the dealer for a "low coolant" light, I was advised my radiator had sustained an impact and would have to be replaced (along with the condenser). Anyhow this was a shock to me since I hadn't hit anything with the front of my car.

Anyway after fighting with both GM Canada and the dealer it comes down to their service manager admitting the design is "poor" and allows snow/ice to push/bow the radiator out, but the dealer is "not responsible for poor car design, GM is". His words, not mine.

Basically the dealer passes the buck to GM, GM passes the buck to the dealer...while I was at the shop today (it took this long to get the manager to agree to look at my car and show me this "impact") dealing with all this there was another cobalt in the shop for the exact same problem, and two of my friends have the same issues as well, their rads are bowed but not enough to be leaking..yet, their cars are also about a year newer so I'm assuming this problem isn't isolated to these 4 cars.

I'm still dealing with GM and hoping they'll come through, however I'm not terribly optimistic at this point. They've advised me its ~1400 and change to get this fixed, they'll see no money from me I'll just take it elsewhere before I do that, but I still think this whole situation is asinine. Any other CSS.net members experienced this?

Also, If you own a Cobalt and live in snowy climates I'd urge you to take a look at your radiator and bring it to the dealer's attention early so you can avoid this whole stupid mess.

recklessactn

iTrader: (1)

Hmm I get the low coolant warning from time to time as well. This isnt a significant issue though right? My radiator isn't leaking so... if it goes out the dealership should replace under the 100,000 drivetrain warranty correct?

Spoony

I was advised by the dealer you should NOT get a low coolant warning, its a closed system (so I'm told), mine was "from time to time" too, when I took it in this is the solution I was given. To be clear this leak is extremely slow, there's no visible coolant anywhere in my parking spot.

I'm also told this is NOT covered under powertrain, this is only covered under bumper to bumper...however they will not cover this under *any* warranty as this is classified as an "impact" and not a warranty claim, they've advised me to speak with my insurance company which in my opinion is ridiculous. Again, my rad looks fairly normal, its simply "bowed" very slightly.

I wasn't expecting to hear any of this I figured they would just fix whatever was wrong and give me my car back, it seems GM's getting desperate to void any warranty claim they can.

Coblasts

I would appreciate pics if you get a chance.
Ive cleaned out the snow and ice from infront of the rad due to the plastic air scoop picking up snow
when it got that deep and then melts and freezes .
But I was thinking you would have to jam alot of snow in there to bow the rad.