psock

I own a 2007 Tahoe, 2WD with 95000 miles. The truck was purchased used with 68000 miles about 20 months ago and has seen only highway miles and never been off road. Two days ago my wife was backing out of the driveway and the driver side wheel assembly fell off (see photo).

I am not a mechanic, but i have enough common sense to know that ball joints don't just rust and fall out of place. There was no pothole, and nothing was hit with the vehicle, it was simply being pulled out of the driveway. Dealer says $2500 since we need new steering rack, upper and lower controls (on both sides due to redesign), and tie rods.
The Tahoe was being maintained by Chevy up to last Ocotober, when our free maintenance plan ran out and they say they would have caught this, but i say thats BS. I contend that a ball joint won't rust in 10 months to where it can fall out of the socket.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone had this issue?
We've called GM and are continuing to persue options.

in2pro

Welcome to the forum... sorry to hear of the incident... I have seen in the truck portion of the forum of a similar incident where the wheel literally came off... I don't think its common but this is not the first time i have heard of this....
I would contact GM customer service, be firm and be respectful some of the items may be warranty related..... Do some forum searching.....

73shark

That's definitely part of the powertrain. Should be covered in the 5/100 warranty.

Of course GM decided that they weren't going to fix the Impalas since they were built by the "old" GM. What a crock. Still say we should have let them go thru regular bankruptcy.

psock

Apparently the 5 year warranty ran out in April of 2011, how convenient. Anyway, we bitched and complained so they have agreed to good will the parts and make us only pay the $1000 in labor. We are still not satisfied though. Spoke to another mechanic and he says no way that just happens, there is a clip pin in the ball joint that is supposed to be there for safety reasons so this exact thing does not happen. Did that also rust off to in 10 months?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

RacerX

I dont think that it the powertrain. I think that is a suspension component. And I think the OP should have a local guy do it. Forget the rack and pinion, just replace the ball joints in all 4 control arms. That should be in the $500 range.