ks430

Time for a final update on my Equinox. At 118K miles (76K on this engine), the timing chain failed with no warning, causing the engine to seize and damaging it beyond repair. I had our 5 year old in the car and we were in a dangerous stretch of road during rush hour. Once we got to a safe place I had it towed to the dealership. The service guys at the dealership recommend cutting our losses because a new engine would cost far more than what the car was worth on trade-in - plus, we were told that GM is not making replacement engines available at all anymore, so that sort of forced the issue.

In the end scrap value covered the $150 in diagnostic labor from the service department. I had literally zero residual or trade-in value on a vehicle with under 120K miles, so without the customer cash that I know Chevy has offered to other Equinox owners in my position. Chevrolet corporate's response was, "We hope one day in the future you consider allowing us the opportunity to regain your business and loyalty again." They had several opportunities to regain my loyalty by doing anything, even menial/trivial things, to fix the problem before this final catastrophic failure, and they failed to do so. Even offering to cover the stupid diagnostic fee or reimbursing me for my car rental as a show of goodwill would have helped. We had been planning to trade the Equinox in at the end of this year to buy a brand-new Traverse, but with zero trade-in value and Chevy's utter lack of doing anything for me as a customer, that plan went right out the window.

On social media there are a lot of Chevy apologists proclaiming that Equinox and Terrain owners must have not followed maintenance schedules, or that this problem is the fault of "the nut behind the wheel" and not a design flaw in the engine. I serviced the car on-schedule as did everyone I know with a 2010-2012 Equinox or Terrain who ended up having these problems (I was one of the last to have the engine go, which is why I was planning to trade it in soon). Frankly, I assume that the apologists either work for Chevrolet or trade in their vehicles every 2-3 years and never had to deal with this kind of thing. I'm a mechanical engineer and it's absolutely ludicrous that a modern internal combustion engine would obliterate itself in under 100K miles. All of the automakers struggled somewhat with direct injection, but GM compounded the error by putting bandaids on the problem rather than making it right for their customers.

I test drove Toyotas, Subarus, and Nissans and in the end I bought a gently-used 2017 Nissan Rogue for a great price. Best of luck to everyone, but I'm done with Chevrolet.

Roy Becker

ruley73

Yours is an isolated incident. The older 2005-2009 models use a completely different powertrain that does not normally burn oil. The 3.4L V6 is exponentially more reliable than the 2.4L used in 2010-2017 models. If yours is burning oil, your engine has other problems (look for clogged PCV valve - must remove front valve cover).

FWIW our 2007 Equinox currently has about 188,000 miles on it and doesn't consume any oil between changes.

Johnathon Baker

hello I am also experiencing the same issues as the others on this webpage. My equinox has been burning oil and losing power but won't even start now. It's not paid off and probably out of warranty. What options might I have to get help with this? Whose house should I tow it to because I cannot even use it and it's apparently junk as with the many others on this forum .I to will be buying a Toyota. Chevy is junk this is my last email purchase.

Darryl Fryer

Hello Louis, I need any help you can give. I just purchase a 2010 Equinox, and it's burning so much oil, how can I get out of this SUV, or get it fixed asap?

Johnathon Baker

Hey I literally just got off the phone with the dealer and gm. If they can prove the oil consumption then they will repair vehicle through gm. 18002221020 is the number I called and was able to get through they have tried to make it right with me so far we aren't out of the storm yet though. I to will be trading for something else if they don't try to set things straight. I've been without a car since Thanksgiving.

Darryl Fryer

Thank you and good luck, we both need it.

jbmoore

I am telling everyone I can, now that mine is fixed!!!

i have a 2012 Chevy equinox and mine did the same thing. Started jerking, stabilitrak light comes on, then engine light and then the reduced engine power light comes on. I would turn it off and wait about 10 min and restart it and the stabilitrak light would go off and the engine light would go off in about 12-24hrs.

Runs horrible, sounds horrible when you crank it and once the engine would warm up it would begin to jerk when I would idle. It got so bad that I couldn’t go through drive throughs and when sitting at a redlight I would have to keep my foot on the gas to keep it over a certain amount of RPMs.

I took it to the mechanic they checked the codes and said it was my cam shaft position sensor which I had replaced. That helped for a while, Then every time it would get close to needing an oil change the jerking would start and get worse. I would have the oil changed and it immediately went away for a couple of months and then it would start up again. I’m a travel nurse and I put a lot of miles on mine so I was changing my oil every 3000 miles because of the issue. It got to the point where an oil change wouldn’t help it.

It ended up in an amazing mechanics shop off and on for about 3 months and after 2000 bucks(solenoids, timing chain, etc) replaced, it never got fixed. The mechanic said it’s brining oil at an alarming rate so quick that they thought I had a leak but I didn’t. They couldn’t figure out where the oil was going and he finally threw his hands up and gave up and told me my best bet was to go trade it in but that wasn’t an option for me. I was at the end of my rope and begin to cry out to God and I prayed and prayed and cried and demanded a fix.

I ended up posting online about my dilemma and asked a friend where her parents took their car to and she told me. So I immediately took my car and the guy had it 15 min and called me out to the shop area and said ma’am, I know what is wrong with your car and it will take me about 30 min to fix and we don’t even need to order any new parts. He pointed to a valve that was located in the front of the engine and it was completely clogged up with oil sludge. He said all he to do was clean the entire length of the valve out and it would fix it and it DID!!!! He said the clogged oil was what was causing the car to jerk and burn oil at such an alarming rate.

I’m sure there is a more accurate way to describe what was going on and how and why it fixed it and if you need me to find out the exact name of the clogged valve let me know! I will find out!!! I have not had one single problem out of this car since. I pray it helps you. Let me know if I can help!!!

Irish_alley

maybe a pcv valve?

jbmoore

Any luck with a fix or diagnosis!?!? I’m still having problems with mine. Just started about a month ago....again.