Budarow

The car has ~36k miles (only 200 miles left on the GM warranty...yikes!) and for the past ~7-10k miles I've noticed slight misfirings after the engine is warm and at idle which can be felt through the steering wheel. The misfiring appears to have gotten slightly worse over time.

Last week the check engine light went on after the dealership changed a leaky head gasket, a leaky main seal and a leaky power steering pump. The dealership cleaned the injectors and the light has not been on since.

However, cleaning the injectors has not improved the misfiring so I went back to the dealership and the service manager hooked up a diagnostic tool which showed the cyclinders firing. The number 2 cyclinder misfired ~3 times over ~2 minutes and the service manager said the check engine light would not go on until ~100-200 misfirings occured. Also, a couple other cyclinders misfired once or twice (I think #3 and #6).

I'm very concerned because I found an article which described a 2006 Malibu with the 3.9L engine with a misfire that did not go away after a lot of parts were replaced (#2/5 coil, spark plug/wire, injectors, etc.) and it turned out to be a badly pitted exhaust valve lifter on the #5 cyclinder (which is the companion cyclinder to the #2 cyclinder).

The 1 thing I do NOT need is major engine repair bills right after my warranty expires.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Bud

shawnvw

drop it off and tell them you don't want it back untill its right. At the very least have them make a work order stating your problem so there is documentation stating that you had a misfire problem BEFORE the waranty expried. So if they "try" something and tell you to drive it, when you come back out of warranty, it will still be covered

suzuki-guy

I Agree with Shawn take it back and make them fix it!

Gwampa

Their playing the old drag your feet game. Nail the SOB's sooner than later (like Shawn said).

OnDaGround

My honest suggestion. Take it to another dealer who will take care of you. That dealer obviously doesn't know what they're doing or has a tech who doesn't know what they're doing. Normally when a vehicle comes back to a dealer as "not fixed the first time" they assign it to the same tech. Well if that same tech was a complete idiot, what makes you think he has changed with in the past couple days. Do what ever you need to do to make sure that you don't drive out of warranty. Second, even if you do go out, I would call Chevy and complain like crap that the problem was never solved while the vehicle was in warranty. 9 times out of 10 you will get it fixed for free. They want to keep the customer. Trust me, I work for a dealer and I see it all the time.

Budarow

Thanks for the encouragement guys. The service manager told me last Wed. to dump a bottle of fuel injector cleaner into the tank and drive the car. If the misfire didn't clear up, he said to bring the car back so I've got an appointment to drop it off tomorrow and I will NOT take the car back until it's fixed (i.e., the injector cleaner isn't doing any good).

From what I've read, they can check the 3 coils, spark plugs and wires, and the injectors to try and find the problem with the misfiring. If none of those things fix the issue, seems like it'll be something very serious like the lifters or pistons. Does the above sound about right?

Thanks again for you input.

Bud