Our 2015 Silverado 2500HD with 27K miles had a catastrphicengine failure in July. After six weeksof arguing up the chain at GM, the "final word" came down today thatthe reppair won't be covered under warranty. The truck needs a new engine. Reason was that we change our own oil. We are a small construction contractor with 10-20 employees. Last year we spent $158,000 on fuel, oil,filters and maintenance and almost all of the oil changes done were done"in house". Tomorrow I amgoing to pick up the truck and fix it ourselves since it will never have awarranty anyway. Will never buy anotherGM product (after 49 years of loyalty).

 

Oh, that's an easy one. Any 1st year law student can handle that one. The 1975 Magnussen Moss warranty act, and the current interpretation of it on the Federal Trade Commission website, specifically state they cannot deny a warranty claim because you do your own oil changes. All you might need it receipts to show the filters and oil you are using, at most. And being in business, I would hope that you kept receipts for tax purposes if nothing else. The only way they can deny a warranty on oil changes is if they provide, and mandate, free oil changes, supplies, and services throughout the warranty period. While GM does offer a limited free oil changes, they are not mandated. You need to have a chat with an attorney.

Now, they could deny warranty if they can PROVE that what you did caused the problem. The burden of proof is on the OEM, not on the consumer. That is laid out in the MM Warranty Act also. And it would be darn hard to prove owner fault on this issue. Unless you failed to put oil in when you changed it!

 

yes, legally you can perform your own oil changes. As you have found out, the dealers want you to put all the ***** in a row. The problem is: although you have receipts for oil and filters, you have no documentation of the mileage, date or even vehicle the parts were put on. good luck trying to prove that in court. Its just not worth losing warranty for a $50 oil change. And its not just gm...its every manufacturer.

my co-worker who is a licensed technician was denied warranty when his new surbaru engine developed a loud lower end knock. He even bought all the oil filters from the Subaru dealer he bought the car from. All to save $30 on an oil changes.

Even if the burden of proof is on the dealer, "YOU" still have to pay to take them to court. They are automotive experts...you would need to hire expert witnesses and pay for them to diagnose the fault. You lose either way.

Your selling dealer might be willing to do more for you? My dealership does a lot of fleet sales. They would suck this up for a good customer much more readily than a car they have never seen before. That is the reality of it at a lot of dealers. Definitely try another dealer, maybe that dealerships competitor if a 2nd gm dealer is in town.

What happened to the engine?

 

Thanks for the replies to this new member. Unfortunately, the second one is the one that is most accurate. They seem to know that legal pursuit is not economically sound for a single owner so they do what is least cost to them.


I set up a special email account so I can keep things organized better in this matter. If anyone wants all the details, send me an email at 2015lemonado@gmail.com and I will forward you all the stuff that I have written so far to GM and others.


This had been a difficult situation for me.


I have owned at least one Chevy for 49 years and only had one non-GM car in that time (It was a '77 Plymouth Sport Fury that I had to special order to get the vinyl top deleted. You couldn't do that with the Malibu, plus my father-in-law bought one of those.)

 

What happened to the engine is it spun a rod bearing. What caused that is unknown. The rod knock started just as the driver (one of the company owners) got to work. Truck was shut off immediately (he coasted in to the job site) and we had it towed to a Chevy dealer. They declined the warranty without removing a single bolt or nut....based solely on the oil change receipt issue.

 

We had the truck towed to the dealer we bought it from and they removed pan. All of the rod bearings that were down were removed and all had some damage. We believe the first dealer had a tech connect the scanner and run the engine which caused the rest of the damage but that's just conjecture.

 

It was sad the other day when I opened my new Hot Rod magazine. The '61 bubbletop Impala leading the parade in the double page spread is my high school car. I still have mine but don't know if I will keep it. Numbers matching, 283, never rebuilt, poor shape due to serious vandalism in storage yard. I know I won't be buying any more GM cars. Just gonna start over
at 64 tears old with ???? can you say hellcat.

 

Not putting oil in when it was changed is the first thing I thought of. The first service rep also accused us of that when he said "the only thing that can cause a spun bearing is lack of oil". I said right, but what caused the lack of oil. The truck had four oil changes. the first three were by owners of the company. We only have 11 employees full time and 5 are owners. 2 old farts like me and 3 sons. The last oil change, about 1000 miles before the failure, was done at Grease Monkey. The driver said there was nothing strange about that service and it's a small shop. The truck didn't come out and go back in like they discovered they forgot to put oil in or something.

 

The thing about the receipts deal and not changing oil yourself anymore is that the two groups it will most penalize are Car Guys and small contractors. These two groups are probably the most likely to properly maintain their vehicles. They are also the most likely to show brand loyalty.


The "free" oil change would cost us about $300. The tools in the truck would need to be transferred to another truck for the day. Two drivers would need to go drop the truck off at the dealer. Two drivers would have to pick up the truck. The tools would need to be reloaded into to the truck that got the oil change.

 

Does anyone know if the oil filter location on 2015 Silverado 6.0 would be in the same location as a C7 or ZO6 vette?


Chevy gave a new C7 to Car and Driver magazine and it spun a rod bearing at 6k miles. As I understand it, the cause was traced to a plugged oil passage. What plugged it was thread cuttings from the tap job on the Delco oil filter. This car never had it's first oil change. Delco (GM) didn't properly clean the filter base after machine work was done.


Automotive writer Gary Gastelu (search Gary Gastelu Fox News) was on a test drive at GM proving grounds as a passenger in a ZO6. It spun a rod bearing at 2k miles while he was in it. By his report, it sounds like it could have been the oil filter adapter that goes into the block that didn't get cleaned. I'm going to try to contact him for clarification. I'll bet GM won't give it to me.


Could these faulty Delco filters and or base plates have found their way into non-corvette Vortechs? Seems like it would make sense that the mildly driven Vortech trucks would go more miles before the failure showed up.