I have a 2003 Suburban LT and have enjoyed the vehicle for five years. I rarely use the back window and do not tow anything behind the vehicle. About a year ago theplastic cracked around the rear window and am reluctant tospend $1300 on the car.

 

Add another one to the List of "Poorly Engineered" Hatch Glass hinge. My 2005 Suburban LT w/41,000 miles had a failure on the left hatch while on vacation in sunny Florida 2 weeks ago. Our hatch was seldom used because my wife is only 5'4" and has difficulty reaching into the car through the hatch. I thought it was due to the smoldering temperature our truck is exposed to in NC and FL. Dealer said same story $1100-$1200 and out of warranty. Only owner and treated very well. Found this post while researching replacement part on www. Hope this gets some attention from Chevrolet.

 

I have a 2003 Suburban with 75k miles. About 1 week ago, the rear window began making a whistling noise while driving. When I inspected it, I found that the hinge had separated from the window. I have probably opened that window 20 times since I purchased the vehicle new in 2003. I phoned the dealer that I purchased it from, they were completely aware of the problem, as they had seen it before, but said I should come it. Their answer was "it can't be fixed, but rather a new rear window should be installed to the tune of $1,000. I contacted GM Customer Service who claimed they had never heard of this problem before, but also stated that the only solution would be to replace the entire rear window.

The vehicle has only been used for pleasure use, never towed a vehicle.

If you have had this happen to you or someone you know google: suburban rear window hinge

gerry.west@hotmail.com [/align]

 

Count me in too! 03 Tahoe, 90,000 miles, no abuse, good care. Looks like JB Weld for me!

 

Same problem, 2003 seldom use the window entrance. With the window blowing out at higher speeds I will probably fix it using JB weld.

Thanks for the info.

 

Happened to me almost a year ago. Looking at the design, the engineers must have been more interested in formrather than function.
2001 Suburban 8.1L Autoride

 

Keep on GM about this one! I just gotthe class action lawsuit information for the instrument cluster failures, which is alot less dangerous than a rear window falling off.

GM wake up and fix the DEFECT!

BTW 90K and the JB weld is still holding strong.

Brad

 

I found this site by accident looking up rear hinge on suburbans. I just brought my 04 surb. in because my rt. rear hinge broke. I never use the glass as I am too short to reach in to back and it was too hard to close. I noticed a funny noise for the last 6 months but didn't know where it was coming from. Well.... I guess the hinge was broken . Since I never opened it I didn't realize it. A friend opened it the other night and wham!! It broke. 1100 dollars later...
I called chevrolet to report the problem and to have it on record that I had to replace my rear glass. It might not make a difference, but it is worth a try. Maybe if everybody called with their vin number and reported it , it would help??1-800-222-1020

 

i'm another member of the broken rear hinge on the glass liftgate. mine happen last week when i went to retrieve my umbrella from the back. i hardly ever use the glass lift but this one time i did and it broke. mine is an '01 and i've owned it since day one. i don't want have to fork over hunderds of dollars for this. guess i'll try the JB weld fix before my back window blows out and causes a bad accident.

 

AI haven't had the problem you are noting for your Burb, but keep after GM. My truck will lose all power for no reason at all, even while driving down the road, and that's pretty dangerous. Then it'll start up again when it feels like letting me. The NTSB has noted over 13,000 incidences of this occurring in Suburbans that resulted in an accident, yet has not bothered to issue a recall order because nobody had died - yet. Pretty sad.

As for you doing this for the principal of the thing, go for it! As for people being seemingly surprised that GM vehicles may fall apart through factory defect, remember that it's why Asian cars have really moved in. They are reliable because they are under stricter internal standards than American cars. GM wants to make money. Period. Toyota and Honda want to make money AND be respected. Therein lies the difference.

Byron