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Tahoe & SuburbanThe power, space, and brutal towing ability make the Tahoe and its longer sibling, the Suburban, arguably the best full size SUV's on the market today.
I am on my second set of door handle; replaced ALL at least once and now am on THIRD front passenger door.. This, on my 2013 Chevrolet Suburban LT. Dealer basically said tough luck.
I have never owned a vehicle with such poor quality on something as basic as a door handle. I have previously owned another Suburban and also a Tahoe. Previous ones did not have this flaw. Cheap plastic, likely made in China. Shame on you Chevrolet. I am sure I am not the only one with this issue; You should admit the flaw and replace them.
I bought a 2018 Ram 1500, got rid of that POS Chevy, never again will I buy GM. Three broken door handles, and the dash cracked twice. All while still making payments. Such shoddy craftmanship. Shame on you Chevy for not fixing your inferior product. You lost a customer for life.
Im not trying to keep going over this but the main issue with the GM door handles is the threaded inserts which hold them to the door.
GruvenParts.com makes longer, stronger threaded inserts for these door handles. If you put ours in BEFORE you wait for the OEM handle to crack out, this problem wont likely occur.
I know its a pain to remove the door handle but figure you are going to do it anyways sooner or later...
Not to dis Gruvenparts, because their insert certainly looks more substantial than OEM, but that hasn't been the problem in my world. The thing is that the plastic that the insert goes into explodes and and there is nothing for the insert to grip. After buying three replacements for my 2013 Suburban, I have started repairing, nee, upgrading the broken handles.
Fill the void around the insert with bondo to prevent the blowout and reinsert the threaded insert with some 5 minute epoxy. Don't forget to thread the screw in before you put the epoxy insert back in it's hole. Might want to add some grease to the threads too just to make sure the screw doesn't stick in the threads. I went back and repaired the other two broken handles too, because I never pitch anything, and now a I have a reserve. LOL
Is this just happening to the chrome handles? I have 293,000 on my Suburban with black colored handles and have never had a problem. My kids and wife are not gentle with things either.
No disrespect intended to Mr. Gruvenparts, and I believe his insert is heads and shoulders above the "off the shelf" insert that Chevy has been using. I use these very same inserts in my wood working projects from time to time and Ikea has them all over their products. The problem is not the insert, it's the crappy engineering of the minor amount of plastic into which the insert is embedded. It's sparse, weak and cheap. Another couple of mm's of plastic in that area would have solved the whole problem. I can't believe their engineers are so stupid or that their management is so cheap. I'm sure they must have done some testing on this handle before they put it into production, but then I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. If I had had some of the Gruvenparts inserts, I would have used them when I reinforced my handle inserts for sure, but mostly, that plastic is weak and needs reinforcement. Just wish I had photographed one of the blowouts to illustrate. 3 blowouts in less than a year on a 2013.
I finally put a Dorman in that has held up after 2 GM handles broke. Coming up on 3 years now. I am careful not to ****** on the handle when I open my door now.
Isn't that a reason for GM to wake up and admit it and resolve the problem.
This failure to take responsibility is not just limited to GM. 2005-2010 Nissan Frontiers and Xterras with automatic transmissions AND V6 engines had defective radiators, and ATF would mix with coolant and destroy both engine and transmission. Not only did Nissan say "go away" if a customer was out of warranty, took until 2010/2011 to come out with a better radiator. Nissan was aware of this issue well before 2010.
Nissan owners who became aware of this in advance would bypass the ATF part of the radiator or get an aftermarket radiator before it happened.
All, I just called Chevrolet. Please call them and let them know. Call the recall line. It's important that everyone informs Chevy and not just talk about it on the forum. They are opening a case for this. The more people that call, the better results. They told me if you've already had the replacement and they have the recall, if you can provide receipts they could reimburse? Not sure how long this procedure will take but worth the try.
My 2007 suburban LTZ now has three of four broken exterior door handles.
I have searched everywhere, and this problem is common it seems.
Door handle connects to the door via PLASTIC threaded rod and nut. Engineering defect that chevy needs to recall, but so far they will not.
$50,000 vehicle, 4 years old, with what is clearly a defect, and they will not step up to the plate. Keep complaining. $150-$200 each door seems to be the going repair cost.
I have 2013 Chevy suburban already had to replace 3 of 4 exterior handles broke just opening door
