I purchased my 2010 Chevy Traverse brand new back in 2010. This is my first Chevrolet after years owning Ford products (2 Explorers, a Taurus, F-150 and an Edge). I have been very disappointed with my ownership experience so far. I have had numerous problems with this vehicle, both big and small. I had to replace the same little plastic gear on one of the actuator doors in the heating/cooling system 3 times in the first 5 years. Thankfully, the most recent replacement has lasted about 1 1/2 years at this point.

I had to replace the throttle body back in March 2014 at about 42,000 miles. Chevrolet was kind enough to cover this repair even though I was about 6,000 miles out of my bumper to bumper warranty. Still, the throttle body shouldn't need to be replaced at 42,000 miles, but I understand things happen.

Smaller items that I found annoying include the fact that you have to go to the dealer to have the rear windshield wiper replaced. Also, if you need to replace a front headlight bulb you have to remove the front tire and then remove a panel inside the wheel well to get to the back of the headlight assembly to change the bulb. Once again, a job best left to the dealer. That's a lot of time and money to waste on something I would typically do myself.

The biggest issue came early this year when the check engine light came on. When I had it checked they told me that I need to have my timing chains replaced! Now everyone I talked to at Chevy acted like this is something they have never heard of before and certainly not an issue that should occur at only 62,000 miles. And yet Chevrolet only offered to cover about 1/3 of the cost of the repair even though my car was only about 6 months out of the 5 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty and well below the 100,000 mileage.

After talking to my neighbor (who is a mechanic with more than 30 years experience) he claimed this is a known issue with the early model years of the Traverse. So I did some internet research and found that this appears to be an issue that Chevy is not only aware of but, according to some information I found, supposedly created a fix to the issue in the middle of the 2010 model year... obviously that must have been implemented after my vehicle was manufactured.

I have appealed to the group who originally offered to cover 1/3 of the cost to see if they would reconsider their offer based on the new information I found, but they have gone completely silent. I left a message back on March 30 and they have not responded to me at all.

This has been the latest in the terrible customer service experience with Chevrolet. I can't imagine buying another Chevy in light of the issues I have experienced.

Anyone else had timing chain issues? How did you get them resolved?

 

To be fair the majority of the vehicles out now you have to loosen or remove panels and/or the front facia to access the bulbs.


I couldn't tell you how many timing chains I've done on the 3.6 and 2.4s. The 09s actually have a special coverage for extending the warranty on them which I'm going to assume your VIN must not fall under. As far as them doing goodwill for the warranty that varies from dealer to dealer and customer to customer. I've seen things warrantied way beyond the expiration and I've also seen them denied shortly after.


I know its not what you want to hear but having them participate in the costs at all should be considered a small victory especially since that is a big job to do. Theres a lot of things that can happen in "only 6 months."

 

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, Chevrolet continues to treat this as though they have never heard of this being an issue.

I finally got a hold of someone via chat today whose only response to me was basically to verify that I understand the vehicle was out of warranty when the issue was diagnosed and therefore they have no obligation to offer me anything but would stand by the original offer. They were VERY careful never to acknowledge that this was an issue they were aware of long before mine was diagnosed and out of warranty.

I'm really disgusted with the product and their unwillingness to stand behind it.

I will likely never buy another Chevy nor would I recommend them to anyone else.

 

the main cause of the stretched chains is from extended oil change intervals. gm revised the olm programming to shorten the interval.

 

the last engine I did in a v body the customer was wanting to blame the chains....I drained .5 quart of oil out of it....

 

exactly....and the customer blames the manufacturer. pretty much every oil consumption, timing chain, bottom end knock, vvt issue I see is all due to oil change interval neglect.

 

I have been very diligent in changing the oil in this car. In almost 6 years I have exceeded 3,000 miles only a handful of times (once going more than 5,000 miles) but even in those cases I had to add oil between intervals because this car eats oil like no car I have ever owned. I literally have to add at least a quart of oil in between 3,000 mile oil changes because the car starts making a strange noise when I turn left. This was diagnosed by a Chevrolet dealer as being low on oil even though I was below the 3,000 mile interval at the time. I always carry extra quarts of oil in my car for this reason. I have owned at least 10 cars in my lifetime and never had a car go through oil like this one unless it showed signs of a leak. I've never seen any signs of a leak on this vehicle but it burns through oil like no other car I've ever owned.