So I took my 2020 Regal GS Sportback with 48K to the dealer for whining noise when turning, took them 3 hours to diagnose and they are oredering/replacing the rear differential under warranty hopefully they will have it done in a week or so once parts arrive.
Jealous of the dealership competence.
What's the status on your repair? Are/were parts available?
Sorry for the long post that follows, but since I'm joining the club I figure I'll document the process.
On June 27th I made a 2:30pm reservation with a Rick Hendrick dealership via the GM Service website. I arrived at the service department about 15 minutes early and the guy at the counter couldn't find my reservation. I pulled up the confirmation email to show him the details.
His response: "Oh, yeah, our systems don't work with GM systems."
I questioned this illogical statement, and ultimately he more-or-less explained that
'Hendrick is one of the largest GM dealers in the US, and as such we don't have to play by Corporate rules.' Interesting relationship.
Also, if that's the case, it'd be helpful if GM removed Hendrick from the online service scheduling portal.
I asked if there was any chance of my car being looked at that afternoon. He laughed and said "Ahh, no. No chance."
I asked about making an appointment, he gave me a date a couple of weeks out when I would be traveling, so I declined that date. Ultimately we found a day in mid-July that would work for me. Then came the best part. I'll paraphrase slightly:
Him: There will be a $250 diagnostic fee and we will need the car all day.
Me: It will take you about 30 feet of driving to hear the noise...
Him: The technicians find the problem, and with "noises" {ed. he made the air quote gesture} it usually takes awhile.
Me: Fair enough. It's a CPO car with a 100k powertrain warranty. Do I still pay the $250 fee?
Him: You pay the fee because usually these "noise problems" {ed. air quote gesture, again} are something that isn't covered. Just yesterday we had some lady in hear complaining of a noise. It turned out to be rocks behind her license plate. If the noise you have is actually covered by warranty, you wouldn't pay the fee.
Me: You charged someone $250 to clean rocks out from behind their license plate?
Him: She didn't figure it out for herself...
I thanked him for the explanation of the process and left.
After returning from my trip, I made an appointment at the only other GM dealership franchise in my area. I've had awful experiences with them before, but at least I can walk to work from the dealership. The appointment was today at 8am. (The Hendrick dealership is clear on the other side of the city. I was willing to give them one shot to avoid the dealership that now has my car. Hendrick missed their one shot. Badly.)
I drop the car off and waited at the counter while the guy at the service counter wrapped up watching a video on his phone. I can't be certain, because he didn't invite me to watch, but it sounded a lot like Sponge Bob Square Pants coming from over-driven phone speakers. Off to a good start.
At 3:45pm I hadn't heard anything. I called, wait on hold awhile, and was eventually transferred to someone that had the paperwork related to my appointment. The fella I spoke to explained that he gave it to the
suspension mechanic in the morning, and that when that mechanic drove it he determined it wasn't the suspension, so they gave it to the
differential mechanic who was currently working on it.
I asked why on earth they would think the noise coming from that car was suspension related. (In fact, when I made the appointment I said "driveline noise" and gave a couple of descriptions on how to exacerbate the noise and explained that it is easiest to hear on smooth pavement...) The answer was basically
'That's where we start.' Ok, diagnosis by flowchart; no logic or intuition necessary.
Next, he explained the pinion leak, and that
'basically all of the fluid was gone, so now the tech is opening the differential up to see how bad it is. Depending on what they find, they may have to order parts - if they're even available - yada yada yada...'
[As a side note: I had no idea the pinion was leaking until I heard the noise, read these forums, and went looking for clues. There is no oil spot on my driveway where I park every day; there is no spot in the parking spot I park in every day at work. There is some oil on the gear case and some that was flung onto the underside of the car, but apparently not enough to drip in the two locations the car spends most of it's life. Seems very odd.]
After waiting the story out I said "So, a couple of things: I want to make sure we're on the same page here. This is a CPO car with a 100k mile warranty. Is that documented in your system, and assuming it is, the final drive is covered, right? Also, can I safely assume I will not be getting my car back today?"
Him: You definitely won't be getting your car back today.
Me: It would have been helpful for you to let me know that a bit earlier in the day.
After several seconds of clicking/typing/etc, the service rep comes back and says "Yes, I see that it has an extended powertrain warranty. We'll have to get inside the differential and figure out what is covered by warranty and what isn't."
Rather than get into it at that point, I thanked him for the update and ended the call. (I shared images of the GM extended warranty verbiage and the definition of what a "powertrain" is according to the owners manual in this thread, previously. So hopefully the dealership has the same definitions.)
Those of you that have been through this - or are currently going through this - the differential carrier is serviced as a complete unit, right?
No dealership is attempting to rebuild these things in-house, are they?
Sorry for the long post. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.
