2013 Buick LaCrosse Fuel Guage is Faulty

[Brianc7951]

My 2013 Buick LaCrosse has been defective from the first day I left the dealership in San Jose Ca. The fuel guage is defective and unknown to me, this appears to be a defect well known to Buick and GM well before I was sold my Buick LaCrosse. After sixty days, there is no fix and no repair. I have to guess how much fuel is left in the tank. There is no assurance the guage works at any level so there is a driving hazard at all time that the car my have no fuel while driving a high speed.

I have been told the factory is working on a fix for the well known fuel guage problem. I am not sure that is true anymore. Further I fear GM will just shine me off until I file litigation to have the matter resolved. In addition to a large amount of outreach ministry I perform (soup kitchen that serves 24,000 meals per month, St Vincent dePaul Chapter helping homeless and hungry folks, and a teen pregnancy and suicide prevention ministry), I am also a trial lawyer.

I plan to give Buick and GM a few more weeks to fix the defect in my car but, in the meantime, I am filing a complaint with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) regarding the defective Buick and the defective fuel guage. Should the engine run out of fuel while driving with no warning I fear a loss of steering and braking with the engine shut off. I dont want any family to lose a loved one due to a faulty fuel guage ; we have seen other horrendous accidents in cars from other manufacturers causded when drivers lose control due a a product defect.

It was my hope that GM had elevated its products and its quality over its entire product line. Sadly, my Buick LaCrosse is good looking but seriously defective and risky to drive. GM should never had sold me this car as they knew all along that some models have a defective fuel guage at the time of sale.

I miss my Toyota already.

 

[oldmanbob]

There are a few other posts on this same exact issue, including one of my posts a few months back.
http://buickforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33013

There are also a few other complaints from other LaCrosse owners spread across the web, although they are far and few between and hard to find. I have lived with this for 4 months and just had my Lacrosse in for tire rotate and oil change this past week. The service manager says he is aware of the problem but he has no technical bulletins or anything on it. Evidently others who may have the issues are living silently on the sidelines. The only reason I have not run out of gas is that I have a record of exactly every fill up and amount of fuel purchased since the car had 4 miles on it. I watch my mileage using my average mileage obtained and judge when I need gas. Not only does it not register fuel levels accurately, it also provides false readings through the gauge from full to empty, and the miles left calculation seems to be very inaccurate. I have also read that there is a chance the size of the gas tank is smaller the originally spec so Buick could meet the “green” requirements and call this a variation of a hybrid. I do not know if that is true, but their failure to fix this issue leads me to wonder what else are they hiding.
I have even started to wonder if the speedometer and mileage calculations shown are inaccurate.

This is my 5th new Buick in the last 30 years and I still love the quiet and smooth ride but this model is the most disappointing yet. No spare tire and a can of fix a flat? Really use fix a flat once and the tire is destroyed. Also, No inside trunk release. If I drop off a passenger and they have a package in the trunk, I have to turn off car and use the trunk release on the FOB which does not work if car is running.

I have defrosters that evidently leak air as I drive in the morning and the front window fogs up on the bottom until I wipe the condensation with a cloth, even though the vents are changed to passenger vents only and the defrost button is off. My model has no keyless ignition but was the only one is stock with the side mirror warning system which I really wanted .. but a car that stickered out at over 37K is missing some simple things that one can find on a 10K Kia.

Sorry, got off on a tangent, but I ma peeved about the gas gauge issue, and even more peeved that the Buick customer care people who monitor this forum has yet to even try to assist. I do not see how a class action could come out of this, but if so, I will sign up in a jiffy.

 

[MHT]

There are a few other posts on this same exact issue, including one of my posts a few months back.
http://buickforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33013

There are also a few other complaints from other LaCrosse owners spread across the web, although they are far and few between and hard to find. I have lived with this for 4 months and just had my Lacrosse in for tire rotate and oil change this past week. The service manager says he is aware of the problem but he has no technical bulletins or anything on it. Evidently others who may have the issues are living silently on the sidelines. The only reason I have not run out of gas is that I have a record of exactly every fill up and amount of fuel purchased since the car had 4 miles on it. I watch my mileage using my average mileage obtained and judge when I need gas. Not only does it not register fuel levels accurately, it also provides false readings through the gauge from full to empty, and the miles left calculation seems to be very inaccurate. I have also read that there is a chance the size of the gas tank is smaller the originally spec so Buick could meet the “green” requirements and call this a variation of a hybrid. I do not know if that is true, but their failure to fix this issue leads me to wonder what else are they hiding.
I have even started to wonder if the speedometer and mileage calculations shown are inaccurate.

This is my 5th new Buick in the last 30 years and I still love the quiet and smooth ride but this model is the most disappointing yet. No spare tire and a can of fix a flat? Really use fix a flat once and the tire is destroyed. Also, No inside trunk release. If I drop off a passenger and they have a package in the trunk, I have to turn off car and use the trunk release on the FOB which does not work if car is running.

I have defrosters that evidently leak air as I drive in the morning and the front window fogs up on the bottom until I wipe the condensation with a cloth, even though the vents are changed to passenger vents only and the defrost button is off. My model has no keyless ignition but was the only one is stock with the side mirror warning system which I really wanted .. but a car that stickered out at over 37K is missing some simple things that one can find on a 10K Kia.

Sorry, got off on a tangent, but I ma peeved about the gas gauge issue, and even more peeved that the Buick customer care people who monitor this forum has yet to even try to assist. I do not see how a class action could come out of this, but if so, I will sign up in a jiffy.

On your window fogging have your dealer to make certain that your A/C is draining ok, no kink in hose or blocked drain.

 

[Buick Customer Service]

We are happy to assist both of you at any time. We are sorry to hear of the frustrations you have experienced with your vehicles. You may send us a private message at any time with your name, address, phone number, VIN, mileage, and name of preferred dealership so we may research further. Thank you!

Jessica
Buick Customer Care