Here's to my first post (long time reader, first time writer)...
Ok, so this is the string of events that leads to my GTO's temporary demise.
I blew a tire. As I was passing a delightfully slow drive a few weeks ago I changed lanes and barely missed hitting a car battery in the middle of the road. Unfortunately my right front tire took one for the team. When I pulled of the tire I notices a significant amount of rub on the inner 1/4 of the tread (basically rubbing completely through the tread). I check out the other side, same thing. I am running stock 17' rims and the tires had been on there since I purchased the car with 6K - now has 28K. So I bought a couple new tires.
I needed some service anyway (not a gear head yet) and took it to the dealership to have it looked at. They informed me the struts needed to be replaced (Warranty). That along with an alignment fixed the problem...for a few days...
So fastforward to last Thursday. I am driving around my family's town (about 1.5 hr away from my home). I start to hear a rattling in the front left wheel. As I pull into a gas station (at 2 am) I depress the brakes normally, and the car screeches to a stop. The brakes lock up, and I can't move. Happens 3 more times on the way home, only way to unlock is to shift to reverse.
Took it to the local Pontiac dealer there in that town. I actually drove 15 miles to get there and didnt press the breaks 1 time, I had to time all of the lights... They find out that when they replaced the struts, they removed the brake calipers for apparent "elbow room". However, when they replaced them they apparently lost the bolts for the mounts, used different ones and only HAND TIGHTENED them. The bolts came loose and when I broke the caliper shifted forward and jammed against the rotor and the wheel causing the car to stop. Now I have to sort this out with the original dealer (who appears to be complying) so I can get this all replaced. It grounded off a corner on my caliper and carved a nice groove into my wheel. Yay!
When I pick it up I'll hopefully have some pics to put up...
make them replace the wheel and the caliper! Thats crap! The dealerships is why Ill never buy GM again.
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06 CGM M6 "This Goat Doesn't Graze"
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DSM Parts F/S: Blacked out headlights, 7 bolt AWD flywheel, Stock 2g AWD springs, stock turbo cams, stock 97 Talon 17inch wheels (rare), FP 20G turbo! make an offer
that dealer better pay for everything that was damaged including the loan/rental car for you. if they give you any grief get a lawyer. that's about as negligent as it gets and not hurt someone.
Wow, you found a dealer that actually offered to do warranty work?! Glad no one got hurt! Brakes are the single most important safety system on our cars. I'm always extremely careful when working on them and double/tripple check everything when I think I'm done.
See what the offending dealer offers first, then adjust your anger/demands accordingly. A new wheel, caliper, transportation while your car is properly fixed, and one heck of an apology at a minimum.
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06 IBM M6: Kooks S.S., Vararam, Hushpower II, h-pipe, DBA 4000 slotted rotors, Hawk ceramic pads, Harrop X-member bushings, Koni front and rear, Lovells RR bushings, strut mounts, and OE height springs, BMR Skid Plate, HP Tuners
Yeah, I expect them to pay for all of the damage. They have agreed to that now, but we'll see when it comes to actually doing it. I am pushing for some extras from them...
The thing that really makes me mad is that I often let my wife drive my car (she only has a 6 mile commute compared to 40 miles). If this would have happen to her in traffic it could have been disastrous.
I did do some research on the strut rub issue to see before I took this in and I believe it was. The tire rub was serious, crazy I didn't notice before. The funny thing is, when I first called my dealership (Dick Norris Pontiac), I had a guy tell me the problem was inherent to the GTO and there was "nothing really they can do about it"... Obviously I knew better, so I took it in and restarted the issue. The first response was immediately revoke by a wiser fellow. I need to check my paper work to see the details of everything, but I know they replaced the struts via my warranty. Which was sweet, because I thought based time, that was already expired - turns out its good through 5/10/10.
WDF! I had my brake caliper come off after a dealer changed my struts. (Warranty repair) It totally smurfed up that rim too. I really wonder if they have incorrect torque or something in the service bulletin.
Call GM, I got all parts replaced for free and they payed off part of my loan.
make them replace the wheel and the caliper! Thats crap! The dealerships is why Ill never buy GM again.
Yes that is crap, but GM, as a corporation, has little to do with the negligence of a dealership. It sounds like they are taking care of him, so that's good.
Chaser10, what dealership did the bad work if you don't mind me asking?
Dick Norris Pontiac in Clearwater, FL did the original work. So far they have been compliant with the idea of paying for the diagnostic work of the other dealership (in Crystal River, FL 1.5 hours north) and they have suggested that they will cover the cost of the parts needing replacement. But the crap situation is I have to drive 3 hours round trip just to go get my car to bring it back down here to have them fix something that never should have been there... plus field calls between the two dealerships to make sure everyone is on the same page. AND I am missing a vehicle, so I have had to get creative with get to and from important places... such as work. I will be dropping it off on Thursday (11/5) morning so I will update how things go.
Aren't those the Torque to yield bolts that aren't supposed to be re-used anyway? I know alot of people do, but the book the dealer uses says not too, correct?
F
Aren't those the Torque to yield bolts that aren't supposed to be re-used anyway? I know alot of people do, but the book the dealer uses says not too, correct?
F
Show me a torque to yield bolt on a production car's suspension and I'll show you an undersized bolt. It is still hotly debated but I personally think the 'not for reuse' (notice they are never called TTY) is for loctite and in this case the lock washers. I can clean a bolt and reapply loctite and the manufacturer of the lock washers advertises them as being reusable so I haven't replaced anything. So far it sounds like I am already outperforming 2 of GM's dealerships.
Show me a torque to yield bolt on a production car's suspension and I'll show you an undersized bolt. It is still hotly debated but I personally think the 'not for reuse' (notice they are never called TTY) is for loctite and in this case the lock washers. I can clean a bolt and reapply loctite and the manufacturer of the lock washers advertises them as being reusable so I haven't replaced anything. So far it sounds like I am already outperforming 2 of GM's dealerships.
Agreed, Ive reused mine four times, and still doing fine. I of course cleaned the threads of the old loctite and reapplied.
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James Henson tuned, Spintech 2.5" sideexhaust, K&N HAI, Kooks Headers 1 3/4"x 3" o/r mids, Line Lock, JHP pod, GMM ripshifter, wing delete, catch can, Pedder's TrackIIw/sways, Pedders steering rack, BMR SFC, DBA 6x6 rotors, Carbotech pads, 18x8 HP's, JHP rear insert(lock nutted and JB welded on!),20%tint/40%windshield, LSS
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Wow.... This is why i am never taking my cars to a deal again.
I had my strut and strut mount replaced because the stock one when bad, they also spilled the bearing. They installed the strut with an extremely loose upper strut mount bolt. I could spin it with my fingers.
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2006 GTO M6 18"s QSM Eiback Lowering Springs, Hotchkis Sways, Pedders Strut mounts & RR bushings, 19" staggered hyper-black CSL Replica wheels, Magnaflow with custom Corsa Db red's, B&m shifter, Kooks 1 3/4 LTs, Kooks catted mids, Volant CAI, and bobcat 455 tune, Alpine sterio, and Avic d3.
Now that I have an actual update - I figured I'd let you know how this all turned out.
Turns out the dealership (Dick Norris Pontiac) actually owned up to screwing this up - and covered everything without a problem (as they should have) - it took 2 + weeks but they towed my car down, replaced the wheel (gouged bad - pics coming of that), pad, bolts, resurfaced the rotors and cut me a check for my out of pocket expenses. They also gave me a car of the lot to drive during the work (G6 - bare bones, but hey...). Gave me the car back last Friday detailed and all.
They also noticed my differential whine and replaced that without issue - sound as a pound now.
Bottom line - I was pissed, but they followed through with everything well.
Funny thing is that I made the same mistake when I was did my suspension swap last winter. I knew what had happened right away. I forgot that I put the bolt on the shelf and left it there because I thought I would remember to look there. Luckily no damamge was done because I was going reaaaaaaalllllly slow, as I always do after doing work like that. <15 minute fix.
glad you were not injured man... and yeah i do not take any of my vehicles to a stealership as alot of their grease monkeys are really not that well trained or skilled... my best friend works at a ford dealership, love him to death but id never let him touch my car...
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To be honest I expected this to be a battle - I collected every shred of info I could, pics, receipts, etc - thinking they were going to screw me. The CSR there provided little help, but the service manager was concerned from the beginning. He made sure everything was worked out.
I really need to find another place to have my Goat worked on. Anyone have any ideas in the Tampa Bay, FL area?
Wow, they sound like they went above and beyond. A simple screwup that could have turned out bad admittedly but they took care of it, AND your diff whine all on one return trip. You should actually be thankful, sounds like a halfway decent service department that just made an unfortunate mistake.
Aren't those the Torque to yield bolts that aren't supposed to be re-used anyway? I know alot of people do, but the book the dealer uses says not too, correct?
F
Looks like this dealer went by the book - they must have thrown them out... but then probably found out that they didn't have the correct replacements.
To be honest I expected this to be a battle - I collected every shred of info I could, pics, receipts, etc - thinking they were going to screw me. The CSR there provided little help, but the service manager was concerned from the beginning. He made sure everything was worked out.
I really need to find another place to have my Goat worked on. Anyone have any ideas in the Tampa Bay, FL area?
Isn't one of the sponsors on the left from Odessa, FL? Sounds like your neck of the woods. They are a Pedders shop too.
Sounds to me like they didn't tighten with a wrench on the caliper pin housing. Oftentimes, if you do the job properly, the bolt will just spin in place when putting everything back together. Those bolts really don't take a lot of torque to tighten up at all, but definitely not enough to have them spinning in place.
2006 GTO Owner
Pic by Landshark
/ Super 40s /Stolen Fox H pipe/
