FlyFast

I had the dealer put a new 350 and a rebuilt tranny in my truck. The motor has leaked oil since it was installed six months ago. The motor has a 3 year or 60 K warranty on it.

I took the truck to the deler about three months ago to fix the leak. They wanted to charge me over a hundred to fix the oil leak. Of course a big fight I paid nothing and the motor still leaks.

I took the truck back today and told them if it costs me anything to fix the motor I would rather have my money back for the repair work that they did.

I took a picture of the leak and it looks like a valve cover leak. This should be no big deal.

everytime I take the truck in it takes a couple of hours and a few days to get it fixed.

Does anyone know about a lemmon law for repair work?

This is why I do most motor work myself. It is cheaper, quicker and easier in the long run.

How do you guys deal with car dealers?

JOHN G

Flyfast, If you bought the engine through a Gm Goodwrench new or remanfactured program and it was a complete engine, it has a 36month/50,000 mile warranty that is good at any GM dealer

FlyFast

John g

the motor is a new gm goodwrench with the 36 month/ 50 warranty. Even with the warranty they will try to charge you when you bring it back. The motor has leaked from day one and I am tired of the down time and bogus charges for what should be covered under warranty.

I guess a different dealer might be worth a try.

thanks

stevel

Try contacting GM customer service or the manager of the dealer that sold you the motor.

SmallPP

My guess would be if they already tried to fix it and it still leaks, something else is wrong like a crack in the head, valve cover, or high crankcase pressure, PCV valve not working correctly, etc... This was twice that oil was leaking already. Sounds like it is blowing out of the valve cover seal. Try removing the oil fill cap during idle and see how much blow by there is. Rev it up a few times while doing this and check it under those conditions also. Sometimes you have to be smarter than the dealer to get them to take the right action. They don't diagnose, they just throw parts at cars until the customer goes away. Something may not be hooked up right during the swap (PCV system). In a perfect world, the engine would operate under slight vacuum, and there would be almost zero chance of leaks.

FlyFast

The leak looked and smelled like a valve cover leak. With my small inspection mirror the back left side of the block was wet with oil. I thought about taking my inspection mirror and a flashlight to the dealer. I ended up using my digitial camera to take a picture of the wet spot.

The customer service rep didn't look at the picture and would not comment if this was covered under warantee. In signing all the fine print I wrote my own version. I said that rather than paying any more to fix this oil leak i would like my money back for the work that they did. This truck leaves a oil slick every place it goes.

I went inside and talked to the service receptionist. Another set of deaf ears. I went over and talked to the sales receptionist. She agreed that the one of the service managers was an idiot. She said that the other manager was the one to talk to.

I showed the other manager the picture and bingo. He said it looks like a valve cover leak. We will clean the motor and put dye in the oil and fix it.

I guess the key is to find a good dealer. Walking around with a picture of your motor that leaves a oil slick on the sales floor doesn't hurt either.

If I get a bill for the warantee work I will head for the new sales floor to discuss the problem.

jhnrckr

If you paid for the work with a credit card you have the option to do a chargeback with your card provider. 90% of the time you just have to mention the word chargeback to the merchant and they will bend over backwards to get the problem corrected. If you have a strong case to present to the credit card company the dealer will loose.

FlyFast

Jhnrckr,

I sent my wife down to pay with a company check. the dealer refused to take my company check and my wife had to get a cashier check. The bill was just under 6k. This is part of the rub.

the other part is before my wife picked up the truck the dealer called me and told me that the water guage would not work right with the new engine. This I could not understand and after about four hours on the phone with the service rep and parts I came to realize the problem. The old sending unit had a 3/8 inch thread and the hole in the new engine was 1/2" The dealer said that chev or gm doesn't have any bushings and the 1/2 inch sending unit would not work right with my guage. I told them to go to NAPA for a bushing and they said I could go I I wanted. I was out of town so I sent my wife to homedepot who has never seen a 1/2 to 3/8 npt bushing and she was able to deliever the part to the dealer.

The third part is the oil slick. The truck has limited use because wherever you go it will leave a 6 inch puddle of oil. I took the truck in last time about three months ago and they did not fix the problem and it was a big fight.

My thing is that I should not even be involved at this point. For 6K they should have test driven the truck and checked for leaks. Why do i have to fight to get things fixed right.

jhnrckr

Have you pulled the valve cover? I have a leak on my 350 because the exhaust manifold bumped up against my valve cover (edelbrock tall style) when tightened down. I cured it by putting two gaskets per valve cover.

FlyFast

I went down to pick up the truck. I went to the cashier and one was oustide smoking and the other was eating at her desk. She fumbled for a while and then I signed the paperwork. I was very pleased that chev was willing to warranty the oil leak at no cost to me. I asked to talk to the service advisor or manager and I was told they were all at lunch. I went outside to wait for the truck. After 15 minutes I went inside to check the status of the truck. They said wait outside. After 30 minutes I wandered to parts to try and find out wht parts they put in my truck. The parts guy could not tell from the part numbers on the invoice what whas done. In walking back outside I ran into the good guy manager. He said that the valve cover gaskets had cracked and they put updated vavle cover retainers on the valve covers. You could tell by how he looked at me that he thought I had overtightened the valve covers. The truth is for three years I don't have to touch that engine. It should be their problem.

They replaced the cork valve cover gaskets with rubber and cork ones and put the longer valve cover retainers on the valve covers.

Chev saved a nickle on cheap gaskets to loose a customer and dollar repairing their valve leak. Personally this is why I always use the best parts available when I work on my boat. This would have never happened with fel pro perm-a-plus gaskets. It is cheaper to buy quality parts than waste hours of time dealing with cheap parts.