[pramodkumar]

Whenever I heard of the horror stories of vandalism by the service center, I never thought it would happen to me. My dealing has always been very clean with the Chevy service center Deedi Motors - they replace a part I pay up.

I bought a Cruze from Delhi last year and like almost all Cruze in Delhi, it had an unloved exterior. I drove down the car to Trivandrum in 36 hours flat from Delhi. It didn’t over heat or make any rattling noises.

After I reached Trivandrum, the radiator fan broke the next day and that is when I took my Cruze for the first time to Deedi Motors, Trivandrum. They were generous enough to give me a comprehensive list to things to replace without me even asking them or telling them this is a new purchase. I also got the oil changed along with the fan and things were fine.

After a few days the AC died. It was diagnosed that the issue is with the thermistor and they replaced it and recharged the system. All worked well till a busy hot afternoon 300 kms away from their showroom when the AC stopped working again. I drove it down and the culprit was a worn out relay, whose legs were too thin to make contact. They again charged me for recharging the system. However, I never made a fuss about it since seeing the cool air from the AC made me happy.

Three weeks later my radiator mysteriously developed a crack and it started losing coolant at the rate of few ml every 2-3 days. A new radiator was fixed to solve the issue. I had also asked them to fix the suspension. They replaced all the suspension components, struts, strut mounts, control arms and link rods. They inspected the lower arm and that seemed fine.

After this work, there was no noise for months. Then a slight rattle popped up and I had the left side suspension taken off. We noted that there was an extra plate that was kept along with the strut mount. This plate was part of the old strut mount. I took this opportunity to replace the bump stops also, but the noise was still present. Finally they said it’s the steering rack. I knew its not, because the first time the took the car in, they had suggested replacing the rack. At that time we had inspected the tie rods and they were fine. Now they attributed the noise the rack. This was just them steadily replacing everything in the front clip to fix the noise instead of actually doing any diagnosis.

Last month I decided to get 2 ailing GB mounts replaced as I thought the noise might be due to that. At that time, they also replaced the left strut mount which had that extra plate. The car was silent for exactly 5 kms and then it started making a noise every time I went over a bump. I took the car back and upon inspection it was observed that there is no play in the shock mounts and they were fine. The rattle hasn’t been fixed so far.

I did an ATF change last week and asked them to check the oil pressure light since it was coming up once in a while without any reason. The oil level was fine and the head was getting oil, which made the intermittent oil pressure light a mystery. I thought they being A$$, might have a manual oil pressure gauge, but they didn’t. They apparently first replaced the oil pressure sensor and this didn’t fix the issue. Then they cleaned the sump, replaced the oil filter and finally the swapped the oil pump from a broken Captiva. At each step, there was no change in the behaviour of the oil pressure light.

I was really tired of their antics so I decided to take the car outside and to my surprise when I plugged in the OBD scanner, the first error message I got was related to the oil pressure sensor circuit being open/implausible. The dealership were suggesting an engine rebuild and they went to the extent saying that the engine looked pretty bad, with oil leaks at many places.

The guys at the service center were pretty rude after I said no to the engine rebuild and they even didn’t allow me to see the work in progress for even 5 minutes. The floor manager went to the extent where he asked his staff to stop working if the customer is present. After the scan I was confident that the car was fine and I took it for a 500 kms round trip. During the trip, I found that the return hose from the water pump had a minute puncture hole through which it was leaking coolant. I took it to a road side workshop who work on major German cars. Following are my observations during that visit:

• The oil return line from the turbo had no clip at the point it meets the turbo, so it was slowly seeping oil.
  
• There was ATF all over the gearbox, which clearly started after the ATF change.
  
• I also noticed many bolts missing and there was a rip in the steering rack boot.
  
• One of the two exhaust hangers that hook the catalytic converter were missing. I will post a pic of the hanger for you to understand that it cannot disappear that easily.

It’s a clear case of vandalism and I am not in the mood to go the legal route, but these guys have to be brought to book. After Chevy left, the customers have their fate hanging in the hands of these crooks. This looks like the final nail in the coffin. So people who still trust their Chevy A$$, please be little proactive in checking things. Chevy has done this exit drama thrice if you count Daewoo as well, so they really don’t care. But if someone higher up is really interested or are reading this (which is highly unlikely), I have proof including bills and pics to substantiate my claims.





Showing the leak




Cleaning the sump and swapping the oil pump



This is how the exhaust hanger looks like, note its bolted on the cross member, it cannot disappear without any traces.

Pramod

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Dealerships Section. Thanks for sharing!

[rajeev k]

The attitude of several dealerships is almost similar, when they see an outside state registered car is driven in. They immediately sense a prey to achieve their internal targets. We need to be extra cautious.
By the by, how much has your car clocked since the time of purchase.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by rajeev k

By the by, how much has your car clocked at the time of purchase.

74k, the situation is not just with outstation vehicles, a senior bhpian got his Civic serviced and they cut the high pressure steering lines to sabotage his steering system. They ran the system without fluids to make sure the pump goes beyond repair. It’s a very common practice is what I understand.

For the last few months, they have started to offer me spares at half the price. These are used spares which they replaced from vehicles which didn’t need replacing. I have not bought anything from them in this scheme and have always waited for the new parts to arrive through order.

Pramod

[pramodkumar]

The suspension noise was a loose nut that connects the sway bar to the link rods, I cant believe they asked me to replace the whole steering rack for this.

The oil leaks was due to a bad PCV valve, they made it sound like a leaky turbo. The car now runs smooth and there is no noise from the suspension.

Note to the mods: I am not sure why the title of the thread was changed to something so subtle. The car was indeed vandalized now I have more proof.

Pramod

[Victor-whiskey]

Pramod Kumar
Sorry to wake up such an old thread. Which course of action did you take? I have a 2010 Cruze which has run 90k. However at 45k, whenever AC was on, at low speeds the car would make such a horrible sound of krrrrrree... I would feel ashamed. I drove to the A$$ and asked them for the repair. They told me that flywheel along with clutch has to be changed.
Estimate given was 80k rupees. I said thank you and drove out. I drove the car like that for one year. Finally irritated, I drove into FNG, he diagnosed the problems to worn out engine mounts (some rubber part, I don’t know) he changed it and voila, it’s love again. All of it at some 3k rupees.
Thanks