Warranty claim help
 

I could use some help with a warranty claim issue.

I purchased my 2015 Z06 M7 back in December 2017. I generally change my own oil and I am careful to always use the Mobile1 5W30 2Dexos for street use and change to the Mobil1 15W50 for track use like the manual indicates. I am also careful to always use the ACDelco PF64 (I may have wrong part number) OEM oil filter.

I was tracking my vehicle in Michigan and suffered a loss of power, Stabilitrack warning and rear axle warning. I pulled over and had the car towed to the pits. I then had the car towed to a local Chevrolet dealership. I got a call from the dealership during the next business day that the car suffered a piston ring failure and needed a new engine. The dealership filed a claim under the GM Powertrain warranty. I did have the GM extended bumper to bumper warranty as well but it was still under the powertrain warranty.

GM asked for my oil change receipts. I sent them the oil purchase and oil filter receipts I had. A few days later GM asked for the ECU chip data to check for mods. There were no mods. A few days after that GM asked that the engine be taken down as the pictures from the borescope were insufficient. The dealership said I had to authorize the work in case GM did not cover this under warranty. I opened up a case with GM customer service but agreed to the charge to keep the process moving. After this, GM asked that the oil be drained and checked for contaminants. The dealership said they found two small chips of metal.

After all of this GM came back and said they would replace the engine but I had to pay $5400 of the cost because they did not have the exact dates of my oil changes. I paid the $5400 and picked up my car. I turned around a filed a Better Business Bureau Auto-Line case. GM contacted me and indicated that there was nothing further they could do for me. I received word from the BBB that since this was not under the original bumper to bumper factory warranty they could not help me and closed the case.

Here is my question. Short of a small claims court case is there another option to pursue recovering the money?

Thanks for any help in advance!

I'm sorry to hear what is going on but you now have an uphill battle. You paid and authorized the $5400. I deal with a lot of auto warranties (factory and aftermarket). There isn't anything in any warranty handbook that states you have to pay someone to perform general maintenance on your vehicle. It does it make it more difficult to prove that this was done however by you having receipts for the proper oil and filter (they will have dates) this will go a long way to prove your case. At that point they need to show evidence that you not changing the oil lead to the failure. I say that because this is what they are claiming. (i.e. sludge build up) I'm guessing at this point the old motor is gone, pictures weren't taken and it is all he said she said that it will be harder to pull off. Courts are heavily against manufacturers so its worth a shot but will be a lot of time on your behalf. You can always contact Chevrolet customer care and try there again first. Again, these suggestions would have been much more likely to work had they been done prior to any work. Good luck!

Sorry this is no help, but tons of posts here always swore YOU (all of us doing our oil changes) would be OK keeping receipts. As usual not a 100% guarantee, since as THEY said, no proof of WHEN you changed it.I have just ordered 12 qts of the correct oil for my 2019 Z06 to do my 500 mile change, not gonna do that now. Might even return the oil & forget doing them myself. Very sorry to hear your situation & the treatment you’ve gotten ☹️

Thanks guys for the advice and support so far. I will say, I am going to purchase my own oil and filters going forward but have the shop do the oil change. I can then attach the oil receipt to the service receipt.

after seeing this I will continue to use the dealer and the oil life monitor for my oil changes but perhaps do my diff and manual trans myself. Those are much less expensive items and less likely to fail.

As a follow up to my post #3, I decided since this oil is sometimes difficult for dealers to acquire, I'll go by & see if they will perform the oil change with my products for the free 500 miler. Return shipping on 12 qts. would be harsh!:ack:

I'm sorry to say it but this is why I still use the dealer to change the oil in any car I have that has a warranty. I just write it off as part of the cost of the warranty.

Very sorry this happened to you. I'd be pretty pissed off if it were me.

Sounds like a very unfortunate situation. This is the reason it’s always worth it to me to have my dealers service my vehicles while under warranty. I’ve never had an issue but its peace of mind for me.

Omfg.... all I have to say. Shame shame shame on them.

Something tells me they knew your car had been track raced and dont want to stand by their product.

You should make a question in the ask tadye section to the effect of "why GM isn't honoring the powertrain for tracked corvettes" and explain what happened and ask for an inquiry.

I bet you'll get the most interest of any question there is.

He will be forced to see it. That's messed up. Really messed up.

Makes you think twice about buying GM anything.

I am well aware that all manufacturers try to minimize payouts, but usually providing receipts for materials would be enough. Saying "well, we dont know WHEN you did the oil changes" is basically telling everyone "if you do any of your own maintenance then we are going to stick you with the bill if something breaks."

What sense does that make? Do you need sworn witnesses or videographic time stamped evidence of you doing the oil changes now? What about proof you indeed didn't just put half the oil in cause you want a new engine? You can create all sorts of dumb scenarios but thing is you shouldn't have to go that far to defend yourself. You know darn well if one of their techs forgot to fill up enough oil and you had catastrophic engine failure outside of warranty if you accused them of that they'd tell you that there was no proof they didn't perform the service properly.

I'm about a hair away from just walking from my new Z and going to BMW. I don't know that it is worth getting treated like a Chevy Sonic owner with an 85k dollar car when you have to interact with the brand representatives. Least Ms don't have peeling paint, every BMW dealer I have dealt with treats you like you are important, and while I'm certain they have denied warranty work before I bet they aren't this bad about telling people to pound sand.

Too bad the Vette is an icon tied to such a trash brand.

The receipts you sent had the date on them. Logically that would be the date you changed the oil. Tell them that and get in their face about. Get all mid-evil and mean about it in a polite way. If that makes sense.

Did you pay on a credit card if you did — dispute the charge on the credit card and tell the credit card company your working through the issue with the dealer and give them background on the detail of the situation. Other than that. There is not much else you can do. Lesson I learned is don’t pay for it and just be an ignorant son of a bitch in a polite wAy with them and go to the top at the dealership.

I am sorry to hear you had this problem. I suspect there is more to this story. This is not a big evil corporation doing something to you this is one (or more) people making a decision. I worked in warranty administration for one of the big three (when that was a thing) for years. To shut down someones warranty is not done lightly. Were your receipts hand written? Is there something you have not mentioned?

Assuming there is not some piece of information missing. I would do some research and find the name of Chevrolet's or GM's customer relations manager. You might CC the head of the division. Then send a certified letter (an old school paper letter) that states your case in a succinct and professional manner. I would mention that there is no where in the owners manual that states you can not change your own oil, nor is there a section that states how it must be documented if you do. In the letter I would ask for a reason in writing the engine was not covered under warranty.

This will set off some mechanism's within GM. The person you send it to will likely never read it but they have people who will bring up the whole case and review it. Scrutiny will be given to it from another perspective. The head of customer relations or someone high up will be forced to give the situation scrutiny and perhaps make a decision more in your favor.

I was directly responsible for warranty decisions of this nature in 50 dealerships for several years. In all cases the customer always got the benefit of the doubt. It was easier to pay the claim than to deny it, significantly easier which is why I question the story.
In all that time I denied one engine failure. The oil was obviously not changed in over 20,000 miles. The car was a disaster, I did not want to sit in it to get the mileage it was so gross. Is was loaded, packed in with trash. The oil was mud.

GM does not deny claims for fun, nor do they do it lightly with no substantial reason. I'd like to hear how this turns out, people revisit this when there is a conclusion.

Good Luck,
Bill

I would be willing to bet GM paid your dealer 100% for the warranty repair and your $5400 went directly into the dealers pocket as profit. Pretty screwed up. I can't see GM telling the dealer you needed to come up with $5400 and they would cover the rest. GM will either cover it or they won't.

I kinda agree. What didn't GM exactly cover?

Not true
 

Warranty deals are made all the time in my day they called it policy or customer good will. Warranty is audited, a $5000 cheat would be easy to spot especially knowing he is going to contact CR. They have easy access to warranty records. People seem to think dealers are lying scumbags. I assure you that is not the case. They are like any other business. Their inventory and overhead is big which people do not consider.

Wow, this is super awesome support from everyone. Thanks for all the well wishes and support to everyone.

There were a couple of questions and issues raised.
Q. What condition were the receipts.
A. The receipts were recorded through my Walmart account. I was able to PDF the receipts. The oil filters were from Amazon so I was able to PDF those as well. The dates were clearly marked.

Q. How do I know the dealership didn't make up the $5,400?
A. I worked with a GM rep as well and they reiterated the same story. Also it would have been caught when I filled the BBB Autoline case.

Comments on changing my own oil:
I totally agree and will be using the dealership going forward. I didn't change my own oil because of cost savings. I did it because it got my mind off work and other stress. It also got me outside when the weather is nice. While I can't say changing oil itself is fun, it was the distraction from other stress I was after.

As Alice said in “Alice in Wonderland “—“curiouser and curiouser “!

Good to know. It is hard for me to imagine that all of the lying and cheating that happens on the sales floor doesn't go to the service department. After it is all under the same roof and management.

Wow...that is not a good story. Sorry to hear your incident and I have nothing to offer...but it backs up my position why I don't track expensive street cars...they are street cars not race cars (a guy who owned a Porsche 997 TT with 700 WHP and is considering buying a '16 Z06 vert).

I've been on the forum for many years. I can't claim to have read every post regarding engine issues but I've read a bunch. This is the first I can recall where the customer was given shi$ about doing their own oil changes. Just saying....

Has anyone ever seen where GM claims you can't change your own oil and what does or doesn't constitute sufficient documentation & receipts?