Drivetrain Failure

10.0

really awful
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
90,000 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. not sure (1 reports)
2009 Buick Enclave drivetrain problems

drivetrain problem

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2009 Buick Enclave Owner Comments

problem #1

Sep 082018

Enclave CXL 3.6L V6

  • Automatic transmission
  • 90,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Drivetrain requires replacement & 10 days out of warranty. GM DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT and not honor their warranties. Though the dealership a year earlier could have solved the problem by being honest with me, it turned out a myriad of problems I was having was because of the drivechain; which was 7 days out of warranty when we tried to book the dealership repair. SEVEN. GM customer service refused to be any help of any kind, leaving me with a car requiring over $5,000 in repairs. I was lied to on several occasions by GM dealerships and have lost all trust in GM.

A year ago, my car was idling extremely rough, and it would lose power on acceleration. I took it to Midas, and they said that at 76,000 miles (roughly 25,000 under normal) the car's computer was reporting back that the timing was off on the spark plugs, making the spark plugs misfire. Being a recent second owner of the car, I assumed it have been previously driven hard, and I paid to have the spark plugs replaced. A month later though, the problem came back.

Giving up on Midas, I then took it to a reputable local mechanic who said that the spark plugs were still bad and that the real problem was because it was low on oil. He replaced the oil and re-did the spark plug timing. My mechanic had no answer from the car's diagnostic why the spark plugs were misfiring as the ECU gave no other reason why there would be a problem.

Concerned, I called my local GM dealership in Renton who said that I could take it into them but that I would likely receive the same diagnostic data from the car that I already paid for, and it was likely, not worth bringing in since they told me that THERE WERE NO RECALLS on record for anything with the Enclave, and the car was now working so don't worry about it.

After regularly getting the oil changed every 3,000 miles, where the ECU was checked each time, the car began a month ago to yet again lose power when accelerating. Taking it back to the mechanic, the ECU reported back that the car's timing chain was needing replacement and that I needed to take it to the dealership because an extended warranty covered it. The dealership in Tacoma that I then took the car to, on the other hand, said that the warranty was for 10 years or 120k miles, whichever comes first- and is only available IF the ECU comes back with a timing chain fault. My car has 90k and according to GM out of warranty, by seven days.

Anomaly? No. GM Does not care about their customers. The same thing happened to me a year earlier with the catalytic converter warranty that was over by 350 miles. Just today, I was lied to by the dealership who told me that the brakes were close to needing replacement. They were replaced a week prior. GM said that since I didn't take it into a dealership to be repaired, they had no intention of honoring the warranty, which is a lie since that is not what the warranty states. T

The loss of oil? That can happen from a drive chain slipping and heating up the oil too hot. The spark plugs burning out too soon? That can happen from the drive chain also. However, since the ECU assessment didn't point to the source of those problems AND the dealership never mentioned the extended warranty issue to me when I called, I was misled, wasted money and now have a lemon. Thanks, GM. You lost a customer.

Update from Sep 21, 2018 After denial, anger and bargaining, I have gone through the 5 stages of grief and decided to trade in my GM Junk and get myself a Toyota Highlander.

- Jason L., Renton, WA, US

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