— A "Chevy shake" lawsuit alleges aluminum drive shafts cause the following vehicles to violently vibrate while driving highway speeds.
- 2015 to present Cadillac Escalade
- 2014 to present Chevrolet Silverado
- 2015 to present Chevrolet Suburban
- 2015 to present Chevrolet Tahoe
- 2014 to present GMC Sierra
- 2015 to present GMC Yukon/Yukon XL
According to the proposed class action lawsuit, customers report the Chevy shake completely went away once the aluminum drive shafts were replaced with custom-made steel driveshafts.
The plaintiff claims General Motors failed to tell consumers about the dangerous shaking caused by the driveshafts, or what the automaker also refers to as propeller shafts. The plaintiff also claims GM should have recalled the vehicles long ago because of the Chevy shake, but continues to conceal the alleged defects to keep the money flowing in.
In addition, customers report Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC dealerships also make multiple unnecessary and expensive repairs that do nothing to fix the vibrations.
Florida plaintiff Douglas Weiss purchased a new 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and experienced the Chevy shake within a year when the truck had about 12,000 miles on it, well within GM’s bumper-to-bumper and powertrain warranties. Weiss says his truck violently shakes when it reaches about 70 mph and shakes strongest in the range of 75-80 mph.
In April 2018, he took the Silverado 1500 to Firestone for replacement of the tires, rotors, brakes, realignment and re-rounding of the rims. The repairs cost $2,132.43, but the plaintiff claims the shake continued.
Weiss says he took the truck back to Firestone in July 2018 where it underwent a realignment and tire re-balancing, but the shake allegedly continued.
In December 2018, he returned to Firestone for another evaluation but nothing could be done and the technician allegedly said the shake is widespread in certain Chevy vehicles.
Mr. Weiss says he made an appointment with the dealership and was told there was a $160 fee for troubleshooting the truck, so he left it there for two days and paid $50 for a rental vehicle. The GM service advisor allegedly told Mr. Weiss the problem was the brake rotors, but the plaintiff knew those had already been replaced.
After a week, the GM dealership informed him the vibration was caused by his brakes and tests showed the vibration to be “within the normal limits of road vibration.”
According to the lawsuit, General Motors refused to honor its warranty and instead completely denied the Chevy shake was a common widespread problem.
Customers have allegedly overpaid for their vehicles because the automaker refuses to fix the violent vibrations even though service bulletins have been sent to dealerships.
Technical service bulletin PI1354 allegedly admitted the driveshafts may have been the source of vibration complaints. GM told technicians there have been many cases of dented propeller shafts, a problem that required replacement of the driveshafts.
However, the lawsuit alleges nothing was fixed because GM replaced the defective aluminum driveshaft with another defective driveshaft.
The plaintiff says the service bulletin has been updated at least 10 times, the last time in February 2019 and titled, “#PI1354I - Information on Vibration Analysis and Diagnostic.”
But according to the lawsuit, customers continue to experience the Chevy shake without the automaker reimbursing customers for out-of-pocket expenses.
The Chevy shake lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami - Douglas Weiss, et al., v. General Motors LLC.
The plaintiff is represented by Cory Watson, and Migliaccio & Rathod.
