Well I am a big advocate of the Magnuson Act and I may have to use it this time.


I took my truck in to the dealer to have them fix the squeek in my steeing for the second time. The first time I took it in they said it was coming from the driver side A-arm where the tie rods connect and they also said that the boot for the grease was bone dry. The truck has 13,000 miles on it and I know for a fact that I greased it.


After they greased it there was no change and the mechanic had made a comment about the torsion bars being cranked. Great. After I greased it three times there was still no change. So in it goes for the second time and showed them the TSB for the stearing colum and they said they have known about this problem.


I get a call back from them saying they are refusing warrenty work due to the torsion bars being cranked up. This causes stress on the steering parts and that is why I am hearing the squeek. I might add I only hear it when I turn to the right and it is just as loud in the cab as it is standing outside next to the driverside front wheel.


I have heard alot of complaints about people fixxing or having the steering shaft bearings fixxed and then having the noise come back again later on. Do any of you think by cranking the bars that the steering components are altered and that this may be the reason why we are having these problems?

That's a bunch of http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley35.gif. Your dealer is tough I'd find some where else to buy and have your truck serviced,let them know just that.


The steering shaft bearing failure or noise has nothing to do with torsion bar adjustment. There have been TSB's on the subject.


Mac

I replaced my inner tie rod ends after 70,000 miles or so, just BEFORE cranking up the t-bars and bolting on a set of H2 wheels/tires. I took it in for an alignment check before doing anything because it was starting to feel sloppy, they found over 1/4" slop in each side. When I removed the old ones, they were dry like yours and I KNOW I had been pumping grease in to them each oil change plus the dealer performed the LOF until I passed 36,000 miles just to keep the warranty in effect - and we know they wouldn't miss a zerk!!! And, when I put the new ones on, I had to pump the grease gun many times to get the boot full of grease.


Dunno where the old grease went.


Several here have had suspension parts wear out too quickly - and their t-bars were as set from the factory.


By the squeak I would think your tie rod ends are shot. Did you check for play/slop in the joints? They're a ball n socket arangement that can wear a bunch before coming apart, but you'll get sore arms trying to herd the truck down the road...


Like Mac says, go somewhere else.

ak - after working at a chevy dealership, I can tell you this..your dealer basically blows goats...Our service department reguarly turned up customer's torsion bars before they even took delivery of the truck....find another dealer, and make sure you fill out your customer survey from this dealership "completely" if you know what I mean....

The only way that GM would have any information that they could deny
your warranty on is if the dealer told them! Like they said - the
dealer is being hard-nosed, find another & don't forget the survey
card!

AK- I also had the dry joint problem. I found a synethetic grease made by Royal Purple that works very well. The grease was developed to lubricate under sea oil rigs. This grease stays on joints longer and has a patented additive which makes very slipery. I also used it on boat trailer wheel bearings and it has stayed in place for two years.

akdiesel,



What a load of $hit! If I had a dealer tell me that, I just start
laughing and tell him to fix the f&cking thing before I got really
p!ssed.



monty,



Any more info on that Royal Purple greezy grease?



Thanks,

Dennis

Thanks for the replies. I am going over today to talk with the manager and let them know if I have to pay for it I want to watch the repair work being done (so that they do not replace something that they said was not the reason just to get it fixxed). If the repair work does not correct the problem I will have had him sign paper work saying that the origanl repair performed will be repaid in full if the repair does not cure the problem and they will repair the truck under their cost.


I don't know if this will fly. The closest GMC dealer is about 250 miles away. I want to try and get it done here if possible and if not I will definatly let them know they lost mine and any other future sales from any of my freinds or who ever happens to listen to me bad mouth them.


I did not know RP had some grease like that. I will have to get some. Thanks.

So it is an audible squeek? I didn't have that, but I did have the rattle and Aurora in Fairbanks changed the intermediate shaft and I haven't had any problems since. I hope the GMC dealer down there will take care of it. If not, Aurora has been the best dealership that I have dealt with besides the one in my home town. (my dad knows the owner) Keep us posted...I just want to make sure just in case I have the same problem down the road.

What a bunch of CRAP!


I'd be freaking out on them in front of anybody that could listen. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley7.gif


The people I deal with for any of my toys, know better than to even think about running that chit by me.

What dealership? AK Sales (& no service) or Lithia? My t-bars are cranked too. My last two trucks from Lithia/Tony's never had a problems so I don't really know if our dealers are any good or not.

Ok, update,


I talked to the gm at Alaska Sales and we had a fairly good talk.


He said that because I cranked the bars the warrenty work to replace the tie rod pins was not going to be covered. I mentioned that I had taken the truck in to get the TSB work on the steering shaft done. And that the grease zerks (all eleven of them) have been greased at least four times with no change in the squeek sound at all.


He did ask if I wanted them to grease the ball joint again, but I said it wont change a thing and I asked if I had the steering shaft work done that it would be covered. He said it would be and I am schedualed to have it done. He also offered to pull some stock tires off another truck and lower my bars to see if that would change anything. I thought about it, but I decided to go with the steering shaft first. He does sound like he is trying to work with me for the most part, but also mentioned that if I had to bring it in for any tranny work they would not cover that either UNLESS I put on a set a set of the stock size tires. I kind of expected that remark.


He mentioned that a GM rep is coming up in two weeks and I could talk with him, but he also stated that if the rep sees my truck with the bars cranked and larger tires they COULD black ball my vin # from any warrenty work in the future. I would like to avoid this issue if possible.


There was also the possible cause of the squeek sound to be the ball joinst rubbing on some metal and not riding in the correct possition of the socket it was designed for.


Sorry for the lengthy report, but maybe this will help others out.


For the most part I would say the local dealership has been doing their best. I get very defensive when someone says that I can not do something with my own personal property. But like I said we had a fairly good talk and we will see if this is resolved.


And on a side note the steering shaft replacement is on back order for up here also and I don't see us getting it any time soon. He did say that it is not a recall but it is a known fact that there is a problem with it. The old ones have a problem with keeping the grease since it is a telescoping shaft which is cycling in and out for the correction of the roads. The newer ones are a tighter disign and I think they have a sleeve that takes up a lot of the slack that was causeing the rattle.

Good to hear that they are working with you. Hopefully the
steering shaft will fix the problem. It does seem that this
dealership is a little unreasonable, or at least to hardline. Too
bad there isn't anything closer for you. With 13k on it already
you won't have to worry about warranty work too much longer,. . . just
about four years at the rate you're goinghttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley5.gif



Good Luck,

Dennis

Well hopefully you will be able to get it fixed and not have to worry about warranty issues. I am not sure where I see the action that would have voided the warranty..Good luck...

Thanks for reporting your experience. These things are important to resolve, and being humble goes a long way (kinda like the dentist telling you to smile big after a 40,000 root canal.)

Good luck!

Well to update you on the work done to my truck.
Took the truck in today for the Steering Shaft Lube TSB work. Took about 30 minutes to do the job. Picked up the truck from sitting outside for about 3 hours and guess what... No Squeek. I guess the old saying is true. The Customer Is Always Right.
I drove the truck home for about 10 miles just to make sure even after warming up. And still no squeek.
This whole thing would have been avoided if they would have just listened to me the first time I took it in, requesting the steering shaft be looked at or lubed. But after three attemps (this being the third). And yes even when I took it in this time they did not have me on the list for repair work and asked how I was going to pay for this. You can imagine what was going through my mind at that time. The GM that I had talked to a couple of days earlier did not put me on the list like he was suppose to.

I am not sure if the squeek is an early sign of the rattle that most are experiencing or not. I never had the rattle. One more thing that I forgot to mention that made this whole thing sound funny when they told me it was my ball joints was that when they lifted the truck off of the wheels the squeek went away. If it was the ball joints the angle of the joints and the tie rods would have been even more of an angle and you would think that if that was the case it would still squeek.
Well I am off of my soap box for now. I hope this helps out others in the future.
Oh and just to reiterate, the work was done under warrenty.

This is so "par" for the course. It's like you have to make him believe it was his idea, then they become heros. Don't forget the dealer questionaire(s). Rip em a new one or it will never change. I went through the same thing to get a TSB performed, wasted 8 hours of my life over 3 visits and 2 months. First 2 visits, I beat the crap out of the questionaire, when they finally aquiesced, they got the 3rd "glowing" report. Total hoars. For my time ($) I would have been better off just paying for it, that's the shame of it.

Never cave to dealer intimidation. Because there is no money in warranty work, they will try to chase you away with whatever excuse they can scrape off the curb. -:t

I am waiting for the paperwork. I did get a call from (I guess the dealership) asking how my second visit was. I let them know.

The steering shaft usually doesn't squeak, but the boot that it passes through on the firewall can get squeaky. They slid that greasy SOB in and out of there when they replaced the shaft, that is probably what fixed the squeak. I usually spray silicone spray down there, and it is gone.

There is a warning sticker on the back of the t-bar crossmember. It says not to exceed spec on the X height adjustment IIRC. I'd ask them if they measured it to be beyond this limit or not...