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Don't hate me because ....

1542 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by rcg530, Sep 3, 2004

rcg530

Discussion Starter · Aug 25, 2004 (Edited)

August 23, 2004 will go down as a very sad day in my automotive life. After a long series of visits to the service department, the dealership's owner, general manager and I agreed that a GM buyback of my 2003 SSR is the next course of action. :banghead

I cannot tell you how sad/angry I am with this situation. I ABSOLUTELY love the SSR when it's driving well and deciding to have a low audio volume on the roof/bed/somewhere rattles.

The last service department situation is the one that really bites. I took my SSR in on 8/23/2004 to have the service department figure out why my 1st-to-2nd gear shifting is getting VERY harsh. They had it all day, then claimed they could not reproduce it. They attached a VDR (data capture unit) and I promptly went out and warmed up the engine/tranny and produced four harsh shifts very easily. I dropped the VDR off at the service department that evening. I went there today (2 days later) and the service rep stated the VDR shows "nothing abnormal". So, I asked the rep if it's GM and this service department's opinion that my harsh shifting (which I've demonstrated to them) is "normal". The response was "Yes". :cuss

I've never been so angry/frustrated/sad about a vehicle in my entire life. I love the SSR (I TRULY DO) but it appears this one is not going to make anyone happy.

I've had a few new vehicles, in the recent past, that had several quality problems after purchase. I've been able to work with the service departments of each selling dealership to resolve those issues (and for some vehicles there were a LOT of issues). This is the only time there seems to be no plan on how to get to a solution for most of the problems. I ended up having to call GM to update my case to state the service department is now denying warranty repairs.

Roof tonneau cover aliignment problems after hinge replacement
Extremely rough engine idle (no DTC values)
Extremely annoying rattle behind passenger seat (roof storage area/bed?)
Drive shaft noise (on second drive shaft) and it's getting loud (no fix released yet)
HVAC blower motor noise on "2" and "1" as engine revs (no fix released yet)
Harsh 1st-to-2nd gear shifts (refuse to fix)
Bed lid cover no longer pops open (as it did when new) - poor opening is normal

I begged to hear another solution or another approach to attack the technical issues from the dealership's owner and general manager during our meeting on 8/23/2004, but they did not have one.

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· #2 · Aug 26, 2004

Keep Us Posted

Bummer!! After all said and done I think you should post the dealers name and location for others to stay away! In an environment we are in now, there is absolutely NO REASON for a dealers service dept. not to do whatever it takes to keep the new car buyer happy. I have been very fortunate with many, many new cars in the last 8-10 years and the only bad one from the beginning was a VW Toureg which I traded back in with 1000 miles for a Mercedes AWD Wagon that has had 0 problems. I was the first person to be fortunate enough to get their SSR back to the factory for some repairs (didn't trust my dealer with top adjustments) one of which was the same rattle you spoke of. Easy adjustment of a stop with top in the half way up position.

Good Luck and post your solution here. SSR's are here to stay according to a plant supervisor until the "turn of the decade" so have to think they can only get better!

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Flassh

· #3 · Aug 26, 2004

Hey, shiftz

Been following your saga for a while - sorry it doesn't seem to get any better for you. If you're getting a fair buyout, you might be in great shape for a mid-year 05, with the new door panels, and a 6 speed manual - then shift harshness is entirely up to you. :lol

At least you're not down on the SSR - hopefully the next purchase will be a happier one.

I'm itching for the 05 manual, but with the way the marketplace has gone into the tank in Canada, I don't have much hope of getting out of mine without losing a ton of money.

:mad

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rcg530

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 26, 2004 (Edited)

Thanks for listening guys!!!

realprowlerfan, the rattle "fix" you speak of is it an adjustment of the large rubber stopper on the front of the roof storage area? That's about the only thing that hasn't been adjusted on the roof. The rattle starts off soft and then (at times) gets loud enough that I have to raise the radio volume to try and cover it up. One Saturday night I was driving from the SF Bay Area back to Sacramento and the noise was so bad that all I wanted to do was take a baseball bat to the thing by the time I arrived home. :reddevil The SSR is my "daily driver" and it would be wonderful if I could attack this issue myself since the service department and a GM specialist (non SSR specialist) have no clue as to the source or a fix. I've spent so much time and effort looking for the source of this rattle, but since I'm always the driver I can never search for the darn thing while it's occuring. I wish it was as easy to quiet as the driver's side seat squeak (leather on center console plastic). I applied some of the felt, that I received from the Toyota dealership when I was working on my Sienna's problems, to the center console area at the point of contact and that noise was gone on day 2 of ownership.

I'll post dealership info when appropriate. I don't want anyone getting bent out of shape at this point in time if that info were posted. The only thing I'll state at this time is that it is a dealership in the greater Sacramento, CA region (not downtown).

The dealership owner and general manager have been respectful of my situation but that has not resulted in a responsive service department. After the first talk with the owner, the service manager seemed attentive but the last two weeks the service manager has become non responsive to any of my inquiries.

My CA personalized plate should be showing up in the next couple of weeks. I only hope I have a SSR to put it on.

And to top it off, my company's parent company just announced that they are shutting down my company and I'm getting laid off. This month just keeps getting better and better.....

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wildcat66

· #5 · Aug 26, 2004

Keep your spirits up! it must be very frustrating but there will be a bright side. I hope that the noise gets fixed soon.

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· #6 · Aug 26, 2004

shiftz33- Yes the rubber adjustment screw is what the factory easily adjusted on my truck when back to Lansing Assembly plant. I can't tell you which way to turn or how much, but this helped for a while as rattle came back so screw probably moved on mine. I was fearful of letting dealer play with adjustments and was lucky enough to have met a local worker at the assembly plant who arranged for my visit. Love my truck too, but being traded in, in the next week or so for new H2 SUT which I will use during the fall/winter and possibly replace next Spring with another Yellow 05 SSR. I will own another!!!

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rcg530

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 2, 2004

GM customer service rep that I spoke with on 8/23/2004 would never call me back. I left several voice mails but absolutely no response. Today, I called the 800 customer service number (and waited for 20 minutes) to speak with another customer service rep. This rep called the local dealership and found out that the service manager that I started having problems with, was let go and a new service manager started on 9/1/2004.

I decided to hold off on filing with the BBB Autoline (third step in buyback) since the new service manager stated he was willing to work on my problems.

While talking with the new service manager today, he located a bulletin on the harsh 1st-to-2nd gear shift problem I've been having for the last month or so with my SSR. Yes!!!!

I'm willing to give this service manager a try. I hope we can make some progress.!!

I mentioned to the new service manager the rattle problem and how realprolwerfan was able to get that issue resolved when a person or persons with the correct knowledge were working on it.

I don't want to get rid of my SSR unless they just can't fix these things. At least this service manager seems willing to tackle the issues. :thumbs

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freezer

· #8 · Sep 3, 2004

The heavy rattle that sounds like "loose lumber" can be fixed by adjusting the rubber stop on the main roof linkage. That sounds like what you have. If you open the toneau and look an the main roof linkage that is attached to the bulkhead behind the seats there is a large rubber bumper that should be pressing on a flat steel plate. All of this is part of the linkage near the large hydraulic cylinder. When the roof is up this bumper should be in firm contact with the plate. There is one on each side and both have to have pressure. You can apply heavy duty polypro tape to the plate rather than actually adjust the bumper to get the pressure. If you adjust it too tight the roof will not fully close.

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rcg530

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 3, 2004

Thanks freezer for the info. I'm going to leave things as they are for now. The GM regional rep is due out today (in theory) and I'm to have a meeting with him.

I've seen the rubber bumpers you're talking about. I've taken a point gap "feeler gauge" (0.005 inch) and I've been able to push that in between the stoppers and the hinge plate. The rubber ends up grabbing the feeler gauge at some point but I'm able to insert this far more than I should be able to if the stopper was fully against the plate.

There have been two rattles out of the roof area. Over heavy bumps the driver's side will sound like a metal-on-metal knock noise and the other one being the one that occurs behind the passenger side seat which sounds like plastic-on-metal flapping (when this one starts going it's SO annoying).

I truly appreciate the info. :thumbs

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