My car repair ordeal......a fun tale to share.
Car repairs......NEVER FUN......omg such a pain!
The Traverse is a 2010, nearly 200,000 miles on it and starting to have transmission issues.......so I'm on the fence about fixing anything, but not ready to buy anything right now.
I need to make it last a bit longer, so when the "Service Stabilitrack" nonsense started flashing on the dash I ignored it. A week later the "Traction Control Off" started flashing along with the "Service Stabilitrack" mess. A couple days ago the turn signal started flashing quickly when I use it so I figured a bulb was out. Then the check engine light came on. So, Monday afternoon I dropped it off at the repair shop. I knew they wouldn't get to it Monday, but I figured I'd be in the first bunch for Tuesday.
I told the guy its probably the struts or some such with the front end because I noticed a "wub wub wub" type sound when I turned coming from the front area and all the lights seemed to be tire/suspension-ish area related problems. Who knows what the check engine light is.....but not long ago I had an 02 censor code according to the oil change guy, but the light went back off so I didn't tend to it.
I haven't heard anything......so I stop by there while out getting lunch. This is when I am told they have ordered a brake light switch and that is what they think will fix everything. Yep, my car is sitting there with some problems that they haven't even begun to address because they believe some brake light switch is going to fix everything. Three days.......its been there (two and one half really) and nothing is fixed and it sounds like they don't know wth they are doing either.
I'm going to go NUTS before this is over. If they call me and say the brake light didn't fix the front end issues and they want to keep it for another week I'm going to burn the place down.....not really......I will be imagining it though.
The Traverse is a 2010, nearly 200,000 miles on it and starting to have transmission issues.......so I'm on the fence about fixing anything, but not ready to buy anything right now.
I need to make it last a bit longer, so when the "Service Stabilitrack" nonsense started flashing on the dash I ignored it. A week later the "Traction Control Off" started flashing along with the "Service Stabilitrack" mess. A couple days ago the turn signal started flashing quickly when I use it so I figured a bulb was out. Then the check engine light came on. So, Monday afternoon I dropped it off at the repair shop. I knew they wouldn't get to it Monday, but I figured I'd be in the first bunch for Tuesday.
I told the guy its probably the struts or some such with the front end because I noticed a "wub wub wub" type sound when I turned coming from the front area and all the lights seemed to be tire/suspension-ish area related problems. Who knows what the check engine light is.....but not long ago I had an 02 censor code according to the oil change guy, but the light went back off so I didn't tend to it.
I haven't heard anything......so I stop by there while out getting lunch. This is when I am told they have ordered a brake light switch and that is what they think will fix everything. Yep, my car is sitting there with some problems that they haven't even begun to address because they believe some brake light switch is going to fix everything. Three days.......its been there (two and one half really) and nothing is fixed and it sounds like they don't know wth they are doing either.
I'm going to go NUTS before this is over. If they call me and say the brake light didn't fix the front end issues and they want to keep it for another week I'm going to burn the place down.....not really......I will be imagining it though.
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Sounds like you took it to the wrong auto repair shop. 
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I would look at the CV joints if they have never been replaced.
How about the spark plugs and power packs?
Have the transmission fluid changed and a new filter.
I don't know if you know it but the Traverse is one of the worst cars GM made.
Look at a Subru or a Honda ridgeline.
I hope you didn't take it to a Tire shop like Firestone they are the worst ripoff places around.0 -
I hear ya, Our Lovely.
A week or so ago, I dropped my kayak while loading it, and creased the lift gate of my Toy Highlander. I'd have ignored it, but it broke the paint seal - and that would lead to rust. So I took it to my usual body shop (Usual meaning I go there about every 15 years.) I get a bid, call my insurance company, and they tell me that I can't use that shop, but I can use the other shop of the same name, located a mile away. Owned by the same people, same name. But one is under the insurance company's "approved" list and one is not. And the second shop's bid is HALF the first one. Again SAME shop, SAME owner, SAME name. WTF, over?
It should be done tomorrow, which is also when my rental car is supposed to expire. We'll see...0 -
Mr. Goodwrench went of vacation years ago and rumor has it he is in China. 0 -
Sam06 wrote:I would look at the CV joints if they have never been replaced.
How about the spark plugs and power packs?
Have the transmission fluid changed and a new filter.
I don't know if you know it but the Traverse is one of the worst cars GM made.
Look at a Subru or a Honda ridgeline.
I hope you didn't take it to a Tire shop like Firestone they are the worst ripoff places around.
A couple different places have told me not to change the fluid in the transmission with it giving me issues because it will most likely cause it to go out completely. It sticks in low gear every once in a while....not very often or regularly enough to scare me that I'll break down. It gets up to 40 mph and just will not go out of 3rd gear or whatever it is. You have to pull over and put it in park and then its fine. There are no other real problems with the trans other than this. If it were a daily thing I'd be nervous.....but it just happens out of nowhere.
I'm hoping to make it until the end of the year at least. I'd REALLY like to have my mother's small estate sold so I'll be able to put that little amount of money toward whatever my next vehicle is. I hate buying cars, so I'm putting it off until I just HAVE to do it. If my repairs cost less than $3,000 I'll just bite the bullet and fix this one so I can deal with this whenever I'm more ready to.0 -
I love these stories...American junk and incompetent service.
100 miles from home when one of my Crown Vics stopped. Just stopped! Turned over but would not fire. I had it towed to the nearest Ford garage. They said they could not get to it for 2 weeks due to a backlog.
So what to do? I rented a car and drove home. My wife followed me back a couple days later in the other Crown Vic to return the rental.
Finally the Ford place called - my car was repaired. We drove the 100 miles to get it.
They said the fuel pump fuse was blown so they replaced it.
That was it -- replaced the blown fuse!
I was an electronics technician for 35 years and I don't recall but a single time that I investigated a blown fuse that it did not blow from a circuit problem (fuse fatigue?).
I could not get the service manager or mechanic (technician?) to understand, SOMETHING MADE AN OVER CURRENT CONDITION TO BLOW THE FUSE!
They kept repeating, "Yer good to go".
It only failed one more time (I replaced the blown fuse then took it home) before tearing into the wiring. I found a loose fuel pump wire on the bottom of the engine bay fuse panel. When it touched the metal base it shorted to ground blowing the fuse. I cleaned up all loose wires and connections.
Moral of the story? I now own my last 2 Fords and I try to do all my own work.0 -
not saying you are wrong BUT i have a friend with a late model tacoma. one day it lit up almost every light on the dash and that is a lot of lights. the trans wouldn shift out of 2nd gear and the 4 wheel drive would not work. turned out to be a loose connection on the fuel evaporation sensor for the gas tank. all im saying is with modern vehicles its almost impossible to make sense of all the lights that can appear on the dash for some simple problems. also get rid of the traverse you are was past the usable limits of that transmission. 0 -
With the new computer systems, they can diagnose the problem within less than one minute with the OBD2 tester. I'm sure they hooked it up to and OBD2 tester and that's all that's wrong with it.... 0 -
So they started with the least expensive thing possible?
Somewhere the glass is half full.0 -
Kasey, as much as you run around, moving guns, I truly hope you can get that traction control working again. 0 -
200K on any GM vehicle is time to face the inevitable. Sometimes we're not given a choice. My experience is this. In 2015 a transmission for a Honda Pilot cost 4K. At the dealer or an independent garage. I paid it. Not gladly. All because of an internal sensor. It was throwing a code for months. But did I pay any attention? 0 -
200,000 miles on a 9 year old ride? Dayum... What did the previous owner do visit all the states?0 -
yoshmyster wrote:200,000 miles on a 9 year old ride? Dayum... What did the previous owner do visit all the states?
A lot of it is me driving to locations to pick up gun collections. In less than a year we have driven to Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and Memphis several times. I drive to people and get their items to put on Gun Broker and all I charge are actual travel expenses (fuel and hotel room) because its safer and less costly than shipping a large number of items.0 -
Sam06 wrote:I would look at the CV joints if they have never been replaced.
How about the spark plugs and power packs?
Have the transmission fluid changed and a new filter.
I don't know if you know it but the Traverse is one of the worst cars GM made.
Look at a Subru or a Honda ridgeline.
I hope you didn't take it to a Tire shop like Firestone they are the worst ripoff places around.
I had a 2009 Traverse that I traded in last year. The only problem I had was the timing belt issue that GM fixed and extended the warranty on. I looked at most of the options for SUVs and found problems with all of them. Some dangerous and some just irritating. Right now it looks like it is a toss up -
It seems all brands have their problems. The Ridgeline recall because if you take it to a car wash it can cause a fuel leak and burn up is a doozy. Bob0 -
Had a similar situation with my H3 hummer with the stabiltrack alarm/alert on my dashboard. Turned out there was a short circuit the GM tech discoverd at the stealership.
How he found it was miraculus to me. The fix charge was also nominal and even more wonderous.0 -
bustedknee wrote:I love these stories...American junk and incompetent service.
Yep that damned old American junk that's only got about 200,000 miles on it and probably never had the transmission fluid changed. You just can't get anything made in a America anymore that's worth a crap. :roll:
My Chevy truck will probably need it's spark plugs changed out at just 125,000 miles. The nerve of those people putting out a vehicle that needs it's spark plugs changed at 125,000 miles. That's the last one I'll buy. :roll:0 -
We're pretty good about the maintenance on things around here. We've got a couple "oil change" type shops that handle simple things.....but are too busy with those things that they don't do big repairs or things that involve major tear down things. I had one guy that I used for everything, but he worked on my A/C and not long after we lost the heat on the passenger side. I don't know if that was due to anything he did or not, but I just can't bring myself to use him again after that. My tire guys are great people too. They have done all kinds of work over the years. All the electronics and codes that you can't read unless you've got a super expensive machine to see are what keep a lot of the shops from being able to handle some things.
The Traverse is back. It doesn't have any lights on the dash (for now) and the switch was $95. We will see if everything lights back up when I get it out tomorrow.0 -
My Lincoln LS is a nice mid sized 4 door traditional American sport sedan with a trunk (full size spare) and a hood (small block V8) and rear wheel drive - automatic transmission...
It's a 2004 and has under 54,000 miles - and was a special order car - optioned out by a senior Ford dealership technician who was retiring...
They don't make the car anymore - they don't make the engine anymore - and while I like the car there is a 3 year period of manufacturing where Ford put a bunch of oddball components into them that either were being discontinued or were left over or were borrowed from other Ford Lincoln mercury and Mazda vehicles whose production runs were ending - being replaced by completely new platforms that carries over nothing from previous runs...
Mine has been relatively problem free and was maintained to a ridiculous standard by the retired Ford tech until he passed away - everything done at a Ford dealership with factory parts...
I had to replace the exhaust (not a spot of rust on the car anywhere but the exhaust system corroded and dissolved) from the cats back (a true dual exhaust system) and not a single Ford family brand dealership in north America had the parts...
I had to have a mild aftermarket performance exhaust installed which worked out okay...
The rear differential seal was leaking and I had it replaced - the replacement promptly leaked (turns out the seals were defective) which worked out okay and I got the chance to upgrade to positraction (which turned out to be a relatively cheap and easy modification)
Obtaining a cabin air filter and replacing it proved problematic as nobody makes it and it does not interchange with any other vehicle - and you have to damn near pull the dash apart to get at it - finally found one online from K&N supposed to last 10 years or 100,000 miles - so that worked out okay and I got to upgrade the engine with a cold air induction / ram air K&N filter system...
The trunk lid led brake light strip had several bulbs go dark - and I got lucky and obtained a used / salvaged one in perfect shape - which failed within 3 months (turned out to be a wiring harness issue - needed another light assembly and the wiring replaced)
The dash had two warning lights that kept coming on - a check oil light and an engine light...
Turns out nothing wrong with the engine or the oil related systems - but again a sensor and wiring harness failure or defect that kept throwing codes - so that got fixed...
The passenger seat heating element no longer works - not a fuse or wiring issue it just will not function - and I left it that way (the leather would have to come off the seat and the seat would have to come out of the vehicle)
The turn signal switch failed - apparently a common failure and we swapped that out...
Don't get me wrong I paid less than $5,000 for the car and it has never stranded me - but getting it shaken down and fixed up was annoying and frustrating - time consuming and a royal pain...
It sounds better now with the exhaust - and has more power due to the exhaust and the filter charger - it's fun to drive and has just enough extra power to remind you that it's somewhat sporty - and handles pretty well...
But tracking down and resolving these little issues was no fun.
Also did wilwood brake pads and toyo tires and rain X wipers...
It's somewhat plain and unobtrusive but I enjoy it.
It did sit in the shop quite a bit waiting on fixing things in the beginning.
Mike0 -
Locust Fork wrote:Sam06 wrote:I would look at the CV joints if they have never been replaced.
How about the spark plugs and power packs?
Have the transmission fluid changed and a new filter.
I don't know if you know it but the Traverse is one of the worst cars GM made.
Look at a Subru or a Honda ridgeline.
I hope you didn't take it to a Tire shop like Firestone they are the worst ripoff places around.
A couple different places have told me not to change the fluid in the transmission with it giving me issues because it will most likely cause it to go out completely. It sticks in low gear every once in a while....not very often or regularly enough to scare me that I'll break down. It gets up to 40 mph and just will not go out of 3rd gear or whatever it is. You have to pull over and put it in park and then its fine. There are no other real problems with the trans other than this. If it were a daily thing I'd be nervous.....but it just happens out of nowhere.
I'm hoping to make it until the end of the year at least. I'd REALLY like to have my mother's small estate sold so I'll be able to put that little amount of money toward whatever my next vehicle is. I hate buying cars, so I'm putting it off until I just HAVE to do it. If my repairs cost less than $3,000 I'll just bite the bullet and fix this one so I can deal with this whenever I'm more ready to.
Had a problem like that once and didn't want to spend big $$$ to rebuild the tranny. I dumped in a can of STP and drove it for years without ever another problem. The STP 'slicked' up the valve body so it would change gears like designed to do. 8-)0 -
I picked it up......no lights on the dash so far and I've driven it a few times expecting everything to start chiming and blinking away, but it hasn't yet.
The little noise is still there in the turns and it has a little vibration if you go over 65mph. I'm not trying for perfect with this many miles on it......so I'm ok with going under 65 if I have to. I'm still not convinced that repairing that one break switch fixed everything and I am guessing that they cleared the codes with the computer and it will eventually all light up again. I could be wrong.
If I can get this to last a while longer I'll be in a better position to buy something later......I say that, but is anyone EVER in a "good" position when buying any automobile???0 -
Sounds like it's time to dust off the Camaro. 0 -
Kasey, the issues other than the check engine light can be easily traced to a faulty brake light switch. The entire system is computer controlled and not seperate circuits like we think.
Stabilitrack, ABS and traction control are all linked together via computer and if your brake light switch is malfunctioning yes it is 100% possible for it to affect the entire system.
Now this is just a guess and this comes from working on heavy trucks that are computer controlled, if you have enough codes generating and repeating it can trigger a generic check engine light as a way to draw attention to the issues.0 -
Not only repair shops have these expensive diagnostic machines to find problems, but several auto parts stores have them as well.
Here in my area, Auto Zone will hook up their equipment to a troubled vehicle and diagnose the trouble for free. They make their money on parts and many times I have saved big bucks fixing several of these modern day computer issues easy peasy!0 -
Big Sky Redneck wrote:Kasey, the issues other than the check engine light can be easily traced to a faulty brake light switch. The entire system is computer controlled and not seperate circuits like we think.
Stabilitrack, ABS and traction control are all linked together via computer and if your brake light switch is malfunctioning yes it is 100% possible for it to affect the entire system.
Now this is just a guess and this comes from working on heavy trucks that are computer controlled, if you have enough codes generating and repeating it can trigger a generic check engine light as a way to draw attention to the issues.
Cool to know......I figure its just my ornery old lady nature that wants to find something to complain about that is the real problem here.0
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