It let me down for the last time.......

[flusher]

This was blown way out of proportion. It was only on the first few model years of the trucks then fixed with new heads.

Chris

I agree--there was much over reaction.
Which years were the ones with the bad heads?

 

[timswi]

This was blown way out of proportion. It was only on the first few model years of the trucks then fixed with new heads.

Chris

Chris, there's still a ton of those out there. My buddy has a repair shop and sees a couple of these plug issues a month, along with the exhaust manifold bolts rotting off.

 

[nmu98]

I am sorry to hear about your trouble. My GMC has been BY FAR the best truck I have owned to date and knock wood, no trouble after a bit over 20,000 miles so far. This is not to say that lemons are not out there and you must have gotten one. This really surprises me as these trucks have generally been trouble free. My advice would be to pursue retribution from GM by talking with their regional rep (if you have not already). In the past, sadly all the domestic makers, but especially GM, have been very unlikely to make right bad cars to their customers. One of my co-workers and friends had a top line Tahoe that was similar to your truck--an obvious lemon. It was constantly in the shop and had left his wife stranded on multiple occasions. GM refused to help him, even though the SUV was in warranty. His dealer would take it in, try to fix it, fail, and then get it back to him. He ultimately had to retain legal counsel to fix it but he did ultimately get a replacement vehicle of equivalent trim. As physicians both he and I have a disdain for lawyers but after trying to handle this on his own it became clear he needed one. Perhaps with the desire to maintain viability GM might be better to work with now on this, but I suspect they will not. You know that if they traded you out you would likely have a nice truck as they really are quite trouble free.

Not that Ford does better, but if you went that way I have experience with the V10 engine in the 250. I can tell you that they do not do THAT badly on fuel unless pulling big loads. They have plenty of power and are really quiet and refined. Mine, which I had about two years would get 14-15 on highway, unloaded, and about 8 pulling. My dad's 150 with a 5.4L and two wheel drive gets about that pulling a smaller load and does not have the same power as the V10 did, so I generally tell people the V10 gets about the same mileage as any gas truck/engine Ford sells. It is true with 2010-11 MY the 6.2L is coming out. Though new to the market, it is not a new engine to Ford. They have been running and testing this engine for a long time and given the modular concept the engine line has been well-proven in other applications. I do not worry about the 6.2L reliability--usually the electronics are the snafu early on. I personally would find a V10 truck if you wanted to get one now.

My question is how are you going to come out financially here?? If you "unload" a poorly running truck you could risk being held accountable to some degree in a private sale, and certainly a dealer would not be pleased to take a lemon on a trade. They also have ways of checking service records via computer and this might set off a red flag for them. Either way it might be best to FULLY exhaust the means you have with GM before dumping the truck entirely. I suppose the other thing is that this truck might have something fairly simple wrong with it that has defied explanation. You might request the regional service "targetshooter" be asked to make one final evaluation of the truck and they might have some answers. They key here I think is to not let the frustration of the situation dictate a move which might be financially better served by riding it out a bit more. How many miles on your truck??? Also bear in mind if you can document the truck was brought in while under warranty for a service issue which has persisted unresolved through the warranty duration, the company has some obligation to make it right even if you are out of warranty. I have several examples of GM dealers doing this on a personal level, thus a precedent has been set there. Good luck, keep us posted.

John M

That is great advise. Right now I am concerned mostly about getting home, but I have made an appointment at the dealer at home and I have made contact with the service manager and he said he will do everything in his power to make this right. I have no clue what that is going to be, but I plan to fix this truck and not to dump it. My initial plans were to order a truck soon after i got home, but after doing some searching and reading on the 6.2, I decided to wait. I only tow 10,000 pounds about 6 times a year. Most of my towing is in the 7-8K area and that is mostly done in the summer. After sleeping on it, I know that I am going to take a bath in this truck due to the economy, so I don;t plan to rush into anything.

The Ford 6.2L gas engine will be the base V8 in the new Super Duty trucks. Debut is set for Spring 2010 when the 2011's are introduced. It is an evolution of the 5.4, not a clean sheet design.

The one thing I did not hear about was when the new truck was coming out. If it does come out in the summer of next year it would help me out! I will wait for a job 2 truck at a minimum, but I was almost feeling i was going to have to wait until 2012 to get the new motor. I am thrilled to hear thats not the case.

If this motor is proven ot not, if they can make it anything like the GM 6.2 I would be thrilled. My wifes Denali rocks for "fun" driving power and I thing with a good tranny and gears it would tow well also.

In the back of my mind, I think ford is positioning itself as the #1 auto maker in the US. I don't think they are going to skimp on the 6.2 as most of thier gas engines have never been noted for great fuel mileage.

The only thing the I do know right now is that this truck will not go on any long trips with the family anymore. I just cannot trust it. I have 40K on it and I know 2 local dealership workers on the first name basis and I have been stuck out of town twice......

 

[Diamondpilot]

The only thing the I do know right now is that this truck will not go on any long trips with the family anymore. I just cannot trust it. I have 40K on it and I know 2 local dealership workers on the first name basis and I have been stuck out of town twice......

Thats a shame. I know what you are going though. I went through the same thing with 2500 Hemi then followed by my 05 Dmax. We had to buy a Saturn so we had something to drive on road trips that we could trust. Our only other vehicle was a F-350 PSD Reg Cab 4x4, and did not have the room for the family. I traded the Dodge with a bad tranny and took a 7K bath but it was the best move I ever made getting my F-250. I traded the Dmax on a F-350 and took a bath also but not as bad. The Ford dealer really like getting people out of the competition so they made me a great deal.

All I can say about the V10 is my uncle has had 2 with absolutly zero issues. One was a 99 and his current is a 05. Both were 4x4 and the 99 had a plow on it. He sold it to a guy as a package and now pays him to do his plowing. He towed 15,000# weekly with the 99. His 05 tows 25,000# 4 times a year with no issues.

Chris

 

[swines]

The dealers got the new 2011 ordering guides on Monday of this week. Job 1 starts in February with delivery starting about mid-April for the new trucks.

The 6.2 liter is more than just an updated 5.4. It has two sparkplugs per cylinder, dual-equal variable cam timing, is large bore / short stroke design (over square), cast iron block with aluminum heads. Ford says the new "Boss V-8" (in reference to the over square designs of the 302 and 351 motors) is an all-new design. They've been running it in off-road truck races for the past year, and have been testing different versions of it since 2006. Ford has also tested a 7.0 liter version of the motor that ran on E85 fuel and produced over 800 hp...

 

[TheRegMan]

I also agree strongly with the points jcmseven made as well as your decision to get your truck fixed. They are nice vehicles and the dealer undoubtedly should be able to make it a reliable vehicle for you.

In the event you change your mind and get a different truck, I would recommend you take a look at the Powerstroke diesel. I have a 2008 F350 6.4L with 89k on it and it is still like new inside and out and has never given me a problem. It gets better milage than my previous 5.7L GMC Yukon did. I have gotten 18.9 on the highway and about do about 13 in town. As you would expect, loads of power and torque. Being an F350, everything on it is heavy duty so I expect it to last a long time.

Good luck to you!

 

[Cat_Driver]

I won't drive anything but diesel......until I bought a F250 with a V-10 4x4 at a steal.

My goodness does this thing have power. Mine had the utility box and is loaded with almost every tool I own so it's quite heavy and I use it as a daily driver.

My last two trucks were the Duramax 2004, and 2005 3500 dually and a great number hd over heating problems, that the dealer and GM says is NORMAL. OH REALLY an overheating engine on a new truck is NORMAL - yep.

The V-10 is a proven work horse for Ford.

Bye bye GM.

 

[jcmseven]

Again, as one of the people in the forum who has recently owned both Ford and GM trucks (2008 6.4L PSD King Ranch and current 2009 GMC 2500 Duramax) I can say they are both very solid machines. Each has an advantage in some areas, and weakness in others. The V10 is an excellent gasoline engine, but our OP will NOT feel it the equivalent of his GMC diesel truck. The other thing I have concern regarding is that there might not be too much wrong with this truck. Usually when something terminal happens, it does not take a diagnostic computer to find it. It is readily apparent even to a non-mechanic like me. I still feel with the information given our OP should insist that the regional troubleshooting team be brought in to look at the truck and that he wants it fixed before he gets it back--and he needs a loaner in the meantime. I know from experience the dealers have great variability in their ability to diagnose and repair problems. Our local GM dealer is pretty bad--bordering on terrible--but the dealership at which I bought my truck is great, with a fantastic service manager. It has been the best dealer with which I have worked, including Ford dealers and even the Acura and Mercedes dealers with whom I have worked on my wife's vehicles. These GM trucks with the Duramax engines just do not give much trouble. Despite being run in the ground by pullers, hotshotters, construction crews, etc., they just do not come in to dealerships often for unscheduled service. Though anecdotal, I personally know more than 50 private owners of these trucks and I cannot think of any that have had any significant service issues. My point here is that if a customer had a problem like this, or just a lemon truck, they would want to know about it. I do not think they are that busy and this case would be such an anomaly sheerly for interest the regional guys might wish to be involved. I would just hate for NMU98 to take a bath on a bad sale or trade, go into a gas engine which will not have the power to which he is accustomed, only to find out it was some $5.00 switch or sensor and the dealer just sold his truck at a $10,000 profit at his expense. That sounds like a bad option to me. I know his level of frustration is high--which I can understand--but now is the time when GM should be coming to bat for him. They might not care that much about the individual customer, but I can guarantee you they care about the competition and would be quite active in preventing someone from moving away. I would be very interested in hearing his results once this process is well-underway.

John M

 

[Dargo]

This was blown way out of proportion. It was only on the first few model years of the trucks then fixed with new heads.

Chris

Yeah, that's out of proportion just like 5 mpg with the V10 is. I did just sell my V10 6.8 powered vehicle because I just didn't need it. I only get slightly less mpg with the Cat C9, 9.3 liter, powered vehicle with an Allison 4000 ORS 6 speed behind it. I only have 350 hp, but I do get 1250 ft. lbs. of torque out of it. On my only run with it so far I only got about 9.8 mpg with it. Oh well...

 

[mjncad]

The dealers got the new 2011 ordering guides on Monday of this week. Job 1 starts in February with delivery starting about mid-April for the new trucks.

The 6.2 liter is more than just an updated 5.4. It has two sparkplugs per cylinder, dual-equal variable cam timing, is large bore / short stroke design (over square), cast iron block with aluminum heads. Ford says the new "Boss V-8" (in reference to the over square designs of the 302 and 351 motors) is an all-new design. They've been running it in off-road truck races for the past year, and have been testing different versions of it since 2006. Ford has also tested a 7.0 liter version of the motor that ran on E85 fuel and produced over 800 hp...

Am I correct that this new gasser also has direct fuel injection?