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Motor threw a rod

16K views 116 replies 38 participants last post by  Maco504 
#1 ·
Bought 09 cts v from a dealer 2 months ago. When bought car had a tune headers exhaust air intake and under factory warranty and I also bought an extended warranty. Neither warranty wants to cover it owner of dealership doesn't know what to do. What's your opinion?
 
#2 ·
Having a tune will void the power train warranty. Changing parameters in the ECM is a no-no for GM.GM can't control what a tuner does and will not usually make good on any power train issue once the ECM has been modified. The dealer MUST send the ECM data to GM before they will authorize a new engine and if your car is tuned, GM will know it. I hate to say it but I think your out the cost of an engine. The dealer who sold you the car should have infomed you that you were buying a car without a GM power train warranty. If it was an aftermarket warranty, maybe you'll have better luck. Sorry to hear about this and wish you the best.
 
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#3 ·
+1 you are SOL. Tunes void the GM powertrain warranty. Sorry!
 
#5 ·
What state are you in. Email me at jessebubb at yahoo.com I can see what kind of help I can offer.
 
#7 ·
Get an attorney and go after the dealer that sold the vehicle to you like that without returning the vehicle back to stock and flashing the PCM back to a factory tune.

You can also contact Cadillac customer assistance center to get a file going just to make sure all your issues are documented. Get them to escalate the issue up the chain and hopefully you can get something done. Sorry to hear about all this.
 
#8 ·
But still if the car was bought with a intake and headers it should have been a warning that the car had a tune also. The dealer is gonna use this arguement that you knew that the car was modified and you bought it.

It's very unusual that these engines throw a rod. Almost unheard of. What were you doing to the car? Maybe the rev limiter was bumped way up with the tune or something?
 
#9 ·
Since 2008 I know of 81 blown oem cts v engines. 78% of those failures have been in the 640 and higher hp range.
4 cars have been stock with tunes.
the rest have been install errors with tune errors or bad parts for the remaining.
Rod failure or piston failure have occurred in all the 81.
Block condition has been noted to be poor condition past 630rwhp mark with higher miles past 20k.


Just to add to this, in case someone thinks it. I have not been responsible for any of these blown engines. All work was done at other shops all over the world in this list.
 
#11 ·
Im in louisiana. This car has been babied sience I got it definitely didn't do anything that would throw a rod. As far as getting a lawyer I have one on standby. The dealer I bought the car from gave me a loaner car today so hopefully something will happen I believe they r liable only time will tell. Thanks for y'all's input keep it coming maybe we can find someone that had a similar problem.
 
#17 ·
If the dealer sold the car with a warranty AND furthermore they added an extended warranty, they have implied that the car would be covered under those warranties. Unless it says somewhere something like CAR HAS A TUNE AND MODIFICATIONS THAT NULLIFY ENGINE WARRANTY you should be OK.

In my mind, the sale of extended warranty is the proof they thought the car was under warranty.
 
#19 ·
Not surprising that Cadillac denied the claim.

Now to go after the selling dealer.

The aftermarket warranty isn't covering the repair either?
 
#22 ·
That's not good enough. Look at it this way: The car was modded and it blew up. It's obviously the previous owner's fault, or his tuner, or whatever, we all understand that. But this dealer bought the car from that guy, and therefore assumed all responsibility for it. If they had sold it "as-is", then I believe Maco would truly be out of luck, because the "as-is" statement releases them from responsibility.

But they sold it with, if I'm understanding it correctly, the remainder of the factory warranty AND an additional extended warranty. Like cdog said, it's the implications behind warranty coverage that are going to lose this case for that dealer. You can't sell a warranty to somebody when you know it's not going to cover a known issue with the car without disclosing that issue to the buyer, that's fraud. So either the mechanics at the dealer are really super clueless and had no idea it had a tune on it, or they knew it had a tune and intentionally sold it that way with a warranty knowing it would not cover any problems that could be traced back to engine management.

Either way it's on them.
 
#21 ·
cadillac doesn't know that this dealer sold a car with a tune and led the customer to believe that it was ok and covered by the factory warranty and/or an aftermarket warranty

...

why didn't the dealer sell it as a certified pre-owned? hmm??
they'd be in even hotter water w/ GM if they had certified it with a tune
 
#23 ·
Thanks for all y'all's input ill keep y'all updated. Right now they say the extended warranty won't cover it either n that the district cadillac manager denied the claim but told the dealership not to tear down the engine yet for what reason I dnt no so I think the dealership still thinks there is a chance cadillac will cover it which I dout. And nowhere does it say anything about nullify the engine due to aftermarket parts or a tune.
 
#25 ·
This kind of thing happening was always my biggest fear when I was a car dealer. That was one reason I never took in cars either from the auction or in trade that had been even slightly modified, like a intake or a headers. It had to have the stock intake, otherwise I'd stay away from the car, some people argued with me over this policy, but this is why I did things like this because of the fear of what's happened to the Original poster here. When or if I had the opportunity to test drive cars before taking them in I'd make note of abnormally firm shifts, or shifts at a higher rpm, that sort of thing. Those were all indictications there may have been a tune done to the car. I would generally put my scanner on the car but you cannot really clearly tell if there was a tune done on the car just looking at those numbers.

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I'd say if the dealer who sold you the car does not help out, you may have to take him to court. If I were him, I'd be offering to pay half or something like that. You would have a pretty good case. It's unfortunate for him too because he probably had no idea the car was tuned. But there should have been a lot more suspicion by both him and the buyer of the car that it was not the factory tune on the car. I know with headers you almost have to due a tune because the stock factory calibrations are do not like headers very much and it could even trip a check engine light without a tune, that can even happen with a intake too, depending on what type of intake it was.
 
#30 ·
I figured it would go this way. I have seen it ALOT. In fact I don't know of any dealer getting one replaced. It always gets shot down for some reason or another.
 
#31 ·
Was it a Cadillac dealer? Didn't see mention of that. I would assume not.

Either way, it's the dealers responsibility in my view. Unless they clearly stated in writing that the car was sold "as is, where is". If that was stated, they should not have sold you a warranty. If that is the case, you'll get your warranty money back but are SOL on the engine.

I think either way it will probably involve legal action. Before you head down the legal route, I would go back to the dealer and explain your situation calmly to the manager/owner and HOPE they want to do the right thing. I think that is your best course of action to get this resolved quickly. I know your gut probably says go "rip em a new one" but that will ensure legal action is required to get any compensation from them. Be nice and bite your tongue and just present your case without anger. My next step would be to make sure you spoke to the highest person possible. If not, get to them via phone/email/drop in. If neither of those work, lawyer up and be prepared for a fight. Best of luck.
 
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