2015 Escalade shuddering at complete stop

Hey Guys,

For the past few thousand miles, my 2015 Escalade Luxury model has been shuddering when coming to a complete stop. A lot of times, when I exit the highway and come to a stoplight, you can feel it shake. The shake is not violent, but a lot of times it is distracting and a nuisance. Shortly after this "shudder" began, my Wife was pulling away from a stoplight and it seemed as if the Escalade wasn't going anywhere and then suddenly, there was a clunk, and it lunged forward; that's only happened once. The "shudder' is an ongoing issue and happens 99% of the time. I am terrible at explaining mechanical issues, but it feels similar to a slightly rough idle, and the other times, the "shudder" is much stronger. When going from highway speed to stop, the "shudder" is much worse than in-town driving.

Looking back on the service records, the torque converter was replaced around 16,000 miles. Now, with just shy of 65,000 miles on it, I've had it at my local Cadillac dealer three times in the past two months.

On the first of three service records, they noted:


Once we received it back, they told us that it would likely shift roughly for the next 200-250 miles because that is the time it takes for the transmission to learn/adapt to how it's being driven, and if we continued to experience the issue to schedule another appointment. After surpassing the 250 miles, the issue seemed to worsen and we scheduled another appointment.

On the second of three service records, they noted:


After receiving the vehicle back, we were told to give it a few hundred miles, and again, if we had any issue, to bring it back. As soon as I pulled away from the dealership and reached the first stoplight, I felt the same "shudder" as I had felt all along. As they suggested, I gave it a few hundred miles and the issue persisted. When I arrived at the dealership to drop it off the third time, the Service Advisor introduced me to the Service Manager; he asked to ride in the Escalade with me so I could show him the issue. Due to the location of the dealership, I explained that he may not have the opportunity to feel the "shudder" at it's worse as it presented itself more prominently when exiting the highway. Thankfully, he did feel it somewhat and acknowledged that it was an issue.

On the third of three service records, they noted:


I just picked it up today and we were again told that it would drive rough for a few hundred miles because of the need for it to learn/adapt to how it's being driven. Again, no more than 2-3 miles down the road, the "shudder" presents itself. After highway driving and exiting, the "shudder" seems to be the same as it has been since first felt.

This third time around, the Service Manager told me that they've basically done everything possible to remedy the issue and that there are no "hard parts" to replace. Since the first visit, our Service Advisor has told us how unhappy most people are with the transmission in this model Escalade, and how many they've had in for replacement. I've made it clear that I'd rather them keep the Escalade until the problem is fixed rather than give it back with the same issue. I'm not pushing for one thing or the other, except for the necessary steps to be taken to fix the issue. I completely understand that their computers are pulling no codes and the diagnostics are clear, but there is clearly an issue; the Escalade isn't supposed to "shudder" when it's at a complete stop. Our Service Advisor and the Service Manager have been incredible to deal with, but if Cadillac is receiving all of this negative feedback from their dealerships and their customers, why isn't something being done? I cannot think of one person who goes out and spends $80,000+ dollars on a vehicle to have it malfunction.

Has anyone had a similar issue? This is driving me crazy! Again, I don't feel like it's the dealership, but clearly, something has to give! My 2015 is the newer model, I believe, as it has the new emblems.