$575 later and no Chevy service center can fix this (rant)

2475 Views 22 Replies 6 Participants Last post by ChevyGuy, Oct 14, 2017

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · Oct 11, 2017

So I've had this 2013 Cruze LS for less than a year. Had a few problems with it which I thought I would since it's got 100k miles on it and, well, I expected to have problems buying a 3 year old car with 100k miles on it from a used dealer. But for the life of me I cannot get this stupid little problem fixed.

The driver's side door at literally the most unpredictable and random times will for whatever **** reason say that it's open. It'll say "door open" after driving 15 minutes and then it'll go back to saying it's closed after maybe a minute. This isn't a show stopper really, but the biggest problem comes at night because when the door is locked and the car senses (wrongly) that it's being opened without first being unlocked, the car alarm goes off. This has been happening since about March. So I figure hey, probably some small problem that's easily fixable. I'll take it to a certified Chevy service center because these guys probably know what they're doing. Apparently every Chevy dealer here in MA/NH charges $115 right off the bat just to try and diagnose the problem. So the first service center I take it to, I pay $115 for them to literally just tell me "We don't know what the problem is. Probably just a fluke. Have a nice day." Ok. Whatever. I end up just keeping the door unlocked for the time being. Fast forward to September, I take it into a different Chevy service center to take a look at the problem. Fortunately they only charge me $55 because it didn't take them a full hour, but what does the guy tell me? That they don't know for sure because they can't replicate the problem so the best they can do is guess that the door latch/actuator needs to be replaced. Parts and service altogether is $403.34. It is steep. It sucks. But after 7 months of this crap I just want it fixed. I pay for it. All is good for a total of, oh, 3 days before it happens again. So here I am, $575 (ish) later and nobody can fix this **** door. What else can I do here? Any tips? I refuse to pay another cent for this **** door and the only solution seems to be to leave it at the service center and have someone watch it 24/7 until the problem happens again. It's absolutely ridiculous in this day and age that no troubleshooting of maybe the circuitry or cables or anything will help diagnose just where the problem is.

Any tips, both in terms of maybe even getting my $403.34 dollars back and fixing the **** problem are greatly appreciated

See less See more

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

boraz

· #2 · Oct 11, 2017

might be something as silly as the contacts of the sensor not making contact, creating the open circuit thus the "door ajar"

could be something as silly as the latch mechanism not FULLY, like 1/64" inch short of fully closed, triggering the alarm

have you tried dousing the latch with white lithium grease and open/close lock/unlock 11ty times to work it in.??

cost you nothing, errybody should have some spray in their garage....might work.

i had a volvo semi that in certain weather especially frost humid weather, the circuits would activate and the windows would roll down automatically

yeah....the car should not be doing this....but if the mechanics cant duplicate it, its hard to fix something not broken.

See less See more

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 11, 2017 (Edited)

boraz said:
might be something as silly as the contacts of the sensor not making contact, creating the open circuit thus the "door ajar"

could be something as silly as the latch mechanism not FULLY, like 1/64" inch short of fully closed, triggering the alarm

have you tried dousing the latch with white lithium grease and open/close lock/unlock 11ty times to work it in.??

cost you nothing, errybody should have some spray in their garage....might work.

i had a volvo semi that in certain weather especially frost humid weather, the circuits would activate and the windows would roll down automatically

yeah....the car should not be doing this....but if the mechanics cant duplicate it, its hard to fix something not broken.

Yes, I sprayed the latch and everything with WD 40 and it was ok for about 2 weeks before the next occurance. The most egregious "infractions" actually happed while driving in a snow storm in April. One or two hours of it constantly saying it's open or closed. Excuse my frustration, but hearing "We don't know because we have to plug something in when the problem happens to diagnose an error code" is like...I mean cmon. Get in there with a multimeter and do some legit troubleshooting lol

boraz

· #4 · Oct 11, 2017

A Defiant Goose said:
Yes, I sprayed the latch and everything with WD 40 and it was ok for about 2 weeks before the next occurance. The most egregious "infractions" actually happed while driving in a snow storm in April. One or two hours of it constantly saying it's open or closed. Excuse my frustration, but hearing "We don't know because we have to plug something in when the problem happens to diagnose an error code" is like...I mean cmon. Get in there with a multimeter and do some legit troubleshooting lol

a. wd40 is aboot the worse thing you can spray in there, yeah it displaces water, which you want, but bye bye to any grease you had in there, you need grease in there.

b. the mechanic is just trying to avoid dealing with an upset customer cuz they know theyll find nothing and then the customer is upset aboot paying for no solution....its very simple, the circuit will work when they test it, just like your door thinks its closed MOST of the time.

get some grease in there

eddiefromcali

· #5 · Oct 11, 2017

my 2005 Silverado does this when it rains...its got to be a bad connection at the harness/plug. It hardly rains in socal so I haven't bothered fixing it. Have you tried to get it to go off?

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 11, 2017

boraz said:
A Defiant Goose said:

Yes, I sprayed the latch and everything with WD 40 and it was ok for about 2 weeks before the next occurance. The most egregious "infractions" actually happed while driving in a snow storm in April. One or two hours of it constantly saying it's open or closed. Excuse my frustration, but hearing "We don't know because we have to plug something in when the problem happens to diagnose an error code" is like...I mean cmon. Get in there with a multimeter and do some legit troubleshooting lol

Click to expand...

a. wd40 is aboot the worse thing you can spray in there, yeah it displaces water, which you want, but bye bye to any grease you had in there, you need grease in there.

b. the mechanic is just trying to avoid dealing with an upset customer cuz they know theyll find nothing and then the customer is upset aboot paying for no solution....its very simple, the circuit will work when they test it, just like your door thinks its closed MOST of the time.

get some grease in there

Hmm I thought WD 40 was what wouldve done it. I'lltry some other lubricant but I'll be f'd if it's a $10 fix and I threw nearly $600 at it

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 11, 2017

eddiefromcali said:
my 2005 Silverado does this when it rains...its got to be a bad connection at the harness/plug. It hardly rains in socal so I haven't bothered fixing it. Have you tried to get it to go off?

I've tried driving in the rain but it doesn't act up the way it did in the snow storm

eddiefromcali

· #8 · Oct 11, 2017

grab a hose?

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 11, 2017

eddiefromcali said:
grab a hose?

I can almost guarantee it aint the rain. Although, with all of the input here I'm starting to think it might be the cold. It doesn't really happen more or less frequently in the rain, but it's never been as bad as it was in the snow. I could bring out some buckets of water and see if I can make it go off again. But my best bet might be to wrap the car in popsicles and my ex's heart and see if that triggers anything

Reactions: 1

anthonysmith93

· #10 · Oct 12, 2017

It's almost definitely a bad door ajar sensor. Old gm cars had this issue for years, my 2005 malibu had the same issue except it was the hood latch sensor that needed replaced. Dealer kept the car for 4 hours (and charged me $100 to diagnose), locked and alarm set waiting for it to go off, and it finally did. These issues aren't hard to diagnose, it's just dealers not wanting to take time to do it. The part was something close to $300 so I just disconnected the sensor, problem solved, alarm never went off mistakenly again.

Reactions: 1

Rivergoer

· #11 · Oct 12, 2017

A Defiant Goose said:
...my best bet might be to wrap the car in popsicles and my ex's heart and see if that triggers anything

October post of the month.

Reactions: 3

ChevyGuy

· #12 · Oct 12, 2017 (Edited)

Intermittent problems are a tech's worst nightmares. They're nearly impossible to figure out unless it will do it right when the tech has his tools connected.

A Defiant Goose said:
All is good for a total of, oh, 3 days before it happens again.

Now, my understanding of consumer law is they made the diagnosis, but failed to fix the problem - it's up to them to make good on it or refund you.

Looking at the schematics, it's either going to be the mechanical linkage, the switch, the wiring, or the module(s) it connects to. Everything after that is part of the computer bus and I don't think you'd get a "door open" fault if anything went wrong there.

Odds are, it's the switch, but it sounds like they already replaced that - or, at least it should have been replaced as part of the door latch. So, I'm not sure what else to suggest if you were to try and fix it yourself. A few others here have experienced the same problem but seem to have been happy once the latch was replaced.

BTW, you should be able to lock your car without setting the alarm by using the door key - not the fob, the key itself.

See less See more

Reactions: 1

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #13 · Oct 12, 2017

ChevyGuy said:
Intermittent problems are a tech's worst nightmares. They're nearly impossible to figure out unless it will do it right when the tech has his tools connected.

Now, my understanding of consumer law is they made the diagnosis, but failed to fix the problem - it's up to them to make good on it or refund you.

Looking at the schematics, it's either going to be the mechanical linkage, the switch, the wiring, or the module(s) it connects to. Everything after that is part of the computer bus and I don't think you'd get a "door open" fault if anything went wrong there.

Odds are, it's the switch, but it sounds like they already replaced that - or, at least it should have been replaced as part of the door latch. So, I'm not sure what else to suggest if you were to try and fix it yourself. A few others here have experienced the same problem but seem to have been happy once the latch was replaced.

BTW, you should be able to lock your car without setting the alarm by using the door key - not the fob, the key itself.

Thanks for the idea, but I've tried that and apparently locking it manually still sets the alarm. I talked to the tech and he said I can't even get a refund for the part (183.34) much less the service or the whole thing. So I'm gonna talk to the manager instead and highly recommend they refund me because I spent $403.34 on a "this will probably fix it but we're not sure" solution which obviously didn't work. I don't want to have to go to court for it but I will if they force me to.

They should at least refund me the 12.51 I spent at lunch while waiting for it to be "fixed" lol

ChevyGuy

· #14 · Oct 12, 2017

A Defiant Goose said:
Thanks for the idea, but I've tried that and apparently locking it manually still sets the alarm.

Perhaps the 2011 is different. The information come from the 2013 service manual. To be clear, you have to close the doors in the unlocked condition and then use the flip-out key to manually lock the driver's door.

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 12, 2017

ChevyGuy said:
Perhaps the 2011 is different. The information come from the 2013 service manual. To be clear, you have to close the doors in the unlocked condition and then use the flip-out key to manually lock the driver's door.

Hmm, ok I will give that a try. I was locking it by having the door open, pressing the lock down, then closing it rather than use the key the way you said.

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 12, 2017

btw does anyone know what the device is called that they use to plug into your car to read an error code? And if it's available to us consumers? Thinking of catching the problem when it happens myself and see if I can find where the fault is. I know it sounds ridiculous. I don't care. Whatever it takes to fix the problem

eddiefromcali

· #17 · Oct 12, 2017

they probably use a Tech2...couple thousand dollars or a few hundred for a knock off.

ChevyGuy

· #18 · Oct 12, 2017 (Edited)

Tech2 was for the older generation of cars - for the Cruze, it's a GM MDI, which is just a wireless interface to a Windows laptop that then needs to have a subscription to a GM website.

But I wouldn't bother. You know exactly that's wrong - the sensors are indicating the driver's door is open when it's not. The code reader isn't going to tell you anything more then what the computer thinks the door's current status is. But you can do that by starting the car, putting it in gear and seeing if the DIC complains about an open door.

The question is why is it misreading that? Is it the switch, the wiring, or the module it connects to? Knowing how to use a volt meter and how to take apart the door are the tools you need now. We're well past computer "issues". This is basic electrics.

Reactions: 2

A Defiant Goose

Discussion Starter · #19 · Oct 13, 2017

ChevyGuy said:
Tech2 was for the older generation of cars - for the Cruze, it's a GM MDI, which is just a wireless interface to a Windows laptop that then needs to have a subscription to a GM website.

But I wouldn't bother. You know exactly that's wrong - the sensors are indicating the driver's door is open when it's not. The code reader isn't going to tell you anything more then what the computer thinks the door's current status is. But you can do that by starting the car, putting it in gear and seeing if the DIC complains about an open door.

The question is why is it misreading that? Is it the switch, the wiring, or the module it connects to? Knowing how to use a volt meter and how to take apart the door are the tools you need now. We're well past computer "issues". This is basic electrics.

Thank you. That's exactly what I'm saying and it's refreshing to hear someone else say it

boraz

· #20 · Oct 13, 2017

A Defiant Goose said:
Thank you. That's exactly what I'm saying and it's refreshing to hear someone else say it

only if the circuit is acting up

if you cant recreate it, youre gonna find nothing

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.