richp
08-09-2010, 11:49
Hi,
So I'm happily tooling down I-55 yesterday just outside of E. St. Louis, pulling my fiver, when "Bang, Whine" from under the hood. Get off to the side and open things up, and find that the clamp connecting the aluminum tube from the intercooler to the turbo seems to be gone, and the blue connecting hose has popped off. It's a Sunday afternoon and the temps are in the mid-90's.
I rummage around in the back and find a couple of RV hose clamps. Sweating like a pig and trying to avoid all the hot engine parts, I shove the pipe as far back in the hose as I can, double clamp it, and start 'er up. Sure, I've got that reduced power message on the display, and the little engine icon is lit up to tell me I've got codes set. But at least I can get away from that cesspool of crime and into safer terrain. And so we toodle on down the highway, and as long as I don't push boost higher than 8 pounds or so, the rig moves and I can almost totally avoid the buzzing/singing sound of an air leak.
We camp for the night at a KOA, and limp on into a Chevy dealer the next morning, somewhat south of St. Louis. There commences a search for the clamp part number.
It is unsuccessful.
As we looked at it some more, we found that the hose on my truck was also damaged as the band disengaged. We can't simply use the type of clamp that's on the engine end of the hose -- the air leak would continue because of this split. And GM doesn't list the hose as a separate part, for some reason.
Lo, and behold, in '09 GM evidently started using a solid crimped band to hold the hose onto the upper section of the pipe -- no clamp, it's available only as a single assembly. Closer examination reveals that the crimped band actually is still there. Seems it must have "walked" its way inward from the end of the hose and off the pipe, apparently because it was installed in the wrong location to start with.
Now the story starts to get really good. There is no pipe/hose assembly available any closer than Ft. Worth, TX. Three to five days delivery predicted.
We reconnect the hose using the same two hose clamps I drove in with, having removed the dislocated band and shoved the pipe up as far past the split as we can. Codes are cleared and it runs OK. But there is no way of knowing how long things will hold together -- either the improvised clamps or the split hose. Our vacation trip is shot -- until this is replaced I can't risk another blowout on the back country roads that would take us to our planned destination.
So it's Monday, and here we sit back at the KOA in 97-degree heat, waiting for a part that may or may not arrive by the end of the week.
Yes, it's under warranty. And yes, GM did offer me a loaner -- as long as I didn't tow with it. Yes, they concede I might even get reimbursed for the campground fees. But the trip is blown.
And somehow it just seems strange to me that: 1) that the hose wouldn't be available separately, since it was in prior years; 2) that there was no proper part available anywhere in the St. Louis area; and, 3) that it takes so long to get a part moved from one location to another within the GM system.
Got all today's frustration out of my system. Stay tuned for more if the part doesn't arrive this week at all.
FWIW.
So I'm happily tooling down I-55 yesterday just outside of E. St. Louis, pulling my fiver, when "Bang, Whine" from under the hood. Get off to the side and open things up, and find that the clamp connecting the aluminum tube from the intercooler to the turbo seems to be gone, and the blue connecting hose has popped off. It's a Sunday afternoon and the temps are in the mid-90's.
I rummage around in the back and find a couple of RV hose clamps. Sweating like a pig and trying to avoid all the hot engine parts, I shove the pipe as far back in the hose as I can, double clamp it, and start 'er up. Sure, I've got that reduced power message on the display, and the little engine icon is lit up to tell me I've got codes set. But at least I can get away from that cesspool of crime and into safer terrain. And so we toodle on down the highway, and as long as I don't push boost higher than 8 pounds or so, the rig moves and I can almost totally avoid the buzzing/singing sound of an air leak.
We camp for the night at a KOA, and limp on into a Chevy dealer the next morning, somewhat south of St. Louis. There commences a search for the clamp part number.
It is unsuccessful.
As we looked at it some more, we found that the hose on my truck was also damaged as the band disengaged. We can't simply use the type of clamp that's on the engine end of the hose -- the air leak would continue because of this split. And GM doesn't list the hose as a separate part, for some reason.
Lo, and behold, in '09 GM evidently started using a solid crimped band to hold the hose onto the upper section of the pipe -- no clamp, it's available only as a single assembly. Closer examination reveals that the crimped band actually is still there. Seems it must have "walked" its way inward from the end of the hose and off the pipe, apparently because it was installed in the wrong location to start with.
Now the story starts to get really good. There is no pipe/hose assembly available any closer than Ft. Worth, TX. Three to five days delivery predicted.
We reconnect the hose using the same two hose clamps I drove in with, having removed the dislocated band and shoved the pipe up as far past the split as we can. Codes are cleared and it runs OK. But there is no way of knowing how long things will hold together -- either the improvised clamps or the split hose. Our vacation trip is shot -- until this is replaced I can't risk another blowout on the back country roads that would take us to our planned destination.
So it's Monday, and here we sit back at the KOA in 97-degree heat, waiting for a part that may or may not arrive by the end of the week.
Yes, it's under warranty. And yes, GM did offer me a loaner -- as long as I didn't tow with it. Yes, they concede I might even get reimbursed for the campground fees. But the trip is blown.
And somehow it just seems strange to me that: 1) that the hose wouldn't be available separately, since it was in prior years; 2) that there was no proper part available anywhere in the St. Louis area; and, 3) that it takes so long to get a part moved from one location to another within the GM system.
Got all today's frustration out of my system. Stay tuned for more if the part doesn't arrive this week at all.
FWIW.