I am the truck killer!
My "kill count" is up to three. First my trusty 2002 Chevy 3500 8.1L started missing and was undriveable. The mechanic changed the 20 year old plugs and wires so maybe that's fixed, but that truck ...
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I have a bad taste in my mouth from my last 4.3L "350 with two cylinders lopped off" experience. That thing never ran right from the day it rolled off the dealer's lot.
Had a small miss in it from day one. Took it back in the first week, they dismissed me, "could not recreate customer complaint." I even took them out and showed them. They acted like they could not feel it.
The small miss finally turned into a big miss, and an engine light. They couldn't ignore it then. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, clear codes. Back to a small miss, which I pointed out and even showed them again, got told I was nuts.
It needed plugs, wires, cap and rotor about every 13 months to make the big miss go back to a small miss. Then one day it died on the highway. Bad ignition coil. Got it fixed, back to a small miss. Killed two ignition coils that way. That's where I got my bad opinion of AAA.
The one day the big miss came back and no amount of new plugs, wires, caps, rotors, or ignition coils would fix it. Took it to an independent garage near my work. After a few hours they called, said they acknowledged the miss, but could not find anything wrong. They angrily told me if I came and got it NOW, and never brought it back, they would not charge me for the diagnostic time.
Then it wouldn't start in my parents' front yard. Ended up borrowing my Dad's truck to get back home. He somehow managed to get it running and took it to a country mechanic, who FINALLY diagnosed the TBI fuel injectors and found that 3 of them weren't firing at all and the other 3 were misfiring. I'd had enough. Replace the three bad ones, I'm trading it in. That's where my 2003 came from, and that's the best truck I'd owned so far. Never missed a beat in 12 years. Never left me on the side of the road. Had a perpetual EVAP code for the last 6 years but it would stay off long enough to pass inspection.
Ok this turned into quite the rant, but I'm not going to delete it because I went to all the trouble of writing it, LOL...
Had a small miss in it from day one. Took it back in the first week, they dismissed me, "could not recreate customer complaint." I even took them out and showed them. They acted like they could not feel it.
The small miss finally turned into a big miss, and an engine light. They couldn't ignore it then. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, clear codes. Back to a small miss, which I pointed out and even showed them again, got told I was nuts.
It needed plugs, wires, cap and rotor about every 13 months to make the big miss go back to a small miss. Then one day it died on the highway. Bad ignition coil. Got it fixed, back to a small miss. Killed two ignition coils that way. That's where I got my bad opinion of AAA.
The one day the big miss came back and no amount of new plugs, wires, caps, rotors, or ignition coils would fix it. Took it to an independent garage near my work. After a few hours they called, said they acknowledged the miss, but could not find anything wrong. They angrily told me if I came and got it NOW, and never brought it back, they would not charge me for the diagnostic time.
Then it wouldn't start in my parents' front yard. Ended up borrowing my Dad's truck to get back home. He somehow managed to get it running and took it to a country mechanic, who FINALLY diagnosed the TBI fuel injectors and found that 3 of them weren't firing at all and the other 3 were misfiring. I'd had enough. Replace the three bad ones, I'm trading it in. That's where my 2003 came from, and that's the best truck I'd owned so far. Never missed a beat in 12 years. Never left me on the side of the road. Had a perpetual EVAP code for the last 6 years but it would stay off long enough to pass inspection.
Ok this turned into quite the rant, but I'm not going to delete it because I went to all the trouble of writing it, LOL...
