Have Stage 2 Cobalt SS with LSD and Spec Stage 3+ clutch and 7,000 miles on ODO. Was accelerating hard in 1st gear on smooth road when started wheel-hopping then engine revved but no go. Diagnosis from dealer is broken half-shaft and cracked transmission housing.

Dealer sent pictures to GM Area Vehicle Manager who rejected warranty based on "Driver abuse". Has anyone else encountered either a broken half-shaft, cracked trans, or both? From reading some of the posts on this forum I think this is happening more often than GM is admitting.

Please answer the poll above. It may give me some ammunition for getting GM to change their mind.

 

I personally havent but a friend of mine blew his dif out the front of the tranny and the dealer refused to cover it under warranty citing dricer abuse ended up costing him 6 grand... car only had 3000 miles on it

 

In my opinion GM is a rip off. This is the last GM I'll every own.

 

And people wonder why GM is going under.....
It's BS like this that pisses me off. If you pay tht much for a car WITH a warrenty, why should you have to pay for something like that. That is total Bullshit, and if i were you my friend, i'd get a good lawyer and fight it.

 

well if you beat the crap outta a car... it would void any companies warranty.... unless it was actually a manufacturer defect

 

If all he was doing was accelerating hard, doubt it, it should be covered. Even if he was rockin it hard, they have to PROVE he did. They weren't there = they can't prove ****.

 

That is true...

 

Welcome Michigan buddy, what dealer did you take the car to? They will blame the clutch as the issue as to why it broke.

 

Sorry , but Im definately gonna be the unpopular vote here . Why do u think GM should warranty that or even be resonsible for it ? Ive had my SS since June of 05 , have a spec 2+ and no LSD and have close to 200 passes on my car in that time . I controlled wheel hop , and before that I knew enuff to get out the damn gas if it starts because like you found out .....it can tear stuff up real qwik in any FWD car .

running for cover

 

I totally agree with you. If anyone is having wheel hop and they just keep it floored hoping it will go away, that is not GM's problem, it is the drivers problem. Now I will go a step further than SilverSS/SC and say stop whining about your entry level performance vehicle. There is a reason we paid less than other cars for the same kind of power. If you have been here a while you know wheel hop destroys driveshafts so either just fix them or buy the upgrades and stop whining like schoolgirls that GM has done something wrong, or go buy the Vette and avoid wheelhop that way.

 

yea but according to the "law" they have to prove that the parts you have installed are the cause of the failure for them not to cover it.

 

The fact that it wheel-hopped on a smooth road without revving the engine or dropping the clutch in the first place is a GM problem. The fact that the wheel-hopping caused a catastrophic failure of the half-shaft is again a GM problem, and the failure of the half-shaft cracking the trans is again GM (or failure of the trans causing the half-shaft to break, I don't know which came first).

"Floor the car, break the trans" isn't acceptable and saying that the responsibility is on the driver to identify and know that the vehicle is about to break itself apart just really doesn't cut it. I understand that a race driver has to know these things because a race car is running at the edge of the technology it is built on. For a street car on street tires with a factory-authorized non-warranty-voiding Stage 2 kit and the only non-factory mod being an upgraded clutch (which does not void the warranty as it is a "wear" part), breaking in this manner is just not acceptable.

 

I hear what you are saying and they are valid points. The trouble is that saying the wheel hop happened without any excessive acceleration (to the point of breaking parts) is really a hard sell to those of us who drive these cars daily, as well as the GM personel whose job it was to drive these, at length, for the purpose of testing.
As for your statement "Floor the car, break the trans" isn't acceptable, "Floor the car" , that would be what car makers define as abuse. Because they write the warranty, they get to define abuse.

 

The only way on a car with your mods with street tires is gonna break an axle is if ya stay in it while its wheel hopping . Most of the cars that are breaking axles are launching on slicks or drag radials , and a few like ENUFFPWR that have enuff HP/TQ to do it on radials . Its a really hard thing to "prove" u caused a catastrophic problem like this , so Im sure that area rep looked at the axle failure rate or warranty issues regarding axles and the transmission failure rate in regards to a Cobalt SS/SC ....they do have the ability to do this .....and based his decision off that . If you were to actually do a history search of how many SS's have had axle failure , I would bet a year of my salary the # is extremely low . "What if" in your region , your SS , in the 2 years the car has been out has been the only car to come in like this . Theoretically if that were true , someone is gonna be throwin some flags up .

With regards to the clutch you have . I dont know who installed it so Im jus gonna throw a general comment there . They cant void your full warranty for it , but ....if they ( being the chevy dealer ) didnt install it , while the car was in its warranty period .....they can refuse warranty work on the trans , as they cannot verify the integrity of the work ....theres ALOT of stuff removed when u do a clutch obviously .

And lastly , GM cannot please the small percentage of people ( Im in that group too ) who are enthusists . If GM fully controlled the wheelhop from the factory ....3/4 of the people who looked at a SS would never make it past the test drive . Stiffer mounts = rougher ride and more vibrations . More people than not whine about stuff like that , hence ....nice ride =softer mounts= wheelhop .

 

so true