We bought new Enclave in 2010; unknown to us, this was the start of many very expensive problems, all of which we have the paperwork for. In 2019 we had timing chain replaced, $3000. Another garage diagnosed it so we took it to Lynch Chevy in West Bend to do the work as that is where we bought it from. A year later, the car stalled again and we had it towed to nearest garage only to have it diagnosed as timing chain. Had it towed back to Lynch and they said the valve broke and wrecked the engine. New engine install would cost us $7300. Our question - why would valve break off if it wasn't for the timing issue?

We wanted to see if GM would help us on this. Lynch would not give us the district reps name and we tried to contact GM. We were given a case number, supervisor by name of John Land and his phone number. We called every day, sometimes twice a day and left massages and he never called us back. Finally after weeks of being ignored, we got a call from someone else who said GM would only give us 10%. That was unacceptable. To date, John Land has not called us back. It has been 2 months that our car is sitting at Lynch. We went on line and put out our problem out to the community asking for suggestions.

WOW - what a response. We found out that this was a problem that GM knew about and still kept using those engines. We found out that there were recalls for this problem that we never knew about. We found out just how many people had this same problem and GM would not stand behind them. We found out just how their customer service sucks. We found out that there are many many people that are so disgusted and will not go back to GM. At this time, we have a son who has a GM product and his car is sitting at garage with wrecked engine also. So, we do believe that when we took this car in to Lynch the first time because of timing chain diagnosis, the mechanic could have told us about this problem, because they sure knew it, and GM could have offered us some assistance at that time.

Now we are in this situation. We will not install engine on a car that is not worth the amount of the engine install cost itself. But GM could do something for us. This is not our fault. We also realized that Lynch's district rep and GM were in contact all the while we were trying to contact GM. We were never contacted. John Land completely ignored us. That makes us believe they they know it is their problem. We even asked GM if they would pay the cost of Lynch's bill to tear engine apart to find out the problem. They won't do anything.

Car was purchased December 2014 with 5 year 100,000 mile warranty still intact as it is a 2010 model. We drove less than 2000 miles before at 15mph in heavy traffic, driver felt a shudder and noticed car would not accelerate. She stopped and had to be pushed off the right of way into a parking lot. Turning ignition key resulted in a click, but engine did not turn. Towing company took car to a reputable independent garage who said starter must be locked because engine would turn with a wrench but not with starter. Vehicle was towed to local reputable Chevrolet dealer where it was determined that engine was seized. Replacement engine estimate $8,000.00 because engine was seized.

We called GM and they insisted it be towed to a Buick dealer. Buick dealer said it was seized, estimate $12,000.00 Car was towed to a second independent who replaced the engine with a new (not reconditioned) one I purchased from a dealer in Michigan, with new sensors, waterpump, valves, pistons, cams, chain, etc. When new engine was installed, mechanic noted a rattle in the intake that he was installing on the new engine. That is the valve stem in the picture, shown next to an old valve from another car. Looking through the intake port, you can see the head of the valve still in the ruined cylinder bore.

GM has been unwilling to pay anything but offered a discount of $1500 on a NEW Enclave. Obviously there was a part failure because the mechanic noted absolutely no sludge in the oil pan, no evidence of lack of oil changes or internal overheating.

This could have killed my family had it occurred on a planned cross country trip through heavily traffic areas. I believe a recall is needed to find out if the valves in these engines are likely to fall loose on other vehicles.