The last thing anyone expects is that if they take their vehicle, such as a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, to an official dealership, they will be told a repair costs over $10,000 and then, after visiting another workshop, wonder if the dealer was trying to scam them. Well, one man had exactly that happen to him after he got a second opinion on his vehicle.
This recently happened to the owner of a 2020 Silverado, after the owner took it to a GMC dealership with a problem, and was told that an entirely new engine and transmission were needed for the truck. After being told the quoted price for the repair, the owner of the truck decided to get a second opinion and took it to Dave’s Auto Shop.
The owner of the shop, Dave, posted a video on the shop’s TikTok account explaining the situation and revealed that the owner of the truck had originally been quoted $15,000 for the vehicle’s repair. Yet after taking the truck to Dave’s garage, the owner of the truck was left wondering if the dealership had tried to scam him.
Dave’s investigations revealed a few things. First of all, it looked like the dealership had not correctly diagnosed the issue. Secondly, a potential fix the dealer said they had applied had either used old parts, or not been done at all. Finally, while the repaid would indeed be expensive, it was several thousand dollars cheaper than what GMC had quote the truck’s owner.
What the GMC Dealership Said About the Chevy Silverado
@davesautocenter This 5.3 Chevy Makes a Scary Noise on Startup #autoshop #autorepair #enginebuild #carrepair ♬ оригинальный звук – Dave’s Auto Shop
Dave explained in the video what the owner of the Chevrolet had initially told him. The 2020 Silverado, with its 5.3-liter V8 engine, had originally been taken to a GMC dealer by its owner due to a strange noise from under the hood. After the dealer had inspected it, he was told the truck needed a new engine and transmission, and this would cost $15,000 to fix.
The dealer then rang to say that they might be able to fix the issue by replacing spark plugs and wires, and that would cost the owner of the truck around $800. That wasn’t ideal, but the owner was stunned after taking the truck to Dave’s Auto Shop and hearing what they had found wrong with his Silverado. In fact, their total was well below what the dealership had said it would cost.
Dave and his team unhooked the mass airflow to figure out if there was a blockage or something else causing the engine to make the strange noise. After initially suspecting a misfire, they scanned the truck for error codes and determined it needed a new cam and lift, which was still expensive. But this would cost much less than the $15,000 quoted by the dealership.
The Team Found Other Issues With the Silverado
Dave also warned the owner that the wires and plugs that the dealership had allegedly fitted looked worn, so there was a chance they used old parts, or simply didn’t repair at all. That, of course, is hardly ideal, and to be scammed out of $800 would be bad in itself.
Further investigation was done, and Dave explained what he and his team had found. “We pulled the valve cover off the passenger side, and you’ve got an intake lifter on that No. 2 cylinder … it’s collapsed,” he said to the truck’s owner. “This has Active Fuel Management on it … basically, it can shut down cylinders at certain times,” he added.
The team recommended he delete the AFM from the Silverado, as it is a common thing, and ‘because they fail,’ so with that in mind, the quoted repair with the AFM delete, and the cam and lifter job came in at around $9,000. Expensive, but nowhere near the $15,000 quoted for a new engine and transmission by the GMC dealership. This is what left the owner scratching his head as to the quoted $15,000 figure he had initially had. It is little wonder he felt like he was being scammed, especially as his Chevrolet had only done 90,000 miles in total.