On Saturday 11/30/2013 I took my wife and step son out to Hauser Geode Beds. My wife has been wanting to take her son who had never been there, so we decided to go ahead and do the trip even though it was planned at the last minute and we didn't have another vehicle lined up to go with us.
We hit the road at 9:40 and didn't make it out to Hauser until 2:20 so there wasn't much time to dig before dark. In retrospect I noticed that the brakes took more pedal than normal and once they did apply the grabbed funny. Once we parked, my wife thought she smelled burning oil, but I couldn't smell anything.
Here are some pictures from Hauser.
Since we got a late start and we weren't finding any geodes, we dug until dark and then drove out using the HID fog lights. It was a good thing that we had the HID fog lights and the GPS because finding the correct trail out in the dark would have been very difficult.
As we left Chiriaco Summit, it seemed like the automatic transmission was slipping, so I pressed the OnStar button and requested a diagnostic. They said the transmission wasn't responding as expected and I should get it serviced within 7 days. I stopped in Indio and checked the trans fluid and it wasn't even registering on the dip stick. After trying to get Dexton VI at three different Truck Stops we ended up at a AutoZone. As soon as I added fluid the engine overheated. A quick look underneath revealed where most of the ATF had gone.
After a phone call to Zach, thanks Zach, we decided it was time to call Auto Club and utilize the Premier 200 mile tow, since it was 124 miles home.
Apparently the AFT was leaking when we got to the Hauser Geode Beds, so we were very lucky that we made it to Indio before we had to call the Auto Club. The Hauser Geode Beds are 25 miles off the payment and 10 miles off the graded road. The moral of this story is to:
So on Monday I had the truck towed into Tustin Buick GMC for service and a couple hours later they called to inform me that I had coolant in my transmission and that I need a new radiator and a new transmission to the tune of $4,400. They also said that since the radiator caused the problem the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty wouldn't cover the transmission. I pointed out that the radiator was the stock radiator and that it has a history of failing prematurely, but they weren't accepting any responsibility. So I asked them to see what GM customer loyalty would do to help. After a couple of agazoning hours they called back and said that if I paid $450 they would cover the remainder and I happily accepted that offer.
The moral of this story is if you still have one of those cheesy @$$ GM radiators with an integral transmission cooler you should install an external transmission cooler before it fails and takes your transmission out with it. I know I will be adding an external transmission cooler very soon.
We hit the road at 9:40 and didn't make it out to Hauser until 2:20 so there wasn't much time to dig before dark. In retrospect I noticed that the brakes took more pedal than normal and once they did apply the grabbed funny. Once we parked, my wife thought she smelled burning oil, but I couldn't smell anything.
Here are some pictures from Hauser.
Since we got a late start and we weren't finding any geodes, we dug until dark and then drove out using the HID fog lights. It was a good thing that we had the HID fog lights and the GPS because finding the correct trail out in the dark would have been very difficult.
As we left Chiriaco Summit, it seemed like the automatic transmission was slipping, so I pressed the OnStar button and requested a diagnostic. They said the transmission wasn't responding as expected and I should get it serviced within 7 days. I stopped in Indio and checked the trans fluid and it wasn't even registering on the dip stick. After trying to get Dexton VI at three different Truck Stops we ended up at a AutoZone. As soon as I added fluid the engine overheated. A quick look underneath revealed where most of the ATF had gone.
After a phone call to Zach, thanks Zach, we decided it was time to call Auto Club and utilize the Premier 200 mile tow, since it was 124 miles home.
Apparently the AFT was leaking when we got to the Hauser Geode Beds, so we were very lucky that we made it to Indio before we had to call the Auto Club. The Hauser Geode Beds are 25 miles off the payment and 10 miles off the graded road. The moral of this story is to:
- Never go out into the desert alone. We would have been sleeping in the H3T all night if we had broken down a little earlier.
- Keep replacement fluids in the vehicle. You might need to replace fluids on the trail and even if you do make it to a service station they might not have the fluids you need.
So on Monday I had the truck towed into Tustin Buick GMC for service and a couple hours later they called to inform me that I had coolant in my transmission and that I need a new radiator and a new transmission to the tune of $4,400. They also said that since the radiator caused the problem the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty wouldn't cover the transmission. I pointed out that the radiator was the stock radiator and that it has a history of failing prematurely, but they weren't accepting any responsibility. So I asked them to see what GM customer loyalty would do to help. After a couple of agazoning hours they called back and said that if I paid $450 they would cover the remainder and I happily accepted that offer.
The moral of this story is if you still have one of those cheesy @$$ GM radiators with an integral transmission cooler you should install an external transmission cooler before it fails and takes your transmission out with it. I know I will be adding an external transmission cooler very soon.
