Blown Head Gasket

[PCarillon]

Originally Posted by vettenuts

Just my opinion, but the dealer should have dried up the cylinders and then oiled the cylinder walls to prevent corrosion. Negligence on their part. When I open a motor where I live, it won't take long for cylinder walls to start rusting.

I believe everyone is missing the point. According to OP the engine suffered a blown head gasket in December. It was towed to a dealership/service center and dropped off.Now here is where the confusion is... it wasnt GS who couldnt get there to look at it, the Service Center was too backed up with work that they couldnt look at it until the end of March or early April. So thats where it sat until they pulled the head off and from setting for 3 to 4 months with the water in the cylinders they accumulated some rust.

[gresults]

Here is what I finally got back from dealership...

"We have completed tear down of the engine in your 2007 motorhome bearing vehicle ID # 5B4MGF7G873421563. We determined the cause of failure to be warped cylinder heads and crank bolt broken in crank. The cylinders had filled up with coolant due to cylinder head leak. The subsequent rust that appears is most likely because of the coolant being in the cylinders but not the cause of failure."

Not sure this will solve my issue, right now bill is 13,000.00 to replace motor, with 6000.00 of that for the motor which seems really high...

I now have to send a letter to Good Sam and they make a decision hopefull they take what the dealer states was issue.

Only thing that really confuses me is the crank bolt the motor was replaced once before under warranty, but the way I understand it once replaced it was not warranted anymore.

[Brazel's RV Performance]

Just to make you feel a little bit better $6000 for the engine is a normal price and actually a pretty good one at that. Just make sure it carries a nationwide warranty that covers parts AND labor.

[George Schweikle]

Consider also sending a letter to Motorhome Magazine action line. They sometimes get results when no one else can do anything. Note, Good Sam Club, Good Sam extended service, Motorhome magazine, Camping World, etc, etc. are all owned by the same big company, but sometimes, the right hand can influence the left hand.

QUOTE=gresults;3109215]...I now have to send a letter to Good Sam and they make a decision hopefull they take what the dealer states was issue.....[/QUOTE]

[vettenuts]

I will be watching how Good Sam handles this. Please keep us updated.

[gresults]

Truthfully I don't have much faith in hearing anything positive from Good Sam I only had the Warranty for about 6 months when this happened and it expired while being done, and never heard anything out of them. They actually did not even ever contact me at all the only reason I had know the had declined the claim was from the dealer.

I would not recommend the Good Sam plan to anyone...The way the handled it actually cost me even more money as they requested things to be done knowing tho they had already decided not to cover the claim.

Even the adjuster who went out commented he did not even know why he was sent out a second time as he had assumed it was being repaired, I think someone decided they needed to find some excuse not to cover it, and even discussions with people at Good Sam Warranty did not understand why it had been handled the way it was but there decision was final so was a very confusing situation.

I more than likely will have to let the vehicle go and deal with the outcome from that over having it repaired as I have no way of covering the repair cost due to issues beyond the motorhome.

[vettenuts]

Sorry to hear that. Wondering if one well placed letter from a lawyer might turn GS around a bit. Might not cost much to generate and if they think there will be legal repercussions that will cost them more than the repair they might reconsider and settle for some amount.

[gresults]

Actually I have a real good lawyer who is dealing with a unrelated issue, I'm going to send him a copy of contract but wanted to give them a chance to make things right first. But not holding my breath does not look like they have a very good record just figured this was a open in shut case considering the issue. The is no way rust caused the failure...

[gresults]

I had posted on the GS Forum as suggested and got phone call today:

Well I just got off the phone with a representative from GS whom seemed very receptive to looking into the issue and looking into what they can do, I must admit I was very surprised. So at this time the resolution is in the hands of GS. I had sent in a review letter so they are attempting to locate that in order to give it do diligence and have it reviewed properly.

[vettenuts]

Best of luck, hope it all works out for you. Is the work completed, does it run OK now?

[gresults]

Well they where having some issues with believing about the year, I guess if you run the vin it comes up 2007 so having to provide registration proof even tho I was attempting to tell the they only produced a 2009 model which was on a 2007 chassis...

[TomandGloria]

You would think that after all this time there would be no reason to explain that. Seems like most manufactor's purchase lots of chassis and then manufacture the coach and assign the year, regardless of chassis year.

Been down that road a time or two.......what a nuisance.

Wishing you well and hope that it all works out for you.

[gresults]

Well it appears they have reversed the denial based on rust, my only issue now is it still does not appear I have got any progress in getting things repaired. They called my repair shop and asked some more questions and now when I called in today was told they are waiting on my repair shop to call them back. They also now have mentioned they may not cover all cost of repair so really confused now.

I now have a call back into repair shop, hope to get a positive answer this week on getting repairs done as I really would like to use my motor home, only issue now is it has been sitting for months now unused.

[gresults]

Got call from dealership today... They have now covered the failure, So other than having to go thru a few hoops to show the issue should be covered I very happy with GS with the final outcome I really just think somebody got fixated on the rust and failed to move past that. I will still keep updating this as the work is to begin but since the whole engine is being replaced I don't see to many issues here out. So overall I think if you can convince them a decision should be covered there is a very good possibility they will make things right as they have done in this case.

I know from reading post that some interactions are less than favorable so I have to admit going into this I was not very hopeful it would work out so I'm very surprised of the outcome but the plus side I hope to have a MH by the end of the summer.