2021 silverado transfer case yoke broken

Ammon1981 · January 10, 2022

Hello everyone, I am looking for some feedback/help. I have a 2021 silverado 2500hd with plow package. Purchased in May of 21, has 37k miles on it. I live in Central MN and we recently had a series of blizzards. During the first 1 I was out driving mom to her destination and in the process I slid off the road. There is no ditch it more like a 8" difference between road and shoulder. Anyway, there was about 10" of snow on the road and while I was walking out of the rut there was a loud bang and my truck stopped moving. I was not running gears and never went from forward to reverse without being stopped first. The dealer is telling me the yoke on my transfer case broke, and that caused the driveshaft to put a hole in the case. Now they are saying warranty won't cover it because I over torqued it. How is that even possible in snow and ice? And wouldn't a U Joint, CV, or driveshaft give long before the Yoke on the T Case?

mrjulian416 · January 22, 2022

So you were out driving in a blizzard, slid off the road into a ditch (no more than 8" deep off course), understandably banged up the underside of the truck on "somethings", and you think that's a manufacturers defect? That's what most people call an "insurance claim".

Ammon1981 · January 22, 2022

No I didn't bang anything up, I was tying to get back on the road. I was still moving and I did not hit anything. Follow up to this post I brought my truck to another dealership and they took a little more apart. discovered that the bearings inside my transfer case failed and caused the Ujoint to fail. They are going to cover it under warranty.

NWStever · January 22, 2022

The fracture surfaces of the yoke need to be examined microscopically with good illumination to assess if the failure was caused by fatigue crack growth to final fracture (when the yoke was being heavily loaded as you "walked out from the shoulder"). Think of it this way; if a significant portion of the yoke cross-section was cracked by a growing fatigue crack, the yoke when heavily loaded may not be able to withstand the loading stresses and then can "catastrophically fail" to complete fracture into two or more pieces. If the fracture was caused by fatigue there will be tell-tale characteristics that indicate fatigue and where the crack initiated and how far it grew until the final fracture event. Crack initiation sites for fatigue crack development are typically associated with surface defects such as a deep scratch or gouge or maybe a forging or casting defect. Examination by someone with extensive experience repairing broken equipment may be fruitful. If the fatigue crack initiation site can be traced to an as-delivered defect, it may provide a good argument in support of a warranty claim.

For clarity do understand that for common failure analysis of fractures the following terminology and defintion is used by failure analysts. To wit, a part is cracked before it fractures completely into two or more pieces. Try to avoid piecing the two halves of the fractured yoke back together as mechanical rubbing damage between the two fracture surfaces will obliterate fracture details. That can make interpretation of the fracture cause more difficult and less definitive. If you can take well-illuminated pictures of the yoke and fracture surfaces, it may be possible to give you a remote assessment of the failure cause.

However, in spite of all that, I agree with mrjulian416 that an insurance claim for damages sustained by sliding off the road will probably be the best route to take to cover your damage costs. Unless there is clear indication of a yoke manufacturing defect as root cause for the fracture, GM will (rightfully) refuse a warranty claim.

Go get 'em and good luck!

Edited January 22, 2022 by NWStever

NWStever · January 22, 2022

Whoops I see that the "other dealership" identified a root cause and has agreed to process a warranty claim. Winning!

You might think about how snow-plowing when in 4WD could be a possible contributing factor for transfer case bearing and u-joint failures.

MTU Alum · January 22, 2022

Generally, the front prop shaft is supposed to be the fuse in front driveline. The worst thing you can do is have a bunch of wheel spin in truck in 4wd and have front wheels hit dry asphalt or concrete. You will break something if transfer case does not have some type of clutch to slip.

#iworkforGM

Z45 · January 22, 2022

Generally speaking if you run of the road its considered an accident and accidents can damage vehicles. Seen the happen a few times as we get severe winter weather up here is da U.P. of Michigan as well.

I think you dodged a bullet getting a dealer to warranty it.

Edited January 22, 2022 by elcamino