Buy a GMC 2500HD or 3500HD at your own risk. Here is my story. HELP.

KC Desert · June 23, 2023

I bought a 2020 GMC 2500HD AT4 as soon as they were generally available in September 2019 and immediately had several issues including an off-center steering wheel, squealing brakes and other annoyances like a bad coolant sensor (That rusted apparently in coolant because of poor design), DEF sensors and ended up with three front-differential replacements. THREE. They all “grenaded”. This is an AT4 that had barely any Offroad time much less, ever in 4WD. I have 17 cases open with GM. SEVENTEEN, guys. I got nothing from them but a barely useful “extended” warranty.

Then last week the truck left us stranded on the side of the road again, a mile from home. Enough. I have been looking for a replacement for a while but no one has inventory of 2500’s or 3500’s. I had it towed to the nearest dealer, OnStar did not cover the warranty I had to buy their app to get that “service” even though I was “gifted” this extended warranty because of the other issues. The truck had 40k miles on it. The dealer they towed it to just had a 2024 3500HD Dually which was ordered and not accepted by the guy who placed the order. It had 4 miles on it. I said trade me NOW, I cannot deal with this anymore. How could two trucks have major issues 4 years apart? I went for it. Got the truck at MSRP and lost 14k on my trade in because it was a busted piece of trash when it was delivered to the dealer on a tow truck. Not great. Not great at all. GM said well, maybe we will call you in 4-5 days.

I got the new dually, beautiful truck right? Wrong. 170 miles on the truck, most of that from the dealer to my house and back, to get paint protection installed (which they screwed up the first time) and other little things done. I was planning to take my first road trip this weekend and I started the vehicle as I was loading it. A weird, loud fluttering noise came from underneath!!! I looked for a bag in the fan blades and that wasnt it. I tried to drive it to the dealer to see what it was and it would not shift gears from 1, to 2 to 3 and so on. Transmission took a dump.

I called OnStar and towed it away. Maybe 4 weeks to get it back, brand new, broken transmission. So I ask, what in the name of god is going on at GM? I have no choice but to go legal now. I was patient but this is insanity. I have a 5th wheel stuck in another state AGAIN because of a GM product. Ford probably isnt much better but here we are. What am I supposed to do? HELP.

kevin74 · June 23, 2023

I would be curious to know what the issues where with your 2020 that left you stranded? We recently traded in a Duramax because we loved the engine, hated the emissions. It left us stranded several times with DEF heaters and sensors going out randomly. Loving our gas 6.6 at the moment. Sorry you are having issues, I hope everything gets sorted to your satisfaction.

KC Desert · June 23, 2023

2 hours ago, kevin74 said:

I would be curious to know what the issues where with your 2020 that left you stranded? We recently traded in a Duramax because we loved the engine, hated the emissions. It left us stranded several times with DEF heaters and sensors going out randomly. Loving our gas 6.6 at the moment. Sorry you are having issues, I hope everything gets sorted to your satisfaction.

The issues were the front differential multiple times which was rebuilt once and replaced with a “new” one twice. The differential blew out to the point where the axle was not engaged properly from what I could tell. All I know is it was un-Drivable at that point and we had to pull over. Most of these issues occurred while we were not towing anything.

DuckBoi · June 24, 2023

Were you driving in 4wd auto? If so that would indicate why your front diffs kept blowing up on you. These trucks have 12 bolt ifs front diffs from aam that are one of the best front ends you can get, period, but if you are driving in 4wd auto and the front tires go from spinning to hooking up, youll easily destroy that front diff, especially at freeway speeds. Other than that, they are disengaged if driving in 2wd so no way they could randomly blow up in 2wd unless physics are being defied here?

KC Desert · June 24, 2023

9 hours ago, DuckBoi said:

Were you driving in 4wd auto? If so that would indicate why your front diffs kept blowing up on you. These trucks have 12 bolt ifs front diffs from aam that are one of the best front ends you can get, period, but if you are driving in 4wd auto and the front tires go from spinning to hooking up, youll easily destroy that front diff, especially at freeway speeds. Other than that, they are disengaged if driving in 2wd so no way they could randomly blow up in 2wd unless physics are being defied here?

Auto is Auto, 4WD is separate but 4WD can engage on its own while the truck is in Auto. We drove 2WD 99.9% of the time. Something must be spinning in that assembly or else it would not blow apart. The dealer says it “grenaded” itself. Well how does that happen in 2WD? You got me.