My dad's duramax had recently broke down. Took it to a authorized GM dealer and took it all apart. The piston was demolished. My father has had about dozen guys say that the injectors had caused it. With chevy having the 200,000 mile warranty on the injectors on it. Do you think that GM should sponsor their warranty for what the injectors had caused?

 

Tough call. If the injectors were faulty and they were the direct cause of the problem, GM should probably cover it. Otherwise, not sure I'd penalize GM for something outside their normal warranty coverage.

 

How would injector's demolish a piston?

If they stuck open or something? With all the electronics on the Duramax, anything can probably cause anything, but I don't see how injectors can destroy a piston.


Unless they broke off or something. There were pictures on here a while ago of an engine that was destroyed when a glow plug broke off inside of it.

 

If GM says that it's the injectors, then yes, they should cover it under their 200,000 mile warranty. If they say it's not and your out of their normal warranty coverage then good luck trying to get them to fix it. You could have every mechanic in the country tell them it's the injectors but as long as GM says no then it don't matter.

 

If injector seized open, and/or spray pattern is intensified into a stream of fuel instead of being atomized then yes it should be covered(unless it was just dirty/plugged spray holes), and not a manufacturing defect.

They should have done their tests to determine bad injector, but damage may have already been done by time of injector change and they missed the damage it caused. Get area rep involved, and to look over it himself.

 

Actually this something that will happen with common rail engines, we have had some ISB disentegrate from failure of injector needle allowing full common rail pressure to fill the cylinder with fuel and destroying that cylinder. seems that a fluid does not like being compressed.

 

Seems like it would blow one of the used beer can heads before eating a piston.
Maybe it did both and they just haven't found it yet.

 

seen it on one of my rigs, injector stream created hot cylinder melting #2 piston.

 

If cylinder would have filled up with diesel, that head woulda popped, and coolant and oil would be all over, along with bent rod probably, and maybe crank(no way even a gm mechanic could miss that) .

Probably burned a hole in it like I stated in my previous post, as it can happen in mechanical injection (1st +2nd gens), and electronic injectors on newer common rail engines.

 

Does the warranty exclude damadges caused by the injectors? That would suck for your dad, but I wouldn't be suprised to see GM put it in there to cover themselves...

 

I read a while back about a Duramax failing because of inferior material used in a valve stem that failed . Keep the engine and all the parts . Let GM know you are having all the valve train parts examined for defects . In the other case GM offered the owner $10,000 . He turned it down and took them to court . GM ended up paying for the repairs and bought the truck back . The article was in Truck Trend magazine several months ago . Write to Truck Trend , get the info and take it to the dealer .

 

I don't know much about these small diesels, but in a big diesel an injector tip can break/fall off and cause some real headaches to a piston.

 

From my understanding, on the injector, if it sprays in a bad pattern, or one side clogs, it will cause some rust and scar the piston walls which causes the bad piston or meltdown. If the motor is over 100K then I would say he will repair it out of pocket. Not saying its right because I too would be mad about it. Heck anymore the companies will void a warranty o have nothing covered at all. Especially read the fine print.