Anyone ever heard of something like this 'cause it's a new one to me... My girlfriend bought a 2011 Chevy Cruze earlier this year brand new. A few months ago she got rear ended pretty bad and the car was in the shop over 2 months getting repaired. Since she got it back it's been pretty cold out and within a week of her getting it back her windows fogged up on the inside when she turns the heat on and there was this wierd almost oily residue when you wiped the window. So all of us amateur rocket surgeons at work figured it was her heater core that was leaking. She took it in to the place who did all the work on her car after the accident and they apparently did all kinds of tests and the like on it but didn't find anything wrong. They topped off the antifreeze which was low (gee I wonder why) and told her that it was just dirty. Not a day after she gets it back it starts to fog up again and there's an oily residue on the windows again. I called the service department at the dealership and told them I'm bringing the thing in on Saturday and to have a heater core ready. For a start let me tell you all that I will never do any business with this dealer ship again after that conversation. The lady on the other end of the phone says that they first of all don't do anything but oil changes and tire rotations on Saturdays. So that got me going. Then she says that a technician has to verify that there's a problem. This lady herself saw that the windows were all fogged up when my honey brought the car in the first time and agreed that something is indeed wrong. When I interviewed her about her seeing it she says that her witnessing it doesn't count. I argued with the stubborn (I'll censor this) for almost 15 minutes but got nowhere. Today my girlfriend got ahold of the manager at the dealership and he had the most bizzare explanation for the problem I've heard in a long time. He asked her if she used moist paper towelettes or sanitizing wipes to clean her car to which she said yes. Then he offered the explanation that the sanitizing stuff somehow reacts with the plastic her car is made of and that stuff, once it gets heated, turns to some kind of vapour and deposits itself all over the windows as this oily residue. Supposedly it only does it in smaller vehicles because of the smaller volume of air inside them. I've never heard of this before and we were both wondering if anyone here has ever heard of this dashboard witchcraft before.

Cheers and thanks!

 

Heater Core


Find new dealer. Mail this one 100lbs of C4 for Christmas.

 

And the towelettes vaporizing explains the low coolant level how?

I think the manager is blowing hot oily fog up your _

 

It's the convection/evaporation effect caused by the alcohol left on the windows and absorbed by the transfer of the air/heat mixture as it comes out of the defroster duct. Sort of the same concept as an air conditioner removing heat instead of the conventional wisdom of supplying cold air.

 

Call the GM zone manager and start going up from there. Don't wait, these pin heads at the Dealership have shown they don't want to accept responsibility.

I would become their worst nightmare very quickly.

 

Hmmmm,

Thinking about this I read somewhere here that a mis-aligned dark absorber(s) can have with somewhat unexpected results. Add to that the obvious chemical reaction occurring between two inert substances, and voila - moisture on glass from plastic. One, or all, of your dark absorbers is probably mis- aligned. I think Blake has it at the moment, not two weeks a go his seats kept getting all gooey! Blake found that improper ventilation, armor all, bad air density, and yep you guessed it mis aligned dark absorbers, caused the whole dang thing.

 

Thanks guys, I knew they were having us on but it's always good to have others confirm it for when I go back and raise a big stink there. I made a mark on the expansion tank where the fluid level was and we'll see how much it drops in the next few days. I'll show them this mark and ask what their hypothesis is on this. Then I'll leave and go to another dealer. This is the biggest dealer in Calgary too, you'd think they have decent customer service instead of a fairy tale factory!

 

1 out of the 3 GM dealerships in my county is worth their salt. After what I went thru to get my 02 2500HD worth the money I paid for it I was also ready to go ballistic.

The excuses are so borderline assinine that it amazes me how stupid they think people must be.

My 02 was using oil, almost exactly 1 quart between changes. I was told it was nothing to worry about as the new 6.0 liters were designed to burn it for more power and it was normal for a brand new motor to use oil until the seals swelled up!!

The Chevy dealer I took it to for a second opinion basically said what came to be true. The 6.0 takes 6 quarts of oil, not 5 as the smallblocks from the past. The other service guy was only putting 5 quarts in it! I couldn't do much since it came with two years of free oil changes from the original dealer. He asked me what he could do to make things right with me and Chevrolet again and became my service manager of choice thru the time I owned that truck. He also honored the remainder of the oil changes that came with the truck originally. They also get my Tahoe for stuff beyond my skill level.

You need to find another dealer.

 

I knew just a few words into this that it is a heater core problem.

 

Let me know when they tell you that the adaptive learning computer has not yet figured out that the windows are fogged up. In 98 I had one of the first VP-44 24 valve trucks...7 failed injectors pump as to which the area service rep told me that my truck had a new kind of adaptive learning computer and it had not yet figured out my driving habits. True Story. Even the manage of the dealership called BS on that one.

Oily vapor in the cab will be hard to get out of it once its there. It sticks to everything. Isn't there a real easy way to test for whats in the vapor? black light? I recall there was/is a way to check to see if the vapor is anti freeze besides tasting it.

 

Call your insurance agent he will light a fire under them.and get it fixed