I'll apologize in advance - I am not a car expert and definitely not a diesel expert but I'm at wits end to figure out what is going on with our Colorado.
We have had to take our truck to the dealership 3x all for problems with the exhaust filter - all this in with only about 6800 miles (bought in late March 2017).
First time was about 60 days in to ownership. I drove the truck in to the city from the suburbs. I drove it for about 30 min at highway speeds before getting in to stop and go traffic in town. We took it to the dealership and they said the particulate sensor filter had "misfired" because the truck wasn't able to regen. They reset the sensor and we were on our way.
Second time was about 60 days after the 1st incident and occurred after I took the truck back to my home town; a drive of about 300 miles at 65-75 mph (so plenty of time to regen as many times as it wanted). We again took it in to the dealership and this time they claimed that GM was aware of the issue and they ordered a new filter from MI (took about 2 weeks to get it in and installed).
The truck is currently back at the dealership, we made it about 9 weeks from the last time. The dealer was able to determine that the truck has only regened about 17 times in 6800 miles in spite of multiple, hours-long, highway speeds trip. This last time started when I went out to the truck to drive to work. I got the error message "exhaust filter cleaning, do not stop driving". I live in a residential neighborhood and attempted to drive to a location away from elementary schools where I could drive at speeds greater than 35 mph, but in about 5 minutes I started getting an alarm and in less than 10 minutes the error message said that "cleaning failed, engine power reduced".
The dealership indicated that they were able to duplicate this error (less than 10 minutes to correct with no prior warning), but GM says that's SOP.
We are going to get the truck back and attempt to do what I call "burping the truck" and take it out for about 50 minutes once a week at highway speeds, but this seems insane to me that this is really the way this truck is meant to perform. We have had a brand new filter installed for less than 2000 miles and it's already catastrophically failed? Why is this time our fault when last time GM admitted that owners were having this problem? Is there anyway for us to force a regen?
Any insight would be appreciated.
UPDATE: 1/6/18
Well, now I drive a gas-engine Silverado. After the last time, the truck made it less than 400 miles before it throttled the engine back. Even better, I had just exited the Interstate Highway, going at speeds of 60-70 mph, I got a flashing dashboard light, and the truck slowed to about 10 mph with NO prior warning. We could've been killed if we had been towing a trailer on the highway and the thing came to a screeching stop with no warning. I had GM tow it back to the dealer and opened a customer complaint/problem file. GM insists that this is how diesels, and in particular, their diesel is designed to work. They refused to do anything saying, "we won't repair it because we don't believe that there is anything wrong or anything that can be repaired".
Thankfully the dealer we had purchased it from, (Newberg Chevy in OR) put together a reasonably similar deal for us on a crew-cab Silverado. I've never been happier to get rid of a vehicle. TBH, after this experience, I don't think we'll ever buy another Chevy. GM refuses to stand by their product and is just fine telling customers that's it's perfectly normal to have your car break down every 400 miles.
We have had to take our truck to the dealership 3x all for problems with the exhaust filter - all this in with only about 6800 miles (bought in late March 2017).
First time was about 60 days in to ownership. I drove the truck in to the city from the suburbs. I drove it for about 30 min at highway speeds before getting in to stop and go traffic in town. We took it to the dealership and they said the particulate sensor filter had "misfired" because the truck wasn't able to regen. They reset the sensor and we were on our way.
Second time was about 60 days after the 1st incident and occurred after I took the truck back to my home town; a drive of about 300 miles at 65-75 mph (so plenty of time to regen as many times as it wanted). We again took it in to the dealership and this time they claimed that GM was aware of the issue and they ordered a new filter from MI (took about 2 weeks to get it in and installed).
The truck is currently back at the dealership, we made it about 9 weeks from the last time. The dealer was able to determine that the truck has only regened about 17 times in 6800 miles in spite of multiple, hours-long, highway speeds trip. This last time started when I went out to the truck to drive to work. I got the error message "exhaust filter cleaning, do not stop driving". I live in a residential neighborhood and attempted to drive to a location away from elementary schools where I could drive at speeds greater than 35 mph, but in about 5 minutes I started getting an alarm and in less than 10 minutes the error message said that "cleaning failed, engine power reduced".
The dealership indicated that they were able to duplicate this error (less than 10 minutes to correct with no prior warning), but GM says that's SOP.
We are going to get the truck back and attempt to do what I call "burping the truck" and take it out for about 50 minutes once a week at highway speeds, but this seems insane to me that this is really the way this truck is meant to perform. We have had a brand new filter installed for less than 2000 miles and it's already catastrophically failed? Why is this time our fault when last time GM admitted that owners were having this problem? Is there anyway for us to force a regen?
Any insight would be appreciated.
UPDATE: 1/6/18
Well, now I drive a gas-engine Silverado. After the last time, the truck made it less than 400 miles before it throttled the engine back. Even better, I had just exited the Interstate Highway, going at speeds of 60-70 mph, I got a flashing dashboard light, and the truck slowed to about 10 mph with NO prior warning. We could've been killed if we had been towing a trailer on the highway and the thing came to a screeching stop with no warning. I had GM tow it back to the dealer and opened a customer complaint/problem file. GM insists that this is how diesels, and in particular, their diesel is designed to work. They refused to do anything saying, "we won't repair it because we don't believe that there is anything wrong or anything that can be repaired".
Thankfully the dealer we had purchased it from, (Newberg Chevy in OR) put together a reasonably similar deal for us on a crew-cab Silverado. I've never been happier to get rid of a vehicle. TBH, after this experience, I don't think we'll ever buy another Chevy. GM refuses to stand by their product and is just fine telling customers that's it's perfectly normal to have your car break down every 400 miles.