Yeh your right Jeb it works both ways. The dealers are limited by what ford or GM say. Yeh I got to give GM credit for the injectors. As expensive as they are thats a big plus. GMs sure trying to build up its diesel reputation. Off course Fords had a great reputation up until the 6.0s came out. GM almost had to do something with this injector thing though as problematic as they have been. If people went to the duramax that have had a ford and begin to have problems. They will drop that duramax like a hot potato and go back to Ford. The only reason they went GM is because of the 6.0 problems. A lot of them will go back as soon as this 6.0 thing is straightened out. Ford truck people are a pretty loyal bunch especially on the superduty side. GM knows that and are offering this warranty because of it. Hey they dont want to have people going back to ford. Jeb I hope your getting your problems straightened out. Thanks for th excellent post there.

 

I will have to say that as a whole Chevy's customer service is probably not as good as Fords. I base this on things I have heard from people all around the country. My business uses Chevys and Fords. No Dodges. With my local dealers, I have found the opposite to be true. The Chevy dealer is much more willing to go above and beyond than the Ford dealer. For example, My newest 2500 Hd. ,13,000 miles, had a rear end seal start leaking. They Chevy dealer didn't replace the seal. He said that since he couldn't see any seal mis-alignment, he was going to rebuild the rear end "because something had to cause it to go bad." They built it. The Local Ford dealer on the other hand has always done as little as possible to get by. When I threaten them with I wont buy any more trucks from you, they will come around and take care of the repair. Even if its technically borderline as to whether its warranty or not. It depands on the dealer. I guarantee you if I had piston slap in any of our Chevys under warranty, I would have a new engine in a few days. I think as a whole, Ford is a better truck. My personal trucks are Fords, but business is business. When It comes to business, I buy the Cheaper of the two. Sometimes its Ford, Sometimes its Chevy. Maintenance wise, I have had about the same amount of problems from both brands.

 

ga302p, you make good points, and its nice to see a fairly unbiased view, but you say that your experiences are Ford customer service. What the dealer does has minimal Ford involvement outside of requesting the repair if they think it is needed. When a dealer submits a warranty repair request, Ford or GM will accept it 90% of the time, unless it is an obvious end user fault. What you have is a bad Ford dealer and a good GM dealer, people in another state could say the opposite.

This post is not so much defending Ford, and is most certainly not a knock against GM, just pointing out a common mistake by people thinking that its Ford's fault or GM's fault it wont get fixed, instead of just an A-hole service manager.

My best suggestion, go to a Lincoln/Mercury dealer, everyone I know that has had service and tried one, has had great success.

 

That is the point I was making. The problem is with the dealers. If your dealer wants to get you a new engine for piston slap, they will.

 

I hate to say it ga302p if you had piston slap in your chevy iit wouldbe darn near impossible to get a new motor from them. Thats why there is lawsuits and people suing GM. Regardless of the dealer if GM says no your not going to get any results. Hey you just dont get a motor in a few days. You mught have to go fight nail and tooth with them to get anything done. Check out the GM forums and piston slap.com it will really open your eyes to the magnitude of this problem. I hope you never have to experience this.

 

Not to put any one of you guys done or anything but Ford has these problems as well not just Chevy or Dodge, either way its both 50/50, if you go to *********.com you got people complaining over situations causing there own vehicles to be the same and Ford dealt with many lawsuits as well with GM. No brand is superior to the other just the people who make them think they are.

 

Trust me, If the dealer had to say it was because of extreme blow by, mains knocking, rods knocking, no oil pressure etc. He would get me a new engine. He got me a new transfer case because the old one had a very mior whine in it in 4wd high. There are ways around the problems with the manufacturers not wanting to make their stuff good. If you buy good volume from your dealer, they will take care of you. It is also my understanding that the piston slap was only a problem in 2001 and part of 2002. (with the exception of the 496). 15-40 will take care of 90% of the problem in it. The piston redesign took care of the problem in the other engines. I can also assure you that if I did have an engine that had piston slap, If the dealer wouldn't replace it, it wouldn't take me but a couple thousand miles and there would be a lot more wrong with the engine than piston slap.

 

I disagree. I can't believe that every truck is the exact same and not any one of them is any better than any other one.

 

To me, its all in how you take care of the truck. I have seen a few high mileage Chevys (most of our Chevy farm trucks made it to 190k before needing a rebuild or new engine, but trans problems long before that far), a few high mileage Dodges (the 2 Dodge D-100's we had made it to 120k before big problems, but lots of low mileage trans problems) and a few high mileage Fords (ones in my family have made it to 250k before blowing a head gasket or something similar--the way most old Fords go), but from my experience the Fords are the ones who make it that far with the least amount of problems.

 

Yo can't judge every truck like that, though, because with every truck, it's not how you take care of it. I have a 145,000 mile F-150 that has never had any kind of maintenance other than regular oil changes, and it has been grossly overloaded and abused regularly. I have replaced my power steering box, one brake caliper, the tensioner pulley, the starter and the door mirror on the passenger door. The mirror was my fault, but I can definitely say that my truck has performed without fail or any offer not to get me home but one time, and I was at the gas station (thank God) when the starter went. That's no maintenance other than oil changes. I don't see a Dodge doing that. I also let this truck sit in a field for 18 months without even being looked at, and it still has all original fluids, coolant and all. Crazy? Maybe, testament to Ford? Definitely.

 

Kind of off subject, but if the Chevrolet engines are so bad, why do they dominate the inboard outboard marine industry. They are probably 10 to 1 against Ford in the inboard industry also. Right off, I cant think of a Ford engine that is being put into a boat. I saw a 502 Chevy boat running this weekend. I hate to say it, but it was impressive. I had seen the 502 in big cabin type boats, but this was the first time I had seen a speed boat with that engine. It didn't have piston slap either.

 

I didnt say they were bad. I just like Ford engines better. This piston slap issue has been a sore spot for there engines and GMs handling of the situation has been terrible. I personally know die hard chevy guys that have bought Fords because of this and many complaints about there trucks. They were just fed up. Im not saying that Ford doesnt have problems They do. But I think Ford has a better engine,drivetrain and chassis than anybody else and will hold up better over the long haul. Hey Im not going to say anymore. Idont have a chevy truck. Just going by what peole tell
me. If Chevy is losing some truck sales Its there own fault. Just hopefully they will make better more quality trucks like they used to. Its up to them. BTW I think Chevys older 350 motors were some of the strongest and durable motors ever made. I dont think these newer motors are going to live up to the 350s of the past.

 

You can't think of Mercury, or the countless Bayliners that have 5.0 engines?

 

A Mercury boat motor has NOTHING in common with a Mercury car. In fact, their onboard engines are variations of Chevy engines, like the 4.3L V6, 2.8L V6, and 2.2L I-4.

 

I don't know man. I've seen more 350s go in and out of chevys. I don't see anything durable about old 350s. They are a powerhouse and some of the fastest trucks I've ever been around were 350 powered but when really put through it they didn't last very long at all. Friend of mine in school had a '84 swb 350. I helped him put 4 brand new blocks in that thing in about 2 years. And I put my old 300 I-six through the same killer driving habits he did hid. His truck would definitely blow my doors off but we were always using the ole ford to tow his back in after he would through a rod etc. I'll admit that this is an extreme case but just doesn't really convince me that the 350 was a durable engine.