2009 Chevy cargo van defects

[Lucky 1]

My van has only 37,404 miles.
I bought it with 34,000 miles.

The heater fan just quit working.
I go online and find out many heater fans on Chevys and other makes are all failing.

The resister pack is the culprit, also the blower motors, and wiring connectors.
Make sure to check the relay in the fuse box under the drivers seat.
it is the big grey cube all the way to the rear of the fuse box.

While I was online I also found out that my van has serious transmission defects.
The problem can be expected to cost more than $3,000 dollars and could be at the 60,000
mile mark.

The fuse box in the engine compartment has a removable lid, but once you get the lid off the fuse box
there is no way to get the lid of the fuse box out of that space to get to the fuses!
I tried turning the lid in different directions and so forth. Cheeeesssshhh!!!!!

Hope I can get that fan working by winter time.

[TOOLS1]

What did you expect? You bought a chevy.
TOOLS

[free2ride]

110 Worst Cars of All Time:

59. 1975 Chevrolet Monza: Variation on the flimsy Vega that could be ordered with a 262-cubic-inch small-block V8 that only made 110 hp and needed to be tilted with a hoist to change its rearmost spark plugs.

[Lucky 1]

Well I owned a Ford van before the Chevy van and the spark plugs blew out of the cylinder heads.
1/2 reach plugs in a aluminum cylinder head. Only about 4 threads were hanging on.

Then in 2006 Ford made special spark plugs twice as long with a metal cone on the front end and when you try to remove those the spark plugs break off in the cylinder head and requires a $200. tool kit to try to get the plug out.

You can go to Google and type in "Ford spark plug  problems" and entertain yourself all night long.

[Beekeeper]

I'm familar with that plug issue.  The early Triton modular motors,  like you say, only have 3 to 4 threads in the heads for the plugs.  When the plug goes, it takes out the coil also.  I fought  long and hard with them about it being a factory defect, and tried to join a class action case that never seemed to get off the ground.  To get to the back plugs, you have to back the rear onto ramps,  assemble a platform to stand on, remove the fuel rail, and have a good selection of wobblys, extensions, etc.  It doesn't hurt to recruit a young helper to fetch beers and tools.

[shinyribs]

Lucky,what tranny does your van have? The 4L60E or the 4L80E? The manufacturer installed a really ''cushy'' accumalator spring in those tranny's to provide a nice,soft shift. Well, we all now that won't last long in a heavy duty vehicle. There is an updated accumalator spring available the will firm up the shift and prevent the clutches from dying due to excessive slippage caused by the original design. Any competent shop can do the swap in a couple hours. I imagine you could handle the job yourself pretty easy. IIRC,they are accessible from the side of the case.You don't even have to drop the pan or drain the fluid.

Good luck bud,I lived this one years ago with a '98 K20 with a 4L80E. Mine died (at 56K)but was put back together with the good spring. The firmer shift was juuuuust barely noticeable. It was not harsh at all.

[Lucky 1]

Thanks for that valuable info Shiny ribs.

I will be certainly checking into all that .

[shinyribs]

No problem bud. I tell everyone that owns one of these when I find out. That tranny cost me $2,300 to rebuild in '02. I wish someone woulda told me

[Re-run]

Not a cargo van but I have a couple s10/15s that had the 4l60e tranny and it never gave me issues. Even with the brake stands I used to do and the street racing. My Sonoma was actually fairly potent for racing and was good at filling intersections with tire smoke.

To be honest, I had little issues with any of my GM products. My hhr did have shitty rotors on the front but some good raybestos rotors took care of that. Otherwise it have 109K on it with no work at all.
the Olds cutlass supreme and cieras were trouble-free too.

My Mercury sable deathtrap otoh, well it is a death trap for a reason. Most cars require snow and ice to slid, this thing only required some wet pavement, in the summer. The rear sway bar links are weak points. the rear suspension arm was a thin piece of stamped metal. THTA was a piece of garbage.

Lets not even mention the Plymouth Neon my wife had.

[rich]

I've got a 2006 Silverado 1500 that has the same problem with the blower motor connections. The connectors can't handle the amps at highest setting and begin to melt. Fires and smoke have been reported. Chevy will replace the connectors with an upgraded version for free (I haven't taken mine in yet).

I didn't know about the service bulletin. I bought my truck used and the high speed setting didn't work when I got it. I bought a new resister pack and it lasted about a week before high speed stopped working again. That's when I did some checking and found out about the free fix.

I'm not sure what transmission I have but I'll check it out. I've got over 70K miles and it seems to shift fine.

 

[shinyribs]

A 1500 more than likely has the 4L60. From what I've been told the 4L60's held up much better than the 4L80's. 4L60's are basically just an electronically controlled 700R4.Which was basically a TH350 with an overdrive shoved in them. The 700R4's were famous for burning up the overdrive clutches. It just wasn't well thought out. Also,at the time GM didn't have a HD auto with an overdrive. So they redesigned the 700R4 into the 4L60 (uses TH350 planetaries,but beefier clutches)and the TH400 ''became'' the 4L80. The 4L60's have tighter gear ratios that help to mask/prevent the issue. The 4L80's had a deeper 1st gear (higher towing capacity) so the shift from 1st to 2nd is more strenuous than what the 60 sees. BUT (you gotta love GM...) not all of the transmissions were being built by the same companies. GM contracts out their engines and tranny's to private firms.(The GM Performance Parts heads on my Impala are made by a company called Zeus???and were assembled with Manley valves) They are built to GM's specs,but they source parts from different vendors...if you can wrap your head around that. That's why some of them held up and some of them dropped like flies.Apparently all of the ''good'' tranny's found their way into Camaro's, Firebird's and most 2wd's,whereas the hokie ones ended up primarily in trucks,vans and 4WD's. Some were built with the ''defective'' accumulator spring,whereas others were originally built with the ''updated'' version.Isn't big business just wonderful???

[shinyribs]

Re-run wrote

Not a cargo van but I have a couple s10/15s that had the 4l60e tranny and it never gave me issues. Even with the brake stands I used to do and the street racing. My Sonoma was actually fairly potent for racing and was good at filling intersections with tire smoke.

 I like this guy. We have a good Boss here

[Lucky 1]

I checked on a free fix.
Chevy dealer told me it was only covered to 36,000 miles.
I have 37,404  I am on my own now.

[Lucky 1]

Great info Shinyribs!

Thanks for taking your time to tell us al about this.

[Lucky 1]

I think every engineer should be made to repair the part of the car that they designed.
****After the car is assembled.

[free2ride]

Lucky 1 wrote

I checked on a free fix.
Chevy dealer told me it was only covered to 36,000 miles.
I have 37,404  I am on my own now.

murphy's law. condolences.

[shinyribs]

Lucky 1 wrote

I think every engineer should be made to repair the part of the car that they designed.
****After the car is assembled.

 I totally agree! I've been saying this for years concerning air conditioning equipment. Anyone here ever try to remove/install a reversing valve in a heat pump in the field??? The factory pays $150 on a warranty claim to do this repair. It's a three hour job for two men,start to finish.Aaaand,it requires a new set of refrigeration line filters and roughly $75 worth of refrigerant to complete the job. Ridiculous.

Wow.Sorry guys. I'm on a roll for rants tonight!

[LukeM]

I'll brew you a pot of decaf.  Might calm you down a bit. Better yet, fire up the Water Buffalo and go for a nice leisurely ride.  "Therapy is expensive: Wind is cheap."

Luke M

[Lucky 1]

Maybe some engineers might read this?

[shinyribs]

LOL. Thanks Luke. I needed that