Not broken, please fix.

The CTS-V is at the dealer. The axle came out of the diff (again) on One Lap and I had to knock it back together in a hotel parking lot and drive the car gently for the rest of the event. The dealer just called and said they put the car up and can't see anything wrong, which I told them, because I bashed it back together. Doesn't mean it's fixed, it just doesn't leak fluid. Can I replicate it? Probably but I need to bobble and catch the car in a fairly quick corner which is something I can't really do on the street.
GM told them to replace the whole thing but they're waiting for some super high level authorization because the mechanic can't see the problem because I had to fix the obvious symptom. Around and around we go. I was hoping the fact that this is the SECOND timr thr axle has come out would make things a bit easier. Apparently not. A bit frustrating.

1. Take home.
2. Remove faulty axle
3. Put back in precariously, so that it is obviously broken.
4. Call dealer, ask for tow.

......and say it failed on teh way home

Did you take photos of it in the broken condition? (AKA with a cell phone)

torch dealership... look for more co-operative dealership

" Hi. Can you please spend a big hunk of money on my say-so, without any evidence? Thanks a lot!"

Its probably a situation the aftermarket is going to have to fix. You are likely working outside the design parameters, and that little snapring on the axle (or in the side gear) isn't up to the stresses you are putting on it.

Don't you have the contact that you made on the One Lap? I would talk to him and I bet it's fixed in no time flat.

I have talked to the head of engineering development for the V cars and the dealership has been in contact with them. That's who told them to just replace the rear end. They actually saw one similar failure in testing and want to know if this is the same thing or not. For what it's worth, the guy who helped design the cars told me I was well within what they were designed to do. I don't have a picture because this all happened pretty much in the dark, including working on the car at 5:00 am to get it ready for the next day on track.
There's not much use being coy with them about how it happened. A quick google search would tell them what I do with the car. Oh, and the One Lap stickers are still all over it.
I understand they have to take my word, I was just hoping they would as it was an identical failure to the last one they 'fixed'.

bmw88rider wrote: Don't you have the contact that you made on the One Lap? I would talk to him and I bet it's fixed in no time flat.

Or give them the phone number of that contact....

jimbob_racing wrote:

bmw88rider wrote: Don't you have the contact that you made on the One Lap? I would talk to him and I bet it's fixed in no time flat.

Or give them the phone number of that contact....

They have that. It will probably all work out ok and I'll be telling you guys about Cadillac's fantastic support (which was amazing on One Lap) I'm just frustrated this morning.

I would think the call from the head engineer would be sufficient, but I also understand the Dealer not wanting to be left holding the bag. Good luck.

They'll fix it, just need to wait out the red tape.

Try rotating the tires. It sounds dumb but i had a customers bravada that would mysteriously pop a front halfshaft at random. Even though all four tires were the same size, one was different brand with a different amount of wear. It was on the corner that was popping out. After trying everything else we went with a new set of tires. It cured it. I have no idea why it caused the axle to repeatedly pop out but it did.

In reply to gearheadmb:

Because "Bro-vada"

I'm torn between feeling bad for you and envying your problems.

Harvey wrote: I'm torn between feeling bad for you and envying your problems.

Life isn't THAT bad.

mazdeuce wrote:

Harvey wrote: I'm torn between feeling bad for you and envying your problems.

Life isn't THAT bad.

Yeah, same here. You might have to bum a ride with the wife and the Porsche.

I do hope it gets resolved. It really should.

if you can't get any action on this … social media would be the way to go … twitter, instagram, FB …. those seem to be pretty solid means of getting someones attention

I got a call from my super nice service rep last night at 8:00 She says they're going to fix it, sounds like the whole rear end is getting swapped. She just needs the proper service authorization number before they can start turning wrenches. If they start before they get the number then they can get stuck with the bill instead of GM taking it. Red tape silliness that has nothing to do with me or the car. That made me happy. Hopefully they'll get what they need today and get started.

Great news.

That's good news. I expected that based on what you wrote in the one lap summery.

Warranty red tape is the worse. It took us 6 days to get our BMW fixed last time waiting for an SA# for a component that was clearly broke. At least we had a loaner car for the whole time.

The car is home. They couldn't figure out what was wrong, at all. At the request of GM they replaced the offending axle with the thought that if it happens again they will replace the diff. Because they can't physically see a problem, they're doing the old fashioned "replace parts until the problem goes away". The service manager was fantastic and I'm optimistic of good support from GM through them in the future.

but there won't be a repeat of the problem until you put it in the same distress …. so do they have to wait until next yrs One Lap (assuming you get to run it) and risk the axle actually separating while at speed on track ?

Or the warranty running out so its on your dime.

But wait! There's more!
Sounds lime GM called the dealer and asked for the rest of the parts.
What rest of the parts?
We told you to replace whe whole rear end and you sent us an axle. Where is the rest?
Uh.......
So it's going back tomorrow.