Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
SUVs Chevrolet Equinox 2010 Chevy Equinox Downshift Problems
59 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 12:07 PM
You are in the Chevrolet Equinox Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
|
Today I spent 3.5 hours with the engineer in charge of fuel effeciency for the new Equinox (the "ECO" button - he created that). GM sent him down from Detroit (to Lexington, KY - about a 6 hr. drive) specifically to drive with us. Very nice and very smart. Without typing a novel, I'll tell you what happened. It turns out to be a tranny programming issue as the dealers thought. The person who actually writes the tranny program for the Nox works under the engineer who came down. Everything I have described in this thread and others as symptoms it did, which was good. The driving characteristics were rather harsh to him compared to other Noxs he has driven, which are many. He was, however, able to explain why every symptom existed except for one (but the solution fixed that, explained below). He did say that although uniformity in parts and software is the goal, small differences happen during the manufacturing process (and GM largely buys parts from suppliers and doesn't make them themselves) that can make one vehicle a little different from another. This might be why some exhibit more symptoms than others. Without going into specifics, all the symptoms were related to things designed to conserve fuel. Long story short, he put a new tranny program into my vehicle that influences the operation of various transmission and fuel conserving components. It actually was just officially approved yesterday, and will begin to be put into new Equinox production vehicles possibly as early as Tuesday (Sept. 22). My vehicle is the first one with this new program that is not a GM corporate vehicle, and only a few of those have it. The difference is amazing! It drives like a different vehicle. Although the symptoms we experienced while driving the vehicle were either new to him or more harsh than he's experienced before (i.e.: they didn't specifically make this new program to solve the symptoms I've described), this new program makes a world of difference and solves most all of the problems I've described. For those thinking about not buying the Nox because of the tranny issues described - don't be hesitant any longer. I no longer discourage people from buying this vehicle because of transmission behavior. If GM if full of people like this guy they will do great so long as people put their biases aside and actually give the vehicles a chance. For those of you experiencing the symptoms who already purchased one, email me (wallyuwl  yahoo.com) and I'll tell you how I understand to get the fix. They may not release it as a full-blown bulletin (there are what I consider good reasons for that based on what this engineer said), so it might not be obvious to your dealer that there is a fix out there, but they should be able to get and do the fix (though I'm not sure on the timeline) with a little prodding. The fix is literally a 5 minute thing to actually perform.
|
|
|
Replying to: wallyuwl (Sep 19, 2009 1:28 pm) Let's keep the conversation right here so everyone will benefit.  tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper
|
|
|
Replying to: tidester (Sep 19, 2009 5:26 pm)
|
|
|
Replying to: wallyuwl (Sep 19, 2009 5:32 pm) Yet you're comfortable inviting people to contact you "privately?" Perhaps you ought not to have extended the invitation in the first place? Personally, I don't see why you just wouldn't "reveal" the fix if you think you have one. tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper
|
|
|
Replying to: tidester (Sep 19, 2009 5:43 pm)
|
|
|
Replying to: wallyuwl (Sep 19, 2009 6:05 pm) And that is why I wonder why you brought it up in the first place. When one raises an issue in a public Forum I think one should endeavor to keep the conversation in that Forum rather than inviting people to take the discussion off line which tends to defeat the purpose of a Forum. tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper |
|
|
Glad to hear you got your issue resolved. (I knew you would, as indicated in my earleir post.) This was the only significant issue I've heard about with the '10 Equinox. Now that it's fixed, it seems that the early results are very good. Now that you've changed your mind about your earlier comments about not buying this vehicle, its too bad you can't Re-name this thread to something more appropriate 
|
|
|
Replying to: ragtop262 (Sep 22, 2009 12:29 pm) Although I wouldnt' say the issue is "fixed" (a few tweaks to the cal would still help, though I'm more picky than most), the driving characteristics of the vehicle are much better with this new cal. Also knowing what GM did to further understand and resolve the complaint once the "right people" knew also counts for something. Wish the title could be changed. Oh well.
|
|
|
Replying to: wallyuwl (Sep 22, 2009 12:39 pm) If you have a better suggestion than ours, just yell. |
|
| My 10 2LT with the 4cylinder was produced the week of October 19th. The transmission shifting is very good. No problems to report. | |
You are here:
Forums
SUVs Chevrolet Equinox 2010 Chevy Equinox Downshift Problems
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
