Ken Fichtner

We have had a several calls on this technical service bulletin so I am posting it for your reference.

Note that the TSB only affects new unsold in-inventory Corvettes!



GM SERVICE AND PARTS OPERATIONS
DCS 2223
URGENT DISTRIBUTE IMMEDIATELY

Date: March 10, 2009

Subject: 09043 Service Update Bulletin
For Inventory Vehicles Only
Excessive Oil Consumption – Incorrect Piston Ring –
Expires September 30, 2009

Models: 2009 Chevrolet Corvette

To: Chevrolet Dealers

Attention: General Manager, New Vehicle Sales Manager,
Service Manager, Parts Manager and Warranty Administrator

General Motors is announcing Service Update Bulletin 09043 today. The total number of vehicles involved is 53.

This bulletin provides a service procedure to replace the engine on certain 2009 model year Corvette vehicles equipped with a 6.2 L V8 engine. Some of these vehicles may have one or more incorrect oil control rings installed in the engine. This could result in high oil consumption.

This service procedure should be completed on involved vehicles currently in dealership inventory as soon as possible but no later than September 30, 2009, at which time this bulletin will expire.

A vehicle VIN list sorted by BAC has been attached for your reference. If your BAC is not included on this list, you do not have any involved vehicles.

Service Information System (SI)
Bulletin 09043 will be available in SI on March 10, 2009.

GM Vehicle Inquiry System (GMVIS)
GMVIS information will be available on March 10, 2009.

Service Update Bulletin Information (SUB) Link
The Inventory VIN List will be available in the SUB link on March 11, 2009.

VIN Listing:
BAC VIN
111159 1G1YY25W295108097
111193 1G1YY26W895108281
111828 1G1YY26W395108172
112119 1G1YY26W395108396
112479 1G1YY25W595108157
112802 1G1YY25W895108234
112802 1G1YY25W995108419
112918 1G1YY36W395108176
112990 1G1YY26W195108476
113352 1G1YY25WX95108364
113645 1G1YY26W595111204
113710 1G1YY25W495111065
113801 1G1YY25W595111348
113867 1G1YY25WX95108140
113867 1G1YY26WX95108038
113914 1G1YY36W795108584
113974 1G1YY26W195108123
114196 1G1YY26W995111240
114428 1G1YY25W295108150
114549 1G1YY25W795108063
114659 1G1YY26W395111525
114745 1G1YY36W295111215
114770 1G1YY26W995108239
114859 1G1YY26W695111423
115090 1G1YY25WX95108168
115181 1G1YY26W295109197
115461 1G1YY26W195108137
116531 1G1YY25W495108182
132366 1G1YY25W395111414
158540 1G1YY25W395111218
158545 1G1YY26W095111532
159778 1G1YY26W195108378
162341 1G1YY25W795111531
163036 1G1YY36W495111426
163417 1G1YY25W795109147
164353 1G1YY25W295111260
164353 1G1YY26W895109186
166366 1G1YY26W195111216
168833 1G1YY36W595111418
173929 1G1YY25W495111020
185708 1G1YY26WX95111103
188691 1G1YY26WX95108220
192551 1G1YY25W195111511
194522 1G1YY36W195108421
206881 1G1YY36WX95108336
208631 1G1YY25W695108118
215125 1G1YY25WX95108297
216636 1G1YY36W195109150
221407 1G1YY26W995103865
230102 1G1YY25WX95108414
234369 1G1YY26W895111116

RicK T

Thanks a million Ken! Folks have been scrambling all weekend trying to come up with the VIN list.

09C6VRGG

Thank you

Mad*Max

Thanks

peter pan

Ken thanks for clearing this up for us 09 owners

talon90

Thanks Ken for posting this. Sometimes the information age is just not a good thing in my opinion. This bulliten is information that was only ever intended for internal GM consumption. Once it made it out, of course the sky was falling. It's really a shame because it caused a lot of people distress that never had anything to be concerned about.

dsalemke

One of those numbers is only 5 off of my vehicle, and there is a lot very close by.

VIN affected:08234

MY VIN:08276

VIN affected:O8281

The fact that they are only notifying dealers of unsold vehicles does not necessarily mean that only unsold vehicles are affected.

GM knows all of the possible VIN's and they may be waiting for customers who have purchased vehicles that are affected to complain about excessive oil consumption before they take any action on those vehicles. Currently there is no way of knowing for us.

The fact that they have matched up VIN's to unsold vehicles maybe to ward off potential problems with customers. But as these numbers are not sequencial, it is awfully hard to believe that by some stroke of luck, only unsold ones are affected.

robertjmagee

I agree

talon90

You know what, you could be absolutely right. Of course, you could also be absolutely wrong. The point is, you may never know. You can spend your time worrying about it or not. No one will be able to tell you what to do. Knowing a little about the way automobile manufacturing works and a little about how GM deals with their supply chains tells me that they are providing the necessary information at the necessary time. They would have know which batch of engines were affected and they are made in batches. They also would have know how many cars are affected. This one is a GM issue not a supplier confession so they will have a better handle on how to account for it and how to deal with it. If the problem is so severe that their only recourse is to change the engine (last resort) then they also would appear to know the scope of the potential problem. Based on their order and allocation cycle they would have a damn good idea of where the affected cars ended up. Based on the timing of the problem, odds are even better that they could have been for dealer stock cars. The number of cars involved is a little more than a half days production at the plant. To put it in perspective, about 7 Allied carriers worth of cars. More than that leave the plant each day. Each VIN is accounted for in production, in transit and in inventory. It is not so far fetched that they were all in stock or in transit based on the timing of the order cycle and large dealers taking their allocations. Heck, Kerbeck had ordered 150 (IIRC) cars in the last order cycle before the plant opened.

This is one of those dammed if you do, dammed if you don't arguments. Many will chime in and tell me that because I don't have an '09 that it is easy for me to take this position. I will reply that that is a fair statement. However, I also choose not to worry without cause over things that "might" happen.

Fastcar

Ken comes through for us again!! Thanks!!

AORoads

thanks for the update and bulletin.

candlemuse

dsalemke

"You know what, you could be absolutely right. Of course, you could also be absolutely wrong."

So could you.

If you read my post closely I never said that GM was withholding information, what I said was that "it seemed like a real stroke of luck" for GM if only unsold vehicles were affected. Worried, not me. But since I used to teach Business Mangement at the college level, here is what I would have put in the mesagge to dealers from GM:

Please Note: these are currently the only vehicles that are believed to be affected:

Of course that statement would have to be accurate.



On the other hand, if they were not sure or if there are other vehicles involved, GM should say this:

We believe that there may be other vehicles involved and are contacting owners to alert them of the situation with specific instructions as to what to do.

Of course that might start an uproar in itself, however I hold no anger towrds GM if they made a mistake, were honest and fixed it right. If I had about 40 pages and 5 years to describe the battle I went through in early 90's to get Ford to give me a new engine on my truck I would. But the space here alloted is insufficient. In short, in 1995 I got a new 460 engine installed in my 89 Ford Truck.

That said, 53 vehicles may be all that's involved and it may indeed be a stroke of luck that all the vehicles affect are unsold, we shall see. I was not accusatory, but frankly it does seem unlikely.

robertjmagee

These vins are all over the place (time frame built) GM knows exactly what cars are still in their inventory unsold, it dosen't help people that have purchased an 09. GM should step up to the plate and let people know all the cars that are effected.

cclive

The fact that these VINs are all over the place shows that it is an ENGINE issue and not a CAR issue. Thanks to Ken for posting it here as hopefully it will stop the sky from falling as now we know it is only 53 cars...which is a very small number.

robertjmagee

That only makes it more random.

cclive

By the way, what does BAC stand for?

S2K

Hey GM, where the hell was this recall in 2005 when I had to go through 1.5 years of BS diagnostics only to have to endure an engine tear down, and not get a replacement?

orca1946

Thanx Ken, you always are on our side!!

talon90

Perhaps that is exactly what they were trying to do before someone posted the TSB out from under them and took their opportunity away to do the right thing. Now the conspiracy theory's can start in full swing.

B.T.W. The "all over the place" timeframe of the VIN's is 34 days of production leading up to the December shutdown.