Rear Main Seal Blown

[mnocero]

I have a 2017 Chevy Equinox, it has less than 65,000 miles on it. 2 days ago while on the highway the rear main seal blew. I took it to our mechanic and he said it was the second one this week they have had to fix with the same problem. Looking on other forums this seems to be a big issue that hasn't been fixed by GM. This was a $1000.00 fix. Won't be buying Chevy again.

 

[fixitdad]

My daughters 2017 Equinox has experienced a blown rear seal twice. Both times during extreme cold weather. The issue is due to frozen water in the air cleaner housing where the PCV hose connects. The water freezes and causes excess pressure to build up thus blowing the rear seal. The Chevy dealership in Portsmouth NH is giving her a very hard time about it. This is clearly a design defect that GM should cover. She also has an extended warranty plan, so it should be covered. GM seems to go out of their way to avoid covering their warranty issues. This defect occurs in most cars in cold climates. Easy fix is to drill a weep hole in the bottom of the air cleaner housing just under where the PCV hose enters, but so far GM hasn't admitted to their obvious design defect. The 2017 Equinx has some other glaring design "defects". A most obvious one is the lack of an access panel to change the headlights. Just plain dumb.

 

[Srmack]

My daughter's 2017 Equinox sat in our driveway for a couple of days before she started driving home. She had a catastrophic engine failure as the rear main seal failed, and before she could make it to the shoulder of the highway, all the oil drained and the engine seized. Rebuilding the engine is about $8,000 - a new engine is going to cost $9,500. She is devastated and does not have this kind of money for a car we thought was solid. She does not have an extended warranty, the car has about 110k miles, we knew the previous owner and the car has been meticulously maintained it's entire life. It is clear to me that this failure is through no fault of my daughter and is likely due to a design flaw that manifests in cold weather areas having to do with water build up that freezes near the for PVC hose connection that causes pressure build up to blow out the seal. The dealer told me this is a common event with Equinox's this time of year - that he has seen several in the past week - but not quite as catastrophic as my daughter's situation.

What are the chances that GM will make this right for my daughter?

 

[HRichardson]

I have a 2017 equinox .smelt fumes for 2 days. Yesterday noticed something had leaked under vehicle.my mechanic was floored to see rear main seal hone with only 65k on vehicle.he called n they said warranty ran out in Oct. Approx 3000 fix. Warned not to drive. I had it towed to dealer where purchased. They also said warranty expired. Called GM they said they would cut 25% of cost which they est. 2600 plus TX. Not happy as it flared my asthma and gave me a migraine.obviously this is still an issue with their vehicles. It was freezing for a few nights here n I wonder also if that is a factor.

 

[Cman68]

Having same issue @114,000 KM’s dealer replaced rear seal said cause was pcv valve frozen causing crankcase pressure blowing out rear seal. They repaired replace valve cover with new under warranty. Took unit ran it about 350 KM’s unit puked out oil again from rear seal area took back to dealer advised me that it was a defective seal . Has been at dealer for two weeks now they are saying seal is back ordered .how could they know it was a bad seal if it was not taken apart? Am i wrong in thinking that it froze again? It appears as if i am getting the run around. I called and asked how they knew seal was defective service writer told me mechanic had take some of it apart to verify.i drove to dealer and looked under hood and there was nothing apart. What are my options don’t want to cause a big stink until it get it repaired

 

[Moreside85]

I have a 2017 equinox .smelt fumes for 2 days. Yesterday noticed something had leaked under vehicle.my mechanic was floored to see rear main seal hone with only 65k on vehicle.he called n they said warranty ran out in Oct. Approx 3000 fix. Warned not to drive. I had it towed to dealer where purchased. They also said warranty expired. Called GM they said they would cut 25% of cost which they est. 2600 plus TX. Not happy as it flared my asthma and gave me a migraine.obviously this is still an issue with their vehicles. It was freezing for a few nights here n I wonder also if that is a factor.

I had the same thing happen a month ago driving home from work at -35°C. I have the fc219 oil cap that was recommended from a friend on another forum to help vent, unfortunately it too froze up and failed to vent.. mine didn't seize up though. I smelled fumes and immediately pulled over and shut it down. No oil lights or warnings appeared either.. checked dip in morning after towed home and nothing. Put 2 quarts in and still nothing. Must have been close to empty at that point. Mechanic friend quoted me $2280 taxes in to fix mine. It had a chatter to it when I shut it off so guessing damage to the main bearing was done