Warranty Admin. - Changes to Labor Time Guide Relating to Front Suspension Labor Operations/Components

Effective April 1, 2004, several labor operations were removed from the GM Labor Time Guide. These labor operations provided time allowances allowing the dealer to claim reimbursement for the replacement of the following components under warranty for the above referenced vehicles. (The impacted labor operation numbers are also shown.)

The need to replace both of the components comprehended by the referenced labor codes, at a single service visit, should be a very rare occurrence. Proper customer write-up, diagnosis and service procedure will allow the technician to determine which component on the vehicle is the root cause of the customer concern. This avoids replacement of both components when only one has failed. Standard strategy-based diagnostics, including test drives to duplicate the customer concern, chassis ears and other aids allow the technician to root cause the customer concern to a specific side of the vehicle. The defective component causing the customer concern should be the only component replaced.

Warranty returned parts indicate that replacement of front suspension components in sets is neither necessary or cost effective. For those rare cases in which the replacement of both components is required, using the appropriate left and right side labor operations will allow for warranty reimbursement. Parts replaced on such a repair may be requested returned to the Warranty Parts Center for inspection to fully understand the failure mode for claims submitted for both left and right side replacements.