[RobbyBeefcake87]

I recently took my 2018 Camaro ss 1le to have the rear diff oil changed as I planned on going to FL2K and make a pass or two. The car has just over 3k miles on it and has been mostly babied outside of a few spirited runs (all break in procedures followed) but I figure it is a good idea to do before a "track" day as suggested by the manual.

Take it to my local chevy dealer where I get my oil changed on Friday(would do it myself but want no warranty voiding issues). The job takes about 2.5 hours and I can see the tech continuously going under the car pulling and tugging on things, not a great sign. I pay them $130 for the job and drive around for a few hours to make sure everything feels fine and fluids move around, seems ok.

The next day (Saturday) on my drive to drive to fl2k I hear a loud enough strange noise and the car feels different through the seat of my pants and through shifter vibrations for a few seconds. Take it to the same dealership since I was still around the area. They check out the rear end and come back an hour later and say it seems fine. So on my way to fl2k I go, I figure maybe the noise was that I ran over something since they claim it was good to go. In retrospect there was a weird smell on the drive that I just assumed was from the tech being in the car with dirty shoes as he didnt cover the seat or floor mats, but the car is performing normally.

I make to fl2k, I only make one pass while at the even and didnt even do a burn out. After enjoying the event I drive back home and everything is fine. When I make it back to my neighborhood at lower speeds I start feeling strange vibrations in higher gear. Since the dealerships diagnosis was useless the first time I felt something weird I decide to drive it around a bit in the neighborhood and try to diagnose the issue and have something more specific to tell them. As I drive around now the car seems to be acting weird on deceleration, almost as if the breaks or TC system is confused and applying the breaks when I let off the throttle. On my way back home I continue to feel it out to get and idea of what it may be and it goes into reduced power mode with a CEL light after accelerating at a stop sign. I finally make it home, park it and leave it alone and cool down. Come out later and turn it back on and it is no longer in reduced power mode but has the CEL light on. I feel it out to see if it was an electric issue with the TC system and check if it cleared out. I live a mile away from an advanced auto parts so I stop by to have the CEL light code read and have an idea of what it is. It was fine on the way there. The code turns out to be something related to throttle bodie sensor or fuel cap (p128f of something like that). On the way back home, again after a harder acceleration reduced power is back on with the CEL light and the breaks and actuating again on deceleration. Park it at home to take it to the dealership in the morning.

When I wake up on Sunday and push the car to check for leaks sure enough the diff is leaking, I was not sure it was the duff since the dealership said it was fine the day before but at this point I'm obviously sure. Take it to the dealership and leave it there since its Sunday and they have nobody besides oil changing techs. I drove it because I did not have a way to tow it and the dealership is within 5 miles. On the drive the car was not in reduced power mode but felt very strange vibrations in the rear end at lower rpms in higher gears.

Next day (Monday) they call and say the diff pinion seal broke and they ordered a new rear end. Should be about a week as it was not an easy to find part and needed a case to be opened with GM. Guy tries to tell me he's not sure he can get me a new diff again especially with the number on the window from fl2k si maybe I need to upgrade parts of I plan to track it. I tell him I dont plan breaking another diff and will probably not track it anytime soon. However I remind him it's a 1le, a track warrantied car and how it was perfect before I took it to them for the diff oil change. That's when my problems started. I had driven the car hard and never had an issue before. That was my biggest fear when I took in for the diff oil change. Something on my brand new perfect car would be messed up and sure enough it was.

Just wanted to share my experience. I am satisfied with the dealership doing what's right and honoring the warranty as they should (it's a stock car btw) but I was a bit bothered by the desk guy who called me and somewhat insinuated that I was doing something wrong because of the numbers on the window from fl2k. It's a track car, and they knew the car was going to the track from the day I got the diff oil changed since that was the point of doing that, as well as the following day when I took it to get checked out about the weird noise before heading out to the event.

Now I'm afraid to track the car again or even the spirited drive here and there. That shouldn't be the case when one buys the track specific option of a v8 american sports car.