[ledfrog]

I know this is a well-covered topic, but I just wanted to share my experience just to provide some specific information and other details in case anyone in a similar situation to mine happens to find this post.

I just bought a 2018 2SS about two months ago from CarMax and within about three weeks, I started feeling the shudder issue. My ownership of this car started at about 65K miles and I knew before I bought it that this problem was likely to show up, so I wasn't surprised. Just in case, I also bought the MaxCare warranty which covers me for 4 years OR up to 125,000 miles on the odometer with a $300 deductible.

Anyway, one of the benefits of MaxCare is that you can take your car to any licensed service shop and they will work out the repair costs with MaxCare directly. Given that this shudder issue is well known and the TSB outlines a very specific process for flushing the transmission, I figured my best bet was to take the car directly to Chevy.

The Chevy dealer charges a $206 diagnostics fee, but this fee eventually rolls into the cost of the service, so I was not worried about this given my warranty coverage. Chevy calls me back after verifying the issue was present and says the repair cost would total about $900 ($700 + diag fee). If this price seems high, note that I'm in Southern California and everything tends to be higher around here!

The problem was that when it came time to authorizing the repair, CarMax couldn't find any extended warranty on this car! The Chevy guy was confused, but I sent him copies of all my paperwork outlining my purchase, so he called them back and they finally told him that the MaxCare warranty does not actually start until CarMax's 90-day, 4,000 mile warranty expires. This was good news I assumed, BUT the next problem was that ALL repairs under the 90-day warranty have to go through CarMax themselves, so Chevy was out and so was my $200!! I had to eat this cost because I wasn't aware of the nuance of the different warranties from CarMax.

So I finally get an appointment with CarMax yesterday at 9am, take my car in, explained the situation and even brought a copy of the TSB. They were really nice and called me within an hour to inform me that they verified the problem and were just waiting on getting the new fluid in. They had my car pretty much all day and called me at 4:30pm saying it was ready and the issue was resolved. I picked it up with no charges and no issues and the problem appears to have been resolved. I hit some traffic on the way home, so I didn't have a lot of room to test drive through all the gears. Having driven the car with the problem for a while, I sort of had some muscle memory of when and where the shuddering would occur and it seems like all of that is out the window now! Only time will tell if the fluid change fixes the issue or if I have torque converter issues, but either way, I'm covered.

Key takeaways:

• If you bought from CarMax and have issues within the first 90-days or 4,000 miles, take it back to them only. This will save you time and money.
• If you have the shudder issue and need to pay for it yourself, the current pricing (at least around me) is almost a grand!
• If you bought MaxCare, remember it doesn't kick in until CarMax's warranty expires
• CarMax service is actually better than I thought it would be

[PhantomV8]

Good post! Thanks for this info.

[TransamGTA350]

Good you got is squared away and likely caught it early enough before any permanent damage was done.

Had the same issue on my wife's 2017 Yukon with the same A8 transmission. Transmission fluid flush per the TSB and the issue went away. That was at 45K miles, changed fluid again at 90K, now at 118K and they issue has never returned since the initial fluid exchange/flush at 45K.

[The Chief (tm)]

OP,

Glad to hear that it got worked out -- mainly, that you had the issue looked at and rectified before it caused greater damage -- but I'm having this nagging feeling that you should have asked the dealership about the TSB on the issue before doing anything else...

When I brought my "new to me" 2016 in for the flush, sometime in 2022, I asked if it would be free because of the TSB, and they said "no, because the TSB only covers a car within six years of its production date". (IIRC we looked at the screen together and saw where it said that.) Alas, mine was already 6-1/2 years "in-service" at the time.

But yours? A 2018? I hope I'm wrong, but never mind the dealer charging a $206 "diagnostics fee", I think *they* should have told *you* it was on the house.

I imagine I'll be corrected if my recollection of the six-year thing is inaccurate.

[ledfrog]

So when I originally went to the dealer, I actually brought the full printout of the TSB and told them that I had the problem. They did some things on their computer and that's when they said there would be a diagnostics fee since they had to have their transmission techs look at it first.

I did ask about whether the issue was still covered by some sort of extended warranty (for this specific problem), but the rep didn't know. That's when I mentioned my MaxCare warranty and again, he didn't know how that would factor in with dealer services. I knew based on what CarMax told me, that any authorized service shop would be allowed to do warranty work. I just didn't know that MaxCare didn't start until after 90 days.

But beyond all that, I've never seen anything written about the 6 year thing that you mentioned, before or after I bought this car and I feel I did a pretty thorough job of researching this issue. And honestly at this point, I'm really only out the $206. Any other work on this problem is fully covered, so I'm not really worried about it.

[The Chief (tm)]

Led,

Hearing U.

My entire recollection of the "six year" thing was based on the discussion at the dealer, and I swear I saw something in print, on their screen, to that effect. Which was why I didn't complain too badly about having to pay. Well, also, this was two years ago, and it was in Tennessee, so the bill was only $399, not your $700+ in CA much more recently!

(Also, I managed to have the dealer who sold me the car send me a check for $100.)

Again, no doubt it is a relief to have the problem fixed before anything bigger came along -- as has sadly happened to some folks on the forum. Judging by your avatar pic, had you had a Gen5? At some point you should weigh in on your comparisons. Take care!

[ledfrog]

That avatar was just a default I used when signing up. I just updated it to a pic of my actual car. So no, I've never owned or even driven a 5th gen. Many years ago, I owned two third gens, first a '92 RS and then a '91 Z/28, but I was much younger and after those cars bit the dust, I decided to be a bit more practical and move on to a more 'regular' car since I was commuting to work in those days.

But I couldn't stay away from the Camaro forever! Getting this 6th gen was such a great decision...I've loved every minute of driving it, especially now that the shudder is gone.

[Spaceme1117]

Originally Posted by ledfrog

That avatar was just a default I used when signing up. I just updated it to a pic of my actual car. So no, I've never owned or even driven a 5th gen. Many years ago, I owned two third gens, first a '92 RS and then a '91 Z/28, but I was much younger and after those cars bit the dust, I decided to be a bit more practical and move on to a more 'regular' car since I was commuting to work in those days.

But I couldn't stay away from the Camaro forever! Getting this 6th gen was such a great decision...I've loved every minute of driving it, especially now that the shudder is gone.

Just a quick word of advice. It is a good idea to verify with the shop that did the trans fluid flush that they followed the proper re-fill procedure. If they did not, the fluid will be 2 or so quarts low.

The reason I advise this is I purchased a 2017 used a couple of years ago. Because it did not have a service record with it saying the flush had been done, I did it my self. I found that the fluid was two quarts low. This is the result of just draining the fluid and adding new fluid in but not following the re-fill procedure.

Car needs to be idling (torque converter spinning) and the fluid at the proper temperature. You can look up the full procedure to get the fluid level correct.