2008 Buick Enclave CX: Power Steering Repair Redux

Good to hear that the service experience was a polar opposite one from the Pontiac G8 fiasco. Sounds like you had some good follow up on the dealer end as well.

This is the best GM product ever. Makes you wonder why anyone would pay the same money for a tiny Cadillac CTS.

Billt9, not everyone buys cars by the pound. The CTS and Enclave cater to different types of consumers.

I wouldnt call the CTS tiny as it weighs 4000lbs.
CTS vs Enclave = apples vs oranges

I just got back (literally, I can't sleep) from a 8-day 2,350 mile round trip in my Enclave. I now have 20,650 on the odo and the car just turned 11 months old.

This is a highway cruising machine at its finest. I have a Thule Mountaineer strapped to the roof so the whole family could bring all their stuff (see: George Carlin on "stuff").

Ripping through the West Virginia and Smokey Mountains at 85+ for hours on end, the fully-loaded Big Buick rewarded me with 20.8 mpg. It also rewarded me with no shoulder, back or neck pain after double-digit hours in the seat. The articulating headlamps really point the way when diving into a high speed highway curve. The heated windshield washer fluid really helps get the bugs off. And the trip computer accurately detailed gas consumption within .1 to .3 gallons on every fillup.

We had a little wind noise from the Thule at about 65mph on up, but not enough to be bothersome or annoying.

The power steering pump is performing flawlessly. For all you GM bashers piling on because of one failure detailed here, my good experience should help to reassure you.

This car oozes comfort, convenience, luxury and style. I also suspect most of us Enclavers are not planning on taking the car off road.

Enclavers. Can I trademark that?

Tinyelvis, concerning seat comfort, how tall are you?

@lingohocken

I'm 6'1" & 185lbs after a big steak.

Earlier this year I spent $150 to have the foam in both front seat bottoms replaced with a denser industrial foam. The auto upholsterer showed me the OEM foam used by most manufacturers today is really crappy stuff. After he removed the OEM foam and showed it to me I must admit it was pretty flimsy.

I told the upholsterer he should hang out at the Buick dealer and hand his card out to new Enclavers as they drive off the lot.

Tinyelvis.. why are you copy pasting the same crap, clearly, this isn't the first Enclave to have this issue, as they already know that merely replacing the pump may not (read: will not) fix the issue.

@cx7lover

The "crap" you refer to is about a good experience with a GM product...something you obviously can't live with. I repeated it here as the previous log received so little attention.

As to your obsession regarding "the pump may not (insert cx7lover's putrid hatred comment here) read: will not" fix the issue, Mike clearly stated that pump replacement is SOP and contamination is not a guarantee.

So before you go and list all the nasty little TSB's and other postings your venomous heart thrives on, why don't you go find another subject where you can lurk in the shadows and proudly pounce on all the shortcomings and failures of others.

You remind me of the kid on the bench in little league who berated and chastised his teammates when they struck out or otherwise failed to perform at a less-than-perfect level.

The rest of the team has grown up and moved on.

I'm sure when you look around at the end of the day, you are the only one left in the sandbox.

And guess what, you said nothing about the fact that GM knew the steering pump may not fix the issue, and they would try to take the cheapest way out, causing even MORE time at the service department. This is common GM practice.

Copy/pasting the same stuff over again is lame. Say it once and get over it. Especially since it really wasn't needed to be posted again.

cx7lover

kind of like when honda replaced the tranny fluid in the fit, when the tranny needed to be rebuilt?

phhf, ever dealer works to the lowest price point.

What if just replacing the pump solved the problem?

They banked on it working, it didn't, problem fixed.

GM/domestic h8ters just have their heads in the sand, thinking that other companies do things different

cx7lover we get it, you don't like any american cars. We are fine with that. So why don't you stop spending so much time, showing the world how bad american cars are. You stated your opinion, and we respect that.

I'll stop when the <3 GMers stop trying to disprove that GM's are still not very reliable.

Honda transmissions=fail, I hope the reason why they haven't put out a six speed automatic is so that they do enough R&D, to avoid all the issues they had with the 5 speed.

oh, and I don't hate domestics, I love some of Ford's latest stuff.

cx7lover - their only unreliable inside your head.

Like I always said, if were going off on single examples of cars.

my sunfire hasn't stranded me, or needed immediate service in 113k miles over 8 years.

its been to the dealer twice, once for a gas cap engine light (under warrenty), and once for a tranny fluid change.

having a car fresh out of service bay for 6 days and saying that

"the Buick is back and it feels just as solid as it did before"

is exactly like being on a diet every day but only between lunch and dinner!

@cx7lover

"copy/pasting the same stuff over is lame" which is exactly what you just did. Any other insipid, classless remarks you'd like to make? Good.

As to your assertion about GMers disproving unreliability, my Enclave has been totally reliable for every one of it's 21k miles to date.

I'd say the car is proving reliability.

Hopefully this fact will crawl under your skin and fester like an open wound, causing a great infection that leads to the amputation of your anti-GM bias. At the very least it may quell your immature personal attacks.

Wow, i just got off a flight and saw this gm bashing. cx7lover i'm sorry you feel that way about gm vehicles.

Sadly, just about every automaker except Bentley, Maybach, and the real exotics try to cut costs like all the other automakers. It's just an issue that all project managers face when building a vehicle. I'm an engineering intern and have amazing ideas for United Technologies Corporation, but those damn marketing people always come in and bash my ideas, saying "thats too expensive, we won't be competitive." A vehicle can run and last forever, with nothing ever breaking, but it'd be one damn expensive vehicle.

stop trying to rationalize with CX7 lover. He hates eveything GM does and feels that you're a fool if you dont agree that GM is incapable of making a nice vehicle. As soon as you bring up reliability issues related to other brands he says "stop talking about Brand X, we are only talking about GM!".

1487 you sure were right about cx7lover. I've looked back at some of his posts in other blogs and he's just a pitiful wanker.

I've seen other bloggers try to reason with him and they were just wasting their keystrokes. I mistakenly thought I'd be intelligently jousting with him, but it's painfully apparent he's not up to the task.

I resolve to ignore all posts by cx7lover, past or future.

This will allow me to discuss the topic at hand with people who can handle the topic.