This 2024 Chevy Silverado Has Been In The Body Shop For Over A Year Because No Replacement Wiring Harness Is Available

One of the main reasons to buy a new car is knowing that parts will be readily available if a repair is needed. And while that's usually the case, John Rice's 2024 Chevy Silverado ZR2 has become a notable exception, reports WGME. 

In a Facebook post, Rice said that he had only owned his truck for a few months when, in November 2024, he was involved in a crash on a dirt road. The truck went off to J&T Autobody in Fryeburg, Maine, which expected it to be fixed in about ten days. While tearing down the truck, the shop discovered that the main wiring harness was damaged and needed to be replaced. It's fairly common for additional damage to be found after the teardown and repair has begun, and the shop has been helping Rice as much as possible through this ordeal.

A new harness arrived in January 2025, only for the repair shop to discover that two of the connectors were wrong and wouldn't plug into the truck properly. According to Rice's breakdown of the events, the new harness was "One Off" (referring to the connectors), and a different harness had to be ordered. This process played out an additional five times over the course of the year, the last of which Rice said in another post was overseen by GM CEO Mary Barra's "Executive Action Team". Each time, the wiring harness that was supposed to plug into the practically new truck didn't fit. The Silverado remains in pieces at the shop today.

To make matters worse, Chevy seems unwilling to consider alternatives to supplying a new, correct replacement wiring harness. Rice suggested a workaround that Chevy reportedly rejected. From WGME:

"Send me a schematic and a print, and we'll make the harness. No. Can't do that," Rice said. "If we found one in a junk yard, that was totaled for some reason, and took the harness out and put it in the vehicle — that voids the warranty. Can't do it."

While GM is currently covering half of Rice's monthly payments on the truck, he's still paying for a truck he can't drive. The manufacturer is requiring the repair to use only a harness it provides, and it has been unable to provide the correct harness. The Executive Action Team will no longer talk to Rice because he has filed a complaint against GM with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office. WGME did not get a reply to a request for comment from GM, but The Drive did, sort of. An unidentified GM spokesperson said:

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have reached out to the customer and are looking into this matter. We hope to solve this as quickly as possible."

No reports I've seen have said specifically which plugs on the wiring harness aren't matching up, but I wonder if the issue might have something to do with 2024 being the first year the SIlverado ZR2 was available with GM's 3.0-liter inline-6 Duramax diesel engine? This is purely speculation, but Rice said that the harness was "one-off" in reference to the plugs. Could his Silverado ZR2 diesel have such a unique configuration, between the engine and other options that he selected, that Chevy has been unable to duplicate it? 

One comment on our 2024 Chevy Silverado ZR2 diesel review mentioned another issue where Chevy didn't seem to be able to supply the correct replacement parts. Goose wrote:

After hearing about the nightmare it was for my coworker to have Chevy fix his 2017 2500 Duramax with less than 50k miles this past summer, I'm never buying a modern diesel. The DPF and some other emissions stuff went kaput and Chevy could not locate the parts to replace/fix it under warranty. They refused to use non-OEM parts that were compliant with the EPA. They also wouldn't use used OEM parts to get the truck at least operational until new parts could be found. It ended up sitting at the dealer for 5+ months in limp mode unfixed and no movement from Chevy to get it fixed. Chevy was only willing to offer him some "deals" to buy a new truck (laughably low trade-in of $25k the truck because it was non-op even though it was otherwise flawless plus $5k off most any fullsize truck/SUV)

Much of this sounds similar to Rice's experience. The main exception is that Chevy has refused to buy the truck back. This is a repair from crash damage, not a failed warranty repair, so the Lemon Law doesn't apply. That leaves Rice stuck with an almost-new truck that he still can't drive, more than a year after it initially went to the shop.