During a recently closed thread, aaron c made a reference to sending his Gen3 back to Glock:
“Turns out, after sending it in, the Gen4’s were fixable and the Gen3’s were not. Glock replaced my Gen3 with a Gen4 with all updated parts inside.”
For some reason I wasn’t able to send him a PM to find out more, or if he meant to say they weren’t able to fix his Gen3 or if he meant all Gen3’s in general. I tried a search function, but I keep getting information about individual pistols being worked on and nothing about the Gen3 line as a whole.
Has anyone heard of repair problems with the whole Gen3 line, or am I simply misreading something?
After about 600-800 rounds…mine started tossing 2-3 pieces of brass straight at my face (per 15rd mag) and the other cases were going all over the place. Did this all the time and with all ammo tried.
Replaced the stock 336 ejector with the 30274 ejector that I took out of a Gen 4 trigger assembly I bought from Midway USA.
Replaced the stock extractor/spring with Apex’s Gen3 9mm specific FRE unit.
I have run almost 2000 rounds through this same gun since then and have not had brass come anywhere near my face. In fact, it ejects about like my old 2nd Gen G17 does. Not one stovepipe, either.
After reading aaron c’s post, I’m under the impression that Glock, Inc.'s, service department was unable to help fix his pistol simply because his was a Gen3 model, and instead of fixing it (because it was a Gen3) they just gave him a new Gen4.
My question is has anyone heard of Glock not being able to fix one of their pistols simply because it was a Gen3 (or older) model, and if so, why?
This pretty much mirrors my experience. Youtube vids are available to help you swap the ejectors. If you send it to Glock they will put the 30274 ejector in if you request it. I think Glock is unsure and does not want to spend the time/money to cure the Gen 3 when so many people will just accept brass bouncing all over their head. Get the APEX Fre extractor and 30274 ejector and you should be good. If that doesn’t work you may have a slide that’s just too out of spec and I would request a new gun from Glock.
I replaced the ejector (30274 bought from Lone Wolf), extractor & extractor spring (Apex), and non-LCI spring loaded bearing (MidwayUSA) on my Gen3 G19. I had never detail stripped a handgun before, and it took me about 15 minutes. It was extremely simple and cost me about $70, not including the Glock disassembly tool ($8.00, or the appropriately sized punch from a hardware store). There are YouTube videos detailing the specific steps.
I bought all my parts after reading threads like this for the past year and realizing that there was a good chance I’d spend about that for overnight shipping back to Glock only to receive my gun still throwing brass at my nose.
The 45 rounds I ran through it yesterday were night and day different from what it was doing, and the gun seems to be running flawlessly now.
No, I did not contact Glock first, and yes, they should have taken care of this issue for free. I just didn’t feel like fighting with them over this, and I wanted to learn more about my pistol.
Since I didn’t give Glock a chance to make it right, I don’t feel good about bad-mouthing them, but the fact remains that my pistol was doing the exact same thing that a not-insignificant number of other Glock customers were reporting.
Bottom line: This is a simple, quick fix that seems to have solved the issues for a large number of Glock owners with the affected pistols.
Only you can decide if you want to talk to Glock first.
Again, I guess I’m just not being clear enough with my question.
Has anyone had any experiences with Glock, Inc’s, service department NOT BEING ABLE TO FIX (or work on?) one of their pistols simply because it was a Gen3 (or older) model, and if so, why?
I’m curious to know what aaron c meant by this in his post from another thread.
I probably wouldn’t go so far as to make this an issue of Glock being “unable” to fix the Gen 3.
It was probably a cost/benefit analysis and they decided to just send a new Gen 4 rather than pay an employee to test fire the gun and troubleshoot the problem(s).
Think about how much a Glock costs to produce ($50?) versus how much they need to pay skilled labor? Cheaper to just send a new Gen 4 and be done with it.
I would be unhappy if they sent me a Gen4 in place of my Gen3. I prefer 3s over 4s all day long. With that said, I know they are still producing new Gen3s, wonder why they didnt send one of them.
Hey, glad I stumbled onto this thread! Not sure why it wouldn’t let you PM me, that’s weird.
Anyway, and I’m trying to remember as accurately as possible here…They could put the new ‘upgraded’ parts in the Gen 3, and they did. The new internals didn’t resolve the BTF problem though, and they said it was most likely because the upgraded internals were made for the Gen 4 guns, which of course have some minor frame differences from the Gen 3. They said they could try another set of internals in my Gen 3 but that if the first set didn’t fix the issue on Gen 3’s, they weren’t seeing much /any success in resolving the issue after that.
They then offered me the options of trying the fix again, getting a new Gen 3 with updated internals, or getting a new Gen 4 with updated internals. I opted for the Gen 4 because I knew the issue was fixable with that model, it’s been flawless. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
Well, I think a lot of Glock owners (myself included) feel that the brass-to-face/stovepipes were a problem, and having to drop another $60+ on a new gun is a problem, and Glock either ignoring the issue or basically throwing their hands up in the air and going “shucks, I dunno” is a problem.
Now, from a purely practical perspective, yes, the Apex/30274 fix does get a malfunctioning gun working, it is simple, and it’s not like we have to take out a second mortgage to implement. And, again from a practical stance, it’s faster, easier, and about the same cost (assuming Glock won’t pay for shipping).
But, from an ethical perspective, there are several problems that remain unresolved.
Maybe, but you are probably too young to remember the days when Colt was the only 1911 out there. When you bought a new Colt, you KNEW you were going to have to send it straight to a smith to make it feed properly. There were no Glocks, HKs or M&Ps and the S&W semi-autos were inaccurate, heavy and clunky beasts that nobody wanted. There were Hi-Powers and surplus P-38 Walthers around from tinkerers. That was it.
So I might have to spend an extra 60 bucks and 15 minutes on the kitchen table to make a Glock fly right?
Man…I’ll take it.
You don’t know how good we really have it today, as far as auto pistols go.
I don’t think GLOCK considers the 3rd Gen G19s “unfixable,” but I DO believe that GLOCK is focusing all their “WTF is happening” effort on the Gen4 guns. Hence GLOCK’s eagerness to replace troubled 3rd Gens with Gen4s, because they honestly think that the bugs in the Gen4s are worked out.
Again, the APEX FRE and associated parts, plus the updated ejector will PROBABLY fix most issues. If they don’t there’s probably NOTHING short of a trip to Randy Lee’s magic shop that will make the gun run - and even then its not guaranteed, and the work will void your warranty.
And I stand by my opinion that in 2013, you should not have to spend time and money to fix a new gun.
I did, and my gun runs, and overall I’m satisfied with it.
But no, I shouldn’t have had to do it.
Thank you for the explanation, aaron C - like I said, I was curious as to what you meant.
Also, regarding the PM, here is the message I got:
"aaron_c has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.
If you are trying to send this message to multiple recipients, remove aaron_c from the recipient list and send the message again."