skyavonee

Why would "Senior" forum members have any more responsibility to do something than you? If you want to carry the torch for a class action against Chevy, then have at it. I'm sure you'll have supporters. But, I personally don't really see the point. We're talking about cars that are 12-15 years old. And for all the broken springs, there have been comparatively few catastrophic engine failures.

Just my $0.02.

TomcatMike

Sky,

I’m retired. I’m new here. This is my first Corvette. I’ve been a Ford guy forever. My Dad, a staunch Chevy guy, laughed hard when I told him I came over to the dark side.

I figure that the more wise old “senior” heads of this Forum (those who have been around a while) would have a vested interest in resolving this less-than-optimum situation with the valve springs. Truly, I don’t mean to say things on your behalf or imply things that aren’t true.

By your own research and statistical analysis, which at face value looks robust and well done, kudos to you, we have guys who obviously love their cars, and who are terribly inconvenienced by a broken valve spring. This is not like a flat tire or a cracked windshield or a window that won’t roll up – this is a serious mechanical engineering casualty. At best, the car limps home, the owner gets it to a shop, and for about $800+ gets it fixed, after one or more days. The budget takes a hit, but the engine remains healthy, better than before.

At the worst, a spring breaks at very high RPM, the coil gets shoved outside the helical domain, the valve stays down (or is completely dropped), and we have a nasty internally damaged engine. About $7K+ or so to repair or replace. If this occurs 1000 miles from home, that would really stink.

Just how many catastrophic engine failures meet the threshold of “that’s enough?” When should this Forum be mad enough to hit Chevrolet between the eyes with news releases and an appeal to the NHTSA for a complete recall and mandatory replacement of the springs in the at-risk cars?

Just because the cars are 12-15 years old should not matter. I have almost 600,000 miles riding motorcycles. 67K of that was on a 750 two-stroke, but the rest of the miles have been on four-stroke bikes, and I never suffered a broken valve spring. Some of those bikes had redlines of 10,500 or more. My current 2003 Beemer boxer oilhead has almost 155,000 miles and is happily running just fine. Been all over the U.S. with it. I’ve driven cars perhaps 700,000+ miles. No broken valve springs. Two blown head gaskets on a Chevy wagon diesel. That was a pain and expensive. Valve springs for street cars should not break. If the car is raced, that’s a different story, perhaps, but I would think the bigger risk is valve-float past redline with subsequent valve / piston contact.

I’ve lived this dream before. In 2003, my wife and I were driving our 1996 Chrysler Concorde, with about 95,000 miles, to our daughter’s college for a football game. About 90 miles from home, the engine started knocking badly and got worse. The call for a tow and the roll-back return home to our home dealer was not fun, took all day. The Concorde had spun a rod bearing and ruined the crank and engine with metal debris. Over $5K with a “new” reman engine and three weeks later, we got our car back.

I can attest that this sort of thing is not fun. I’m retired and on a tight budget, so I’m not real keen on rolling the dice and wondering if I’m next. This should be a Chevrolet recall to fix ALL affected C5 Z06 engines. I repeat, valve springs on a street non-raced car should not break.

Again, I commend you for the excellent analysis of this bad situation. Your homework looks impeccable. I don’t wish to lecture or preach. This situation is unacceptable. I am willing to start the ball rolling and see if we can raise enough Cane to get positive responses from the NHTSA.

Feedback is welcome.

Mike

maxgee

My 02 Z broke a spring in the way to tune a car. I was cruising at 70mph, then I felt power loss. Babied it home 44 miles 😁
Pulled valve cover on driver's side and voila, split spring 😕.
Ordered new set (came in blue) replaced and now back on the road.
79k miles on my Z.

FASTFATBOY

I have an 03 Z06 with an 04+ LS6 crate engine.

Broke a blue spring at 30,000 miles.

Now has PAC 1218X on it.

TomcatMike

That really stinks. I ordered OEM Genuine Chevrolet new springs and plugs and plug wires last week and they should arrive later this week. If all goes well, I hope to start the work this coming Sunday afternoon and hopefully wrap it up the next day.

Additionally, I am trying to compile a dossier on all this stuff, and combined with the excellent work of others on this thread such as Skyavonee, Trash, etc., I will try to carry the ball to Chevrolet. I'm good at writing letters (I have one in the works toward the incompetence of Nissan - long story), and mebbe the unfortunate owners who have suffered anywhere from inconvenience to complete engine loss can be compensated. It may take a Class Action Lawsuit.

But first, I have to get through my own valve springs replacement and through Christmas with the grandkids before I can buckle down to the real work.

Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to send me documentation of your own personal valve spring-related troubles, including the dropped valve / blown engine events. E-mail me at:
tomcatdriver@comcast.net

Provide as much detail as you can. I'm sure by now we're around 150+ broken springs events? How many destroyed engines? At what cost per new engine installation?

This really stinks. Folks, unless you mercilessly flog the engine past design requirements, valve springs should last hundreds of thousands of miles. Period!!

Cheers,
Mike

switchplanner

'02 with 11,600 miles. VIN 068xx, 09/01 build date. Not in the high risk build time but looking into replacing springs due to being supercharged. Original owner claims no track time but no doubt "tested" it's abilities a time or two.
Great thread, thanks for the info.

Rick Radcliffe

I have purchased the tools and done the job. It's not difficult at all. If you are in So Cal and would like to borrow the tools to replace your springs before you get a broken one, please PM me and I will make arrangements to get the tool and valve holder to you. If you want to come and do the job in my shop, that can be arranged also.

GenerationX1

I have the same exact build date as you on my 02 C5Z. I have 62k and some change on mine with stock springs. Im full bolt on with a Nitrous Outlet wet plate kit on a 100 shot.

switchplanner

I'd take you up on your offer but I'm on the east coast. Can you tell me what spring compressor and valve holder tools you used?
Thanks.

switchplanner

That's reassuring, thanks for sharing. I'm gonna see if I can check the spring color through the oil filler just for the record.

TomcatMike

First of all, thanks in advance to Scott White for long-distance assisting me and answering a lot of questions. I attempted to do the job myself, but hit a couple of snags (long story, don't ask, it's boring). So I aborted the work and buttoned it all back up. I was successful in replacing the plugs and wires with all new stuff. So I will take the car to the local Chevy dealer on Tuesday the 5th. They will install the new springs that I have already purchased from GM PartsDirect.

Most difficult job of the plugs and wires was removing the plug wires from the plugs. The special GM tool for that is indispensable. No kidding. Recommend using some light grease and / or dielectric grease for re-installation of the new wires.

I also unbolted the small air-injection tubes, one on each side of the exhaust manifold, and moved them out of the way (I did some needed corrosion control of the threads before bolting back on). It made those particular affected plugs much easier to access. Once the wires are FINALLY off, the plug replacement is relatively easy.

Good luck.

Mike

switchplanner

Bump for a great thread. Any new valve spring stories out there? I'm planning on replacing mine with the 1218x springs when it warms up outside. Has anyone broken a 1218x spring? Any recommendations for a vendor to purchase them?
Thanks.

z06scentair

Im confident the originals are breaking on a regular basis and that info never flows here.

To answer who you should purchase from......Brian Tooley Racing gets my vote.

The 1218 is a great replacement part that will serve well to the stock and smaller lower lift, less aggressive lobe design.

PowerGuy50

03 ZO6 - Spring Failure while idling at red light....52,500 miles.

New springs...new Brian Tooley springs installed yesterday

I was lucky no major damage however there were three different color springs.....yellow (failed)....there was a blue was next to it and the rest were no color metal (maybe at one time they were yellow). I am the second owner of the car.....previous owner did not tell me he had a prior spring issue.

PowerGuy50

Forgot to attach this to the last post.....new springs

grantv

Wait.... they left ONE yellow spring!?
Or maybe some huge coincidence; your car left the factory with THE last yellow 2 springs (one replaced with blue by PO) plunked in there?

PowerGuy50

All springs (yellow, blue and other) are on my bench....all shiny new ones are installed.

CaseyJones

My 2002 Z06 (#130376 with 72K miles) broke a spring and dropped a valve while idling around town two weeks ago. Ruined a head but the short block was OK. Replaced the head with a new one and put new springs all around. The springs are whatever GM replaces Z06 springs with these days (no color).

maxgee

vin#134993 with 79k miles cruising at 75mph and broke spring on driver's side head. Spring only broke, replaced them all with the factory now blue springs. Frustrating ordeal, but glad I only had to do springs.

Corvette Maniac

Reading this I'm so glad I had mine replaced before it happened!!
Vin 131924 - may 2002 production...
I'm at about 65k miles now...