Crimson44

Attended the "Corvettes on the Dragon" event in Loudon TN this past weekend and was having a great time on the drive to the Dragon with around 400 other Vettes. However, just a couple of miles from the actual start of the Dragon I shifted from Sport mode to Drive when we ran into slower traffic and the shifter was totally slack on my 2006 coupe. I immediately knew what had happened because the plastic bushing at the shifter end of the tranny cable had failed on me a couple of years before. There we were over 500 miles from home stuck in Sport mode at 5pm on Friday evening knowing that we were not going to be able to turn the car off or we would be stranded. We had no choice but to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and head for home. I assumed that the lower bushing had failed and it turns out that was the problem. It is a little aggravating that a fifty cent part caused us to have to lose money spent on the hotel room on top of going home two days early. However, the worst part of it all was missing out on getting to run the Dragon with all of the other Vettes. Cannot complain too much though because these two incidents with this cable are the only issues that I have had with this car in 80,000 plus miles so I am thankful for that.

StallionCorvette

StallionCorvette

Sorry to hear that man! Hope this cheers you up

Bruze

Dang, not a good story.

Every time I shift my '07 (30k miles) I wait for that to happen. I'm so paranoid of it that I try to park in parking lots where I can pull in and then pull straight out when I'm ready to leave without the extra reverse shift.

And going into the auto car wash, I leave it running in drive and set the e-brake.

I'm paranoid you say?

You said you had already replaced it two years ago. How many miles were on it then, and how many miles since?

RicardoFors68

Glad that you were able to recognize it right away

Cherokee Nation

Damm that sucks!!.I got stranded at a subway last year and it was raining and had to get a taxi home and have it towed to the dealer at a cost of $600.00 My question: Is there enough space on the linkage to put on a 'C' chip or maybe a tack weld to keep the cable from coming off?...I'm like the post above, I shift as little as possible.

Crimson44

Bruze,
Probably had around 60,000 miles when the console end failed. Might not be a bad idea to replace the bushings as a preventative measure because this appears to be a common issue. Good luck!

Crimson44

Cherokee Nation,
The transmission end of the cable where the bushing snaps in is plastic or nylon so that would rule out tack welding. I actually could not get the bushing to snap in place because the above mentioned end appears to have elongated just enough where the bushing goes to keep it from snapping in. I thought about trying to secure the bushing in place with zip ties but realized that I would always be uneasy about a temporary fix. As much as I hate to, I am taking the car to the dealer in the morning to get a new cable installed. Installing it myself is a little more than I want to undertake. Replacing the bushings themselves is not that bad of a job and there are step by step instructions on this forum because I was able to do it and I am not very mechanically inclined at all.Good luck and thanks!

GOLD72

Reports of failing shift cable grommets is way too common now. Same is going to happen to the C7 autos as they age. Failed my front grommet last December on the 07 and holding my breath on the rear OEM grommet as it hasn't been replaced yet.

Bruze

What was your mileage when it failed?

HBsurfer

Replacing only one of the two plastic bushings seems like a temporary fix to me. If one bushing fails, the other is not far behind. I replaced the entire shifter cable ($50.00 part) as a preventative maintenance item on my 2007. Way too many threads about this ignore.

DOOKEY

For $.50 cents you'd think you'd carry spares.

Bruze

I'm still staring at your old cable every time I walk by it, lol. Thanks again.

From reading all these threads about this problem, I thought the front one was what usually failed . . . ? Or failed first, or more often . . . ?

Also, since you sent the cable, I've read here that the bushing snaps over the mating part so my idea of making a bronze bushing are out.

If the whole cable is only $50, then it does make sense to just replace the whole thing. (The shift cable for my Toyota pickup was over $200)

HBsurfer

Just looked at my receipt and the actual price of the GM cable was $47.95. I remembered you mentioning a bronze bushing once before. Since you have the skills, I thought having the cable in your hands may help somebody down the road. I am an old Ironworker so all I could do is hang it up in my garage

windyC6

YEP....same here. I go so far as to not ever touch the shifter when i'm in a drive through. Last thing I want to do is have to stop the flow of people wanting their FOOD cause my upper crust Corvette is stranded in the middle of the drive through. Does that make me paranoid ??....heck yes......Thanks GM......

EVRose

That's one of the few bad things about this forum. Constantly reading about all the bad things that can happen makes us paranoid. Me included. I stopped shifting to neutral or park at drive thru windows too. Its weird that in the 6 years I've been on here only in the past 6 or so months have I read so many posts about this bushing problem. Before that I don't think I ever heard of it.

GOLD72

Somewhat less than 40k.

GOLD72

I am still of the opinion that the front grommet is far more likely to fail than the rear. There have been some reports of rear grommet failures but those appear to be far outweighed by the front grommet reports in my following of this issue over the past 12 months. If you keep the car long enough, certainly the rear could eventually split as well since it is just plastic. You would hope by now that GM would require their cable supplier to use a higher grade plastic that would be less prone to temperature/age embrittlement.

BadAV

Your thought process was the same as mine - a metal bushing. I haven't read through the replacement thread(s) and haven't looked at any pictures, but it sounds like it's out, at least with the stock design. My question to you would be: Could you machine the "swelled" portion that the bushing snaps over off, then figure out a way to retain the bronze bushing in place - a snap ring, c-clip, drill a hole through and secure it with a washer and cotter pin, etc?

C6ToGo

Not necessarily. Kind of a pain to replace entire cable. Grommet is easy.