Fulton 1

Some quick background in the interest of being thorough:
My '02 C5Z gets used mainly for HPDE duty (wife and I both run in the intermediate groups), but it does see some street duty (mainly driving to and from events). We purchased the car from the original owner earlier this year with 23k miles on it and in 100% stock condition. In it's prior life it was a garage queen and never saw any track time.

Since purchasing the car I've mainly just installed what I consider to be reliability/preventative maintenance types of mods (eg DRM diff/trans coolers, Ron Davis rad w/EOC, and brake duct extensions, new GM blue valvesprings, C5R timing chain, Katech oil pump, etc., in addition to flushing all fluids). It is on stock size PS2 street tires and the only other changes are Carbotech XP10/XP8 pads, T1 swaybars, and DRM Bilsteins. It has seen 5 track days this year in this trim and I plan to run at least 6-7 track days annually from here on out.

Now, for the question:
I'm getting ready to put the car away for the winter and am going over what I want to do with it before next Spring. One thing I've been considering is replacing the Giubos as a preventative measure based on the age and intended future usage of the car.

On the one hand, I understand that there are no shortcuts and I have seen pics of what sort of carnage a failure can create. On the other hand, I'm making stock power levels and on street tires (with no plans of changing that any time soon since I still have a lot of learning to do before I need more). Also, there are no current symptoms indicating a problem of any kind. Sometimes there's a fine line between being proactive and "fixing" things that ain't broke so I'm looking for a reality check.

Anybody have some sage advice for me on this one? Does spending the time/money replacing Giubos make sense on a 12-year-old, but low-mileage car that sees track duty at 7/10's?

RX-Ben

Probably not needed, esp if you are not rev'ing to 7k+ on a regular basis and are at stock power levels.

blkbrd69

13 year old chunk of rubber?

In Arizona, Florida may die soon, Washington state may last a while. Are you on the first clutch?

froggy47

Let me add a question.

Do these usually fail catastrophically, or you get some vibration warning? I think you usually get some warning, like say a wheel bearing get's some play in it before it fails.

Fulton 1

Thanks. And, yes, those assumptions are correct. I'm still using the stock 6500 RPM rev limit and at this point have no plans for any notable power increases (headers and maybe tune at some point, but that will be all for the foreseeable future).

Based on Eric D's description from an old thread the flex coupler is more than just a "chunk of rubber", but so is a tire and I wouldn't take a 13-yr-old one to the track either. So your point is taken and it's actually why I'm thinking about replacing them in the first place.

Yes, car is still on the original clutch and it has been working fine.

Good question, froggy, on whether there are warning signs. I'd love to know the answer as well if anyone that has had one fail can chime in...

froggy47

My theory on PM is if it's going to give me a warning, and if it's an expensive job (time/part/both) I will postpone.

While those do fail, it's not my understanding that they fail a LOT unless you have upped the limiter & you are doing TT or WTW.

Then you have a really different level of prep than an HPDE guy.