I just some quick checking -

"Hi everyone, I got a black 93 6spd coupe. 140000 on the clock. 4 problems. 1. The AC was just converted to the new freon (R-something) and recharged. I am able to adjust the climate and the fan speed. A dye was used in the system when I had it recharged a few months back, and after 2000 miles, I took it back and it showed no signs of leaking. The problem is that it doesn't seem to get as cold as the setting shows (60 degrees), and when I turn the fan speed down, the air blowing from the vents seems to get warmer as well. I have an 03 ford ranger, and when I have it set to 60, I can turn the fan speed up and down, and the air is always cold, just doesn't blow as hard on lower fan setting (as expected). Any ideas? Problem 2: idle is erratic upon first start. If i start the car and drive it, it idles at 1100-1500 at stop signs. However, if I shut the car off and restart, it idles perfectly at 700rpms at stop lights. Weird huh? Problem 3: this just happened a few days ago... I noticed a puddle of coolant under the front passenger bumper after a long drive (car never overheated though). The car normally runs between 210 and 220 degrees, I can let it idle for hours and it never goes past 220 with the ac running. It appears that the coolant spilled out of the plastic overflow tank at the cap. Any ideas?
Problem 4
The led display on the dash is very dim. I can barely read it at night when the headlights are on. I do have an aftermarket stereo, and I'm sure that's the cause of the dimness and the sys warning light. U guys helped me a bunch in the past, and I really appreciate it. Anymore ideas on these probs are greatly appreciated. Ryan "

And this -
"Here's a little history. Car sat for yrs... Started it one day and it ran for abt a week...."

And how about this -
"I recently installed a new stereo system, will run the codes again. But I never got 72 before. Is there anyway to clear the light with this new stereo? I just noticed that the dash seems a little dim, would that set the sys light off too? Thanks again for all your help. "

So Ryan bought a '93 that sat for number of years with 140k on the clock, a crappy AC freon conversion, problems with the anti-theft system and he installed a stereo system himself after which he notices the dash lighting is dimmed. From this he expected immediate reliability and no repair costs? MavSAk, "retarded" is not a strong enough word for this baloney. "Moronic" comes to mind.

And then he starts posting about about C4s having crappy reliability arguing initially that they are all unreliable. When that fizzles out because he has no takers, he changes his tune. Now he moves on to shoddy build, comparisons to Mercedes and Lexus, etc. Find a '93 Mercedes or Lexus that has sat for years with 140K on the odometer and crappy maintenance - see how reliable that is for 'ya Ryan.

I also looked - where's your C5 thread you were supposed to have posted? I see you live in Hawaii. Maybe it's time to give up and just go to the beach.

 

I find it amazing that people who can't wrench come in here and talk bad about how unreliable a 30 year old car is. Really? Buy a new car!! its that simple. If you want to own cliassic cars you have to learn to fix them period.

BTW of all the OLD cars I have ever owned My C4s have been the more reliable. First place goes to my 81 Chevy C10.

 

Sorry, but I just can't agree with your generalized statement about C4's being of poor quality and lack of dependability. I hae had two, a 92 and an 87. I bought my 92 back in 1995 and sold it in 2005. I drove it across country (6600 miles round trip) and never once during the time I owned it had any sort of problems. I started autocrossing in that car and did track days too.

My current C4, an '87 coupe, is my dedicated autocross and HPDE car. The car has been beaten on now for 6 years and again, never once have I had a mechanical problem with this car. I go thru brakes parts, tires, and I'm always looking for ways to improve it, but the car starts every time, it goes, it stops, it turns and is fun to drive.

Sure, you read in in the C4 sections of the Forum about people having problems. Happens in Mustang forums (probably more frequently...) Dodge forums, Yugo forums, and just about any car forum. But the percentage of people reporting problems with their cars is extremely small compared to those owners that don't have problems.

It could be that you maybe didn't check out the mechanical condition of your C4's carefully before you bought them. Maybe a prior owner used cheap replacement parts. And maybe it was just time for something to cause a problem. There are C4 owners here with 200K + miles on their cars and they run fine. It really isn't fair (or right) to blame the car and the engineering behind it for a few bad ones.

 

Here in Europe we have lots of old Mercedes Klasse 250 D with 1.000.000 km,read right 1 milion...don't blame Mercedes reliability...these are the best cars in the world...they run strong with no issue just oil and diesel,go in north Africa and you'll find lots of old 200 D klasse from late 70' early 80' these car are strong like tanks...as for C4's reliability these are simple to maitain easy to fix fun to drive,and beautyfull...what else

 

Your absolutely right about those older Mercedes but here we are referring to mid-90's OBDI/II vehicles with lots of electronics. Run any of them including a Mercedes up to 140K, fail to maintain it and park it for a few years in what is probably a moderate to high humidity environment (Hawaii in this case). When you come back to it, in all probability, you're going to have a lot of electrical gremlins along with other problems to deal with.

 

Go buy an Accord!

 

So why are you bothering still with a Vette? if yours is as bad as it sounds get rid of it, buy something Japanese and live a happy life..it might give you the chance to inhabit another forum.

 

Haha, I Just bought a 2014 accord.. So long suckas! Bye bye car troubles. Canceling my account now. Too many biased fan boys here cannot even be honest with themselves. Thank you to all the posters that really did help tho... Peace!

 

Fair enough... Sorry if u were offended by my post. I wasn't trying to put anyone down personally, I was simply stating my honest opinion about the design and quality of the car. I really like look and style, But in my experience with the C4, I had a lot of problems. I bought my 88 with low miles, just over 13 grand. That car dove nicely for a while, and I maintained it meticulously. But it still had all kinds of problems after only a few years of mild use. Anyways, the wife just showed up with a brand new accord, fully loaded. I really love how smooth and comfy the ride is... So I'm taking a rest from the vette for now. Hopefully I can buy that new c7 after I pay off my mortgage at the end of this year.. I always liked the corvette, hopefully I won't have many problems if I just get a brand new one and take care of it. Thank you for your honest feedback. I respect your opinion and your respectful reply. Take care... Off to the store in the accord 😁

 

Thank you internet tuff guy!! Good post.. Now.....go take yer meds and calm down a bit. Get a girlfriend, a wife, get some kinda life... Yer way too worked up bout a junk piece a plastic... lol. Canceling my account now... Just got a new car. Read below. Don't bother replying, I won't read it. Yer meds should help u deal with it.......... 😊

 

Jus did 😊

 

Worst used car I have bought in the last 40 years was an '03 Accord. Best (so far) was an 03 Buick that now has 215k miles on the clock and is still going strong.

Consumer Reports is my go-to source on car reliability. This aggregated data is much more meaningful than message board anecdotes (as entertaining as they may be).
I haven't seen their data on the C4, but they show the C5s as being generally of average reliability. The '04 for some reason they report as being much better than average.

 

So, lets see if I've got this right, he originally posted on this forum YESTERDAY to ask about the reliability of a C5, having owned a couple of C4s previously, cars which convinced him that Vette's were unreliable..then TODAY it appears he and his wife are driving around in a 2014 Accord! now on top of all this he's hoping to buy yet another vette, this time a C7! and this is after announcing that Vettes are a "junk piece a plastic..."

 

He was a . Every now and then there is a poster that starts an account, gets involved in a few threads and discussions and seems to really own a 'vette. Then he starts a thread that puts down 'vettes in some way and it quickly goes down from there. He had gone by many names. Last time he went by the screen name "12inches" now "Ryan40". He has been around for a while and seems to enjoy it. He makes little mistakes that trip him up - one thread the '93 has 140k and this thread around 100k. One thread it sat for years, this thread no mention of that. One thread he installed a stereo that he admits may have damaged his digital display and no mention of his mess-up here.

 

Haha! reckon you've got it in one Silver96ce! There is an old saying, "to be a good liar you've gotta have a good memory.." he's obviously no good at it!

 

Certainly will find many 'unreliable Vettes". Vettes that are over 18 years old, sat for years and bought on the cheap by folks with the thought that it should just start and run and drive like a new car off the showroom floor. Not gonna happen, sorry to say.

The internal combustion engine in and of itself is an engineering marvel. The fact that one of these, any of these runs for five minutes is purely amazing when you think about what actually happens in the motor and the precision necessary for this to happen. Every rotation of the crank is flirtatious dance with disaster.

Now, let's throw in the computerized management systems, and let all of these components age for twenty years. Yeah, there might be a few issues that pop up here and there. lol

But anyway, good luck with the Accord. I think a car with a warranty was a good call on your part.

 

My 1990 with 35000 miles had been pretty good but anything with rubber is suspect at this point I've done maintenance on some of the weather stripping, master cylinder and break lines, and the clutch master/slave and hose. Power steering pump isn't perfect, but some Lucas additive gave me some more life there. Window wipes are starting to crack. I did have a tow bill a few months ago when a replacement Chinese clutch slave cylinder failed and left me stranded (bent rod).

At least we have plenty of vendors supporting the car and it's a hobby for me so I don't mind. It's always going to need some sort of attention just because of the age. Major systems are good on mine so nothing I can't handle.

 

All I can add is a friend of mine has a 50th Anniversary edition and the shocks were leaking. This is the model with the different levels of performance you can set the shocks at. His bill with 4 new shocks (They were all bad) was $4,000. Thats a lot of money. Apperently parts are not cheap for the c5.

 

I have had two C-4s and one C-5. The C-5 was a better car by far for many reasons.

Rick