While driving to work this morning I hear what sounded like a cat skreeching its last of 9 lives out under my hood I quickly nip over to a safe area and pop the hood...much to my surprise I see coolant shooting out of the bottom of my H20 pump like a race horse taking a you know what ...with minutes left to civilazation I make it to the shop as the "low coolant" indicator chimes on the DIC (never did go over 200 F) pull in and shut her down...by the time I get around front I see what looks like a gallon of her life blood on the ground and can smell the sweet smell of Dexcool evaporating into the morning air- Tell the guy at the counter I am losing coolant and drop it off for what I expect to hear is a possible bad hose... - meanwhile walk to coffee shop next door for the morning dose.

Could not be farther from the false reality I set myself into as I left her- phone rings a few hours later- ah, Mr. So and So please; speaking, well its the H20 pump sir. Delco part only $329.00 + $175 labor + 2 gallons of Dexcool + torn up brand new belt saturated in coolant + disposal fee... not including tax of course...$562.93

Talk about Corvette Tax at its finest! Now that I am using the 97 as my DD I had no choice but lay out the greens...

good thing I just spent a grand on the nice Mod red interior the day before!

What can you do-

 

Luckily, you were close enough to the garage and did not have to add a tow to the package, or that you significant other wasn't driving and did not know what the smell or lights or chimes were all about and kept driving till it stoped running....
It seems the more we spend, the more things go wrong...

 

That's probably the funniest written "bad" story I've seen on here...keep the spirits high You should write for a living, if you don't already

 

I found water pumps from $89[reman+ core $25]to $159 Delco[brand new]Would mention where, but not sure if they are site sponsor.

 

Thank you for the kind words! Unfortunately I don't write for a living, although it probably would be a fun career!

Spirits are high, just funny how things happen in life! Fix something up- something takes a dump!

 

Dang! Glad you were able to return safely from the outer city limits to suburban civilization to get your ride all patched up after it peed on itself. Yep. The "Corvette Tax" is a beotch, especially when caught in a desperate jam like this, and, not having the opportunity, then, to shop around. But, ya came out alright, good buddy. Cheers.

 

Pity you were caught on the road with that problem. Water pump takes about 20 minutes to change, and as Lost said, it is inexpensive.

Sorry to hear about yet another Stealership rip off story.

 

Whoa!!
For that price you and the vette could have shared an ocean front room in Hawaii.
Maybe 2 nights.

 

The New Delco pump is infact 329... list price....that is what they charge.,,,,its a 45 minute job at best... they will charge you list on the serp belt and list on the dex.... serp is around 60 dollars list and 20 for the Dex.
about 400 in parts... and about 100 in labor...
Looks like they soaked you for double labor on the serp install...
sure you could have done it yourself.... the good news is it is fixed with a genuine Delco part, with a guarantee.. so you didnt do too bad... I would never put a recondidition aluminum part on a C5. Too much chance of heat warp...mismatch of inlet and outlet... these remanufacurers only pop out the bearing and clean the old housing so is shines.... they never resurface the inlets,,

 

Tough luck on the water pump. Hope they get it repaired correctly and you get back on the road again.

 

Best Mod I've made to my car is to make a mechanic my freind. The labor rate goes way down and he gets the parts a cost

 

Ouch... big $$$ fix...

FYI... you didn't need to worry about running out of coolant. The C5 can limp to wherever without any coolant safely.. It shuts down and alternates cylinders which allows them to cool. One of the cool tech features built into the C5..
So you could have driven safely to a cheaper place for repairs....

 

Did they let you keep the corn cob when they were finished with it??

That definitly hurts but what can you do.

 

That's an eye opener!