Well it turned out it was a spring that went on cylinder #3. Chevy replaced it and charged me full price. It was $1700 with $500 in parts and $1200 in labor (bull s#*t) I found out the car was sold on 7/12/03 and the warranty was up on it. Apparently, GM will offer you no cost assistance if the car was bought from a non-GM dealer even if it only has 3555 miles on it. Because they have no record of the car and they don't know if it was abused This car wasn't abused one bit, but even if it was, isn't that was Z06's were made for?

I have to say, my Mustang gives me no problems and it has 30000+ miles on it and it is abused!

-1 for Chevy in my book. It's not even the matter that they won't pay the money, its the fact that they will not stand behind their product. If they would have paid the parts total I would have been happy. Just something to say we're sorry your dream car/ show car had a problem with it. I think when it's time for a new car, the viper will be over the Z06.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems ....

A couple of thoughts ....

The dealer can, using the Tech2 scanner, see if the engine ever suffered from an over rev. If an over rev occurs the PCM keeps a PERMANENT record of that occuring. If it did NOT suffer an over rev, I'd call Chevy Customer Assistance and see what they might do to help you. With that low a mileage, and if the dealer confirms there was no over rev ... they MIGHT help you out to some small degree. If there is an over rev record ... Chevy won't help at all.

What is your build date for the car? The date will be on a sticker on the drivers door. Shows MO/YR the car was built.

Did the dealer show you the broken spring? My Z06 experienced a similar problem, but it wasn't a broken spring. The nut holding the rocker arm in place came off and the rocker arm fell OFF !!! All the dealer had to do (after inspecting the push rods and cam - found no damage) was bolt the rocker arm back in place. That problem occured under warranty so I don't know what the dealer billed Chevy for the work. My build date is July 2000 (one of the EARLY Z06's).

I'm not sure you're gonna find that Dodge dealers provide any better service than Chevy dealers ... or that Dodge itself has a different set of rules for working on "used" cars bought from a non-dealer. Pretty much all the auto makers (even the Japanese) won't provide assistance with a vehicle bought from a non-dealer. Mainly this is in place to help the dealers with their used car lots. A dealer can offer certain "protection" policies for their brand of vehicle on the used car lot, giving them an edge over "private sale" deals. Most dealers won't carry any used cars that are roughly over 3 years old on their lot. They ship older vehiclles to auctions. They provide the used car side of the business as a way to encourage trade-ins of fairly new cars to keep their new car sales moving. Dealers HATE new cars sitting on the lot as most of them are paying a "flooring" charge for every day the new car sits in inventory.

If you do call Customer Assistance, be sure to keep the conversation polite and businesslike. You'll get much further than "ranting" at the poor representative on the phone. Be sure to have necessary paper work in front of you when you call (the R.O. from the dealer, the VIN for the vehicle, and any other papers that will show the car has been well maintained during its life.

Good luck,

 

If you could scan your invoice for the work done by that dealer, that'd be interesting. There has to be a great deal more than a broken valve spring to justify those charges.

 

I agree, I paid 4 hrs labor, $300 to have my springs changed (to prevent the sort of problem you had). So what else did they have to do?

At least it wasn't worse. If the spring broke when you were revving it up, you could have blown the motor completely.

I had to have my trans. rebuilt with just 15000 mi on the car that I bought with 14 k mi--sometimes you are just unlucky.

 

sorry about your problems. But I think you will find the mustang and or viper will lack the fun factor of a Z06 , IMO... On a different note. I was in my local Chevy dealers shop one day. They had a C5 Z06 on the lift with several special jigs attached to support the engine while they were pulling a head and the oil pan. It apparently suffered a valve train mishap and one of the valves hit a piston. I was quite impressed at how they were working on the car, till I looked at the technicians workbench. All the pushrods were laying in a pile on the bench. They obviously didn't care which position they came from or which position they were going back into. I was not impressed.

 

I had some work done on my car after warranty expired and the dealership I took it to worked with me to get CHevy to pay for 1/2 of the work done. They did that because they could tell that the car was well cared for and knew they could justify it. That coupled with some really great pricing from the service guy (Z06 owner and enthusiast) got me out the door feeling pretty good. Well, as good as I could feel for having the EBCM go out on me with ~11k on the ticker.

Mike

 

Uh..... it doesn't matter which pushrod goes where. You're probably thinking of old-school lifters.

 

Well everyone has there own opinion. You maybe correct that it doesn't matter. It matters in my book. I have always had the opinion of keeping all parts in there original position. Such as marking bearing caps,etc,etc. All it takes is a little effort. Ie: a simple cardboard box with holes punched in it to keep your pushrods in the same position.

 

Totally unneccesary. But do what you want.