A quick recap for those who forgot or don't really care lol.

• Thought I had a rear axle seal leaking
  
• Took car to a very very reputable shop and discovered it was not the axle seal but actually the seal between the transmission and the diff "again not a big deal"
  
• Goto drop the rear cradle to gain access and upon draining the diff discover it sparkles more than a twilight vampire in the sun. Open the diff and there is over a handful of metal shavings and chunks surrounding the magnet. Both side bearings are destroyed and the pinion gear is chewed up "lucky it got me home 1840 miles from Florida"
  
• Dealer is 200 miles from home and they very graciously give me a CTS as a loaner car to take home since mine is... apart on one of their lifts.
  
• Send off the diff to Lingenfelter and once they receive it they say it appears that the previous owner ran the rear dry at some point in time, or that it experienced some intense lateral forces "AWESOME".
  
• Order up a new stage 2 RPM via Lingenfelter and await its arrival. After nearly 4 weeks the diff finally arrives and mechanic puts her back together. Goes to fire her up and hears a very loud squeal from the engine. Checks the pulleys and finds that my alternator is over 300 degrees with less than 1 min of run time. After removal the alternator is obviously toast upon inspection.
  
• Order a new alternator and a day later it shows up and is installed. Mechanic goes to start the car again and there is still a squeal. This time its traced to the supercharger drive pulley. And upon further inspection the mechanic finds that my supercharger mount bolts have worked out of the head and the entire assembly is loose which more than likely caused the additional stress on this pulley and fried it. They install superchargers regularly and are the number 1 Callaway dealer in the United States, as well as one of the largest vette dealers in the midwest, he says he has never seen steel mounting bolts work out of an aluminum head unless they were not tight to begin with.
  
• The later was discovered today while I was en-route to pick up my car. "He tried calling but there is minimal cell service in the sand-hills of Nebraska. But to top it all off the CTS had been sold so I got sent home in a 2005 Dodge Caravan LOL. I'm not complaining about a free loaner car but I wish it at least had tinted windows so I could hide.

Anyways mechanic went on to tell me whoever did the supercharger install "i know who" did a very poor job with hoses unsecured and rubbing etc. I feel very lucky all of this was discovered and did not let go and leave me along side the road but damn the bill just keeps racking on up.

I suppose this is the price to pay for buying a modded car but really wish the previous owner would have been a bit more attentive. Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent. If anyone needs a reputable place to have a corvette serviced in or around Nebraska PM and I will give you their info as they are not a sponsor on here as of yet.

 

Being a mechanic myself and a manager of mechanics for 20 years I can understand your pain. Some people have no business working on cars (or industrial equipment as in my line of work)

I see so many contracted mechanics do stupid and backwoods engineered things that I refuse to let anyone work on my cars even to change the oil, unless it is a dealer warranty issue, in which I always double check the work.

I could not even begin to recommend a good CHevy mechanic in my area, but maybe I have trust issues

Good luck with sorting out your issues, I hope you can enjoy the car soon!

 

Genuinely sorry to hear of your troubles, but yep, that's the price of modded cars sometimes.


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It could always be worse, as unlucky as I have been I have been lucky at the same time, thankfully the rear never grenaded and decided to take the tranny with it for good measure, supercharger didn't get loose enough to destroy much, just hoping I am getting on top of this thing soon.

 

Couldn't agree more...........as in most industries, only 10% or less of people really know what they are doing.

Don't think that just because you go to an "expert", that he/she is actually competent. And this applies to doctors, engineers, plumbers, scientists, electricians.............. any profession you want to mention.



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Sorry to hear of all your problems with the car - hope they can be resolved soon and you will have a very reliable car for years to come.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, just think it could be worse your wife could run off with the neighbor and take your Dog. God knows how we vette owners love our Dogs.

Pops

No really I feel your pain hope it all gets sorted out soon for you.

 

Ain't that the truth.......

Hope you get it all worked out

 

Pics of minivan...

 

LOL that was funny!

 

 

Glad it got you the 1840 miles home from Florida! I feel your pain. Sometimes modded and even non-modded Corvettes can get very frustrating when they're not fixed or done right the first time. I know a lot of us have been in your shoes before and you just have to vent.

 

I hope you got a good deal buying the car. I would always pay more for a proper stock vehicle without mods and ethnic engineering.

 

See you got this from IDM on here in fla. If all this happen to me only from the trip back from buying it. I do know you bought it now & it is yours, but if he told me it was a well done car. He and I would be talking may not do any good but still would be talking anyway. Just my 2 cents... Robert

 

Or one of those mythical Manti Teo models.

Hope you get your car situated.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but great job at staying positive! If it makes you feel better, it will be bad *** & should last you a long time!

 

I thought about it but in reality I don't think he knew about the majority of it. The differential... maybe but the rest I think was some shops screw up because all of the work to the car was done by "someone else".

I don't feel like I got screwed as of yet, I feel I may have been a little speed drunk when I was picking up the car and didn't pay good enough attention to catch some of these simple things. Should of taken my time and had the car taken to a shop where I could of gotten under her and checked things out a lot better. BUT.... live and learn, this is my second C5 purchase from the forum and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Just glad this happened during the cold months and I am not loosing valuable summer driving time/shows right now.

Oh... and I tried to get a pic of the minivan and me but my phone keeps auto deleting.... weird.... lol

 

And the saga continues...

In addition to everything else above, the power steering bolts were all loose and rubbing on the pulley, and the front driver side o2 sensor wiring was rubbing on the header and burned up, and the sensor itself is bad. Picked the car up yesterday and mechanic just discovered the o2 sensor problem as I asked him to go ahead and change the oil while I was there. Wires were completely unhooked prior and car ran pretty good, now they are hooked up to the bad sensor and the car is pissed off!! At least until she goes into closed loop. Couldn't find a sensor anywhere on a Saturday and I also need the pigtail, so gonna get that ordered as soon as I find the pigtails part number.

This all being said I can't say how impressed I am with the shop I took her too. They said they understood I brought her in for a $300 seal change and ended up with several thousand dollars worth of repairs so they cut their labor bill in half. Very stand up guys.

But now I have an problem. Driving the car home yesterday it was almost like the "magic" was gone for me. I know she is mechanically a lot more sound than she was when I picked her up, but I don't know if its because I feel slighted by the seller, or what. I catch myself thinking I should just try to sell her myself now that she is actually safe to drive and go some other route, I dunno lol. I'm sure it will pass and eventually all will be good. Thanks for all the comments guys, now I'm off to find those part numbers...

 

Definitely not fun but if you want to look at the positive, you and your car now know each other quite well and you have bonded. That's not meant to be funny... I think there can be a bond between a guy and a car... when it happens it just makes everything all the better and makes you want to keep in longer term. If you are keeping it longer term then then seemingly wasted dollars know aren't such as big deal...

 

Happy trail's.