This nor any site may be the appropriate place to share but I don't know where else to go. I have a yellow 04 Z06. It has 12k miles. At 3k the right side power window motor had to be replaced. At about 4k a rear fender red light fell off. About the same time the fuel door wouldn't open so it had to be fixed. At 11k a "service steering column lock" message appeared. It is still there since the fix is $800 and they use the same parts that worked for 11k. Wednesday while being detailed a crunching sound comes from out of the blue and the front end drops to the top of the tires. After a tow to the dealer I am told the leaf spring going between the front wheels which is made of a plastic composition has broken. $800 to fix this plus the tow charge. I am a senior citizen and adhere to traffic laws so the car has not been abused. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if my wife hadn't driven the wheels off her Camry which never breaks. My F150 only has to have oil changes and tires. Am I expecting too much of the car? Did I get a lemon. (As stated it is yellow). Are the newer Corvettes having issues like this or are they a little tougher than my 04? Thanks for tolerating my rant.

 

The column lock is a simple and super cheap fix, do a search on this website for it.

The leaf spring cracking is the first I have ever heard of that happening, that is very strange.

 

Mileage isnt always a factor......parts are 10 years old....sometimes old pats fail.....this is the first I have heard a front spring breaking without some other form of abuse causing it.....May have been a manufacturing flaw....who knows....

 

Sounds like a lemon

 

Sounds like a car that hates sitting.

 

Built on a Monday? Bought mine (also '04Z MY) in 2011 with 17K, have 47K now. Have lowered it, put on an Blackwing intake, some other light mods.....and not single problem cept this week the original battery finally had a cell go bad. Best car I've ever owned....its not my DD though....

 

Bought my car last year with 16k miles. Took it to the track several times, car is a beast and it can handle all I can put it through.

Did you do a car fax before buying? Sounds like some gremlins are hiding in that thing....

 

Important: Are you the 1st owner, or did you buy it used?

Just bought an 04 Z06 w/ 9,123mi last year and it's as solid as they come.

I'm very interested to hear if you bought it used. Only sense I can make of all of the freak issues you've had is if it was a flood victim / sever water damage; that was "cleaned" and re-sold.

Otherwise if you're the original owner; you've got a true to definition lemon.

Sell it while being upfront about your issues and experiences while advertising to individuals looking for a vette to highly modify. Still has low miles on the block and tranny, and if they're going to mod anything & everything anyways; shouldn't be a big deal if it has some issues here & there that require a little wrenching > always to be expected on highly modded cars

then buy another one after doing your homework on it 1st

 

Enjoy ! they are great cars. Let us know how it works out

 

It is not clear that your problems are all intrinsic to the Corvette. It's probable that even if the car was never in a collision, a hacker could have jacked it up by the spring with a sharp edged jack with nothing to protect the spring. That's what the best local alignment guy I could find was going to do until I stopped him. As for passenger side issues, everyone seems compelled to slam my passenger door at about 50 G's, I now tell every person to please not slam the door. Body parts? Very probably someone had that apart and slapped it together--it's amazing the collateral damage some self-proclaimed "mechanics" and "body men" do to cars. I took my car to a top notch "restoration" shop in Ct for some paint work, and the workmanship is vandalism quality, including loose and missing parts. They remounted the front air dam on upside down! My wife drives a Toyota, and I drive a Honda, and I rarely have to fix anything. I had serious reservations about buying a Corvette, but found a mint 03 with 13,700 miles so bought it. It's had a couple of issues, but I'm not concerned. It's awesome on the track. Met an instructor who has an 03 Z06 with about 118k on the clock, including about 35-40k track miles, and it's never been apart--and he is FAST. But, if you don't drive the Z06 hard you may have been better off with a newer base model that was closer to factory fresh, less chance of having been molested.
03 Z06 MY

 

That was exactly the question that first crossed my mind

If the OP is not the original owner, clearly the car has been abused; if he is and has treated it only as described, then the car is a lemon. C5s have their flaws, but yours is a bit much (leaf spring failure???).

 

I seem to remember reading a lot of threads year ago about the composite springs on our cars de-laminating/coming apart and it was traced baack to different spray cleaners for brake dust, road grime and the like having very adverse reactions to the composite material the leaf springs are made of. Sorry to hear of your problems, mine seems to be pretty tough.

 

I am the second owner of my 2004 Z06 that I bought in 2006. It had the steering column fix and I had to slam the passenger door hard a few times to get the window to work. Besides for oil changes, a new battery in 2010, and new tires in 2012, that's all I've done to it with 62,000 miles on the odometer - 51,000 of them driven by me. I love this car!!!

 

I agree with what others have said.

With the electrical issues and all, I also agree that it could be a flood car. Electrical gremlins pop up regularly when the car comes in contact with a lot of water and corrosion sets in.

Actuators do go bad over time, but with as few miles as you have and if it were a garage kept car (as the mileage would indicate), sounds like moisture got to her.

The Column lock is a simple and inexpensive fix. Definitely would not pay 800.00 for that! You can buy a 50.00 kit or simply have a tuner tuned it out (by the reflash of ECU). He can also take care of the skip shift if you do not like this (I didn't and had mine tuned out).

Best of luck for you. Like others, sounds like the leaf spring issue was the result of a wrong jacking procedure. Never heard of this one before.

 

You can tune out CAGS, but the column lock is a function of the BCM, not the ECU

 

I have an 02 with 135K on it and it doesn't give me as much trouble as your car did.

I would say you bought something that should have stayed where it was possibly a fugitive from a junk yard, it isn't a secret that totaled cars are fixed then sold as low mile garage queens.

 

Sounds like a lemon. I've had my 04 for almost a year. I've raced it and driven it hard, no issues at all so far.

 

 

No need to rant! You bought a car that has been driven 1200 miles a year over the last 10 years. You should understand that your car is meant to only be backed out of the garage, wiped off, pulled back in and covered up. Then you can sell it in another 10 years for a nice profit!

 

I hate to call it a lemon but yes, it sounds like your car has just been problematic for some reason. I have an '01 Z06 with 44k miles and the only problem I have had is the column lock issue. The LCM5 fixed that up for me. ;-)