SLO VETTE

Hi folks I'm in dire need of a good St. Petersburg, FL area Corvette mechanic/shop who knows their stuff. Please PM or post here. I'll gladly buy you beers if you're in the area as thanks (I'm in St. Pete Beach)!

Am on a week long vacation in St. Pete, drove my C5Z down from the northeast yesterday/today. Terrific drive, no issues. But, it was an--ahem--high(er) speed almost nonstop 17 or so hour 1300 mile trip, so that's probably part of the problem (my car's a garage queen, I drove more in one day than I have in almost 4 years).

Luck would have it, got to washing the car this afternoon and when I started to pull out of driveway, a godawful popping and grinding sound came from the rear. No idea what it was. While cleaning the car, as I reached into the passenger side rear wheel to clean it I noticed a TON of grease on the surface. Am trying to put two & two together here and guess that maybe it's a busted seal of sorts, bearing, hub, whatever. Here's the pics of what's going on:







Am really nervous about driving it and will deal with flatbed, etc. More importantly, I'm time crunched but will deal with that logistic. Bigger issue is finding a reputable mechanic who can correctly diagnose and repair.

The positive takeaway here is thank goodness it happened while in driveway after I got here and not at 3 a.m. somewhere in the boonies. Gotta extend a thanks to certain folks up above who were watching over me.

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP!!!

Crosis

Vern's corvette
1649 South Missouri Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33756

SLO VETTE

Thank you very much Crosis.

I just spoke with Vern, by luck he was there in the shop when I called and I will follow up with him in the morning.

Pounder

looks like grease from the axle boot ?

SLO VETTE

dunno. i'm sure it'll be a pandora's box of fun.

Pounder

it could be as simple as a tear in the axle boot and the grease flies out !

SLO VETTE

would that cause a popping not-good sound when moving at a snail's pace? literally just backing up or moving forward at a snail pace. wheel felt like it was seized and regrettably was moving forward or backwards by sheer will. i drove around parking lot to see if any change, and no change. so i just washed the car and tucked it away.

Pounder

it could if the axle joint was dry of all grease, just guessing at this point.

SLO VETTE

Hey i'm all ears and will mention those guesses to Vern or whomever i can get to see the car. Thanks for the suggestions.

Powertech

I have a replacement axle in stock. $200 installed and we are in St. Petersburg.

Powertech Performance
3161 118th Ave
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
727-826-0802

Can have you in and out ASAP.

SLO VETTE

Thanks I will call you in a.m.! Problem is I don't know if it's just the axle boot. Just sent you a PM....

I dunno if my car's drivable (if wheel completely seizes, right now it'll turn but it's not happy about it) or if we need to flatbed it. Don't really want to take that chance. An acquaintance down here said Stepp's is the go-to on any towing need, I can call to make arrangements or do you have a preferred vendor?

Powertech

PM me your address and I can call a wrecker company and have them pick it up in the am for you. Once we get it in the air we can be sure it's just the axle for you.

SLO VETTE

To all who've posted and sent PM's, I can't thank you enough for the assistance with this.

I really, really appreciate it.

Pounder

let us know what you find !

SLO VETTE

yeah, i will find that it would have been a helluva cheaper to fly & rent a car.

oh on top of the mechanical issue, while cleaning car i also noticed my damned tires were cracking! i turned wheels hard left and right and crawled under car as best i could in front & rear, thinking the noise might be from having ran over something that got wrapped around axle or other parts. ahh, no such luck.

and in the process of that inspection i noticed how lovely condition these tires are in. they're about 9 years old, michelin pilot sports. probably have 4-5k miles on 'em at most, huge treadlife left, they look almost new in that regard.

Capt Van

Here's the place to go Jim

Don't forget to let them know about the achmmm new hipo ummmm gears?

SLO VETTE

^^

I gotta drive my car more often. This one trip was more miles than last 4 years.

SLO VETTE

Never a good sight to see your baby taken away on a flatbed....



Gonna get 'er fixed up & good again.

Thanks again to the fine FL folks who got me sorted faster than you can say, "busted axle!"

And to Joe @ Powertech who sent over the flatbed 1st thing this a.m. and got to diagnosing the misc. items.

pewter99

Joe sent me some pics of the problem....if I have time tomorrow I may swing by the shop and check it out....I work about 3 miles from there and don't get by like I used to due to my schedule.

SLO VETTE

Cool! I hope to get by there Wednesday, time permitting. Def. needs all new tires and a looksie into fixing some other stuff too. He'll be fixing the axle (confirmed it was toast) then taking it out for proper road test, etc. I'm hoping it's roadworthy by the weekend.

Thanks again for the referral.