I just walked away from a sale today after the pre-purchase inspection found water damage. Apparently the floor mats were soaked - I hadn't noticed, but I only drove the car from one dealership to another one that was a couple blocks down the street. The dashboard was complaining about traction control not working, which the inspection tech said was likely due to water. So, no sale.

But on the way home I started to wonder how it would be to deal with this. Could the car be worth it if the dealership would knock the price down from $21k to, for example, $15k? (...which would only work if the dealer decides not to just hope the next interested buyer doesn't notice the problem.)

The leak is presumably due to the seal around the driver's window or door, so replacing that would be the first step. Then pull the seats, pull the carpet, rip out any insulation under the carpet, maybe the door panel as well... What else? How much trouble would I be asking for?

I'm mostly only interested in a C5 for track days anyway, and the seats would be one of the first upgrades, so I'm not averse to pulling them. Or the interior for that matter. (Though my wife might insist on putting carpet back after a good cleaning.)

Plan "A" is just to wait for a car with no red flags, but... I wonder. Would this kind of thing make sense with a $5k-$6k discount? Or is this just one bad idea after another?

What does the CorvetteForum hive-mind say?

Thanks!

 

The water could be coming from the windows, or it could be coming from blocked udders or perhaps even an A/C condensate line being plugged. I seriously doubt that a dealer will knock the price down as much as you are thinking, but may be willing to try and fix the problem if a sale was contingent on it.

Did the tech pull codes on the DIC to see what the problem was or was it just an assumption on his part? It could have been something other than the water setting the traction control warning off.

 

What year and model was it?
Where are you located, and where is the car from?

 

I'm getting some water leakage from my windows. I think the guides are either worn or loose, because my window has about 3/4 of an inch of side to side play when all the way up.

 

Corvettes have udders? WTF?

There was too much water for this to be an AC problem, this is in Seattle where nobody has used AC for months.

Not actually sure if they pulled codes. Can't imagine doing an inspection without that, but maybe I'm too trusting. The tech did say the traction control "module" would need to be replaced.

2003 Z06, 35k miles. I'm in WA and so are all of the car's previous owners.

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ur-udders.html

 

That's too much money for that car anyway as you described it. You need to keep looking and there's much better deals (retail market is going to price higher). There aren't many C5s of any model that should be priced above $20K in the current market sans maybe a super low mileage '04 Commemorative Z06 or something of that nature. Especially considering you're looking for a track car you can find better suited cars - even Z06s - at a much lower price point.

There is a large culmination of factors it could be;

- Indeed the udders. They are often overlooked and I would assume there are a lot of long-time owners that have never even touched them. The passenger side is even more difficult to get to as you have to go under the battery, typically requiring it's removal to "service." Servicing is literally as simple as grasping them and pushing the crud out until they empty.

- As Tsumi mentioned above door "tip-in" often is a problem on C5 due to everything from worn guides to worn seals, causing the window glass to often not completely flush itself against the body at particular spots. This is an issue where mileage isn't a determinant factor.

- The windshields on C5s do have a tendency to leak even on low mileage examples. Leaks typically occur towards the top most part (you'll usually see sun visors soaked) but that's not to say it possibly didn't occur towards the passenger side leading edges or similar. Chalked up to typical period GM build quality.

- The rain channels for the hardtop body style - FRC and Z06 - are a single-piece channel different from the targa which is split at the top and also have been discontinued for quite some time now. They're well known to have cracks and issues. Channels with cracked sections could be dumping water onto particular areas of the window, exaggerating any leaks. It's become such a huge issue that used examples sell for a good amount of money.

 

Unusual for a hardtop to leak from the door compared to targa top cars. But I guess it's possible.
I run mine through a touchless car wash often and it never leaks a drop into the car.

 

Udders. LOL. Thanks for all the info, everybody.

I'm in agreement the those of you saying to pass on the car.

I should have mentioned that the tech said that the dealer (the Dodge dealer that was selling the car) had brought the car in before about the traction control errors. The fact that the dealer didn't fix it probably indicates that it's not a cheap fix.

 

FWIW I know i have experienced an issue with the FRC/Z06 cars leaking from the top corners of the windshield. Happened in my fairly low mileage '01 that I previously owned and I know i've read about something similar a few times, its made even worse because FRC headliners are now unavailable.

 

I live in Washington and have a very nice 2002 Z06 with 40000 miles on it I would be willing to sell at a reasonable price as I have 3 Corvettes now. oldcars@comcast.net

 

My Z06 leaked like crazy when I bought it (didn't know when I looked at the car because the weather was perfect) and it's a major pain to fix. It took a bunch of trial and error. But, I can take the seats and carpet out of my car in 10 minutes now lol

 

could it be a flood car from mid west???

 

Walk away. I live in Portland and drive a c5 vert. There are lots of clean c5s in the northwest.