Just after I picked up my new 06 form the dealer I got it home and noticed some grease on the inside of the rear wheels - more on the right than the left.

I saw some posts about some leakage from the ball joints so I thought I'd wait to see if it got any worse. Well, the drivers side quit leaking right away but the passengers side is a full blown grease fest in there now.

I pulled the wheel off and looked at the boot. There is definately a cut in the boot as you can see from the pix below. (the green marking is a factory assembly marking)

I called the dealer and I am going to take it in on Wednesday but I heard that some people have been getting the run around from the dealers on this.

Does anyone have direct experience with this problem ?

Thanks !

Tom

 

I think there is a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) on this. The dealer should be able to find this in his system. Somebody on the forum may have this number too.

 

Mine is going in Monday am for the same thing. Yeah, the dealer didn't want to warranty it, but Chev. Customer Assist talked to them and
now they are covering it.
Thanks for your post, gives my gripe a little more credibility.

I hope there is a service bullentin on this, but where?

 

Warranty covered two of them (different times) on my C5.

 

Same thing happened to me, gonna have to take it to the Dealer and let them fix it. Just got the C6 about a month ago and i cant have grease spewing everywhere

 

Just got my 2006 back from the dealer last Tuesday for a leaking rear CV boot. No charge, covered under warranty but it took them 7 days to get the part. Car has 179 miles.
Bill

 

Seems to be this car is full of TSB's more by the day.

 

I had the same thing on a new Z06 w/ less then 300 miles. Kept on seeing black grease on the inside rear wheel on passenger side (most other forums members (other sites) I have talked to also had just passenger side issues). As soon as the service manager put it on the lift we could see a slight cut right at the clamp buckle area (just like the above pic).

I'll bet that a lot more of these issues are out there. I am real particular but for a few times I thought the grease was just a blob of brake dust that had a little water/road stuff mixed in. If you are not washing the inside of the rear wheels you may not notice the grease-partly due to the build up of the brake dust. Also some forum members are stating that when asking about the grease the dealer is stating that he grease is comming from either overgreased ball joints (?) or from the z51 (or zo6) suspension having a grease fitting at the lower control arm tie rod. (The control rod grease s clearly brown) One other issue is that once most of the grease has run out of the boot ..it will stop leaking but surely will cause a premature failure of the cv joint.


My dealer replaced the entire axle assembly. Took about 3 days to get the part and about 1 hour to replace. I did not leave the car at the dealer....

PS Neither my dealer or myself can find a TSB on this issue at this time. Looking at the above pics my grease leake was EXACTLY the same with grease hitting the wheel sensor connector and the upper ball joint nut. Looks to me to definately be a manufactoring defect that may effect may cars.......

 

This makes me REALLY glad I didn't take the museum delivery ! I'd be sitting somewhere in Texas waiting for the part to come in.

I hope everyone taking delivery of a car at the museum has soemone check this before you leave !

 

All cars have TSB's

 

I agree.... One would be surprised just how many TSBs are out on you 'family' mini-van....search for a forum (and yes they are out there) and you would never let your family travel by car again

It just seems that forums ... of ANY TYPE ...tend to dwell on problems....dont believe me then go to:
http://members.boardhost.com/hernia1/

I made a mistake and started to read the above discussion just before my hernia operation.......There was even A RECALL of the mesh they use to repair a hernia.......

What is missing (in both car and hernia forums) are the thousands (of operations and miles) that have no issues

PS: I still love my Z and my Hernia operation went ok (but I won't post any pics..of the operation that is)

 

One thing to remember.....there are a LOT of autos out there that use cv joints/boots and a LOT of them have torn boots. My wifes beater was a 1994 Nissan Altima that had a boot torn completely around (circumference). I have no idea how long it was like that (I found it when I was putting in a set of brake pads) and to the day I sold it it was still torn. That car was driven daily-snow and all.

I believe a leaking (seeping ) cv joint boot would ...probably ..... outlast most of the current owners (considering most vet owners are ..relatively ... low mile drivers). The kind of tear we are seeing on these vets would not grossly (if ANY) allow any dirt/grit into the joint . The loss of grease WOULD OVER TIME allow the joint to prematurely fail but...... in my opinion ..... this would not happen even in a few thousand miles.
I initially had a concern that I would either get a 'repair' to the boot or an after market boot installed and that the grease would not be adequately replaced or that foriegn material would be introduced into the joint. Most shops even for daily beater ricers just replace the axle assembly for the above reasons. I was really satisfied when my dealer did not blink an eye and ordered a complete half shaft assembly.

Please dont interpurt this to mean that I believe we should just put up with this.....GM should..and did..fix this.

PS: There is a TSB (for all C6s including Z06) out there which changed the half shaft (both right and left) part numbers AND the torque specs for the axle nut. This TSB does NOT mention anything about tears. The torque is pretty critical...my dealer found it but I had it printed ready to go in his hands...just in case.

 

Would you mind posting the TSB? Where do you find these things? Thanks!

 

Thanks for the pics, I will inspect this area regularly now.
Easily seen through the rims with a strong flashlight.

 

That's comfortable to know but I think I will refrain from draining and changing the rear end differential fluid with Amsoil at this time for now.
See what happens.

 

What's the cause of the tear? Is it like this from the factory or is it tearing once the car goes into service? Could the tool to fasten the clamp have slipped during the installation. Is it a design flaw? Inquiring minds want to know.

Warren

 

This is what I know:
I am POSITIVE that mine came from the factory with a tear. I picked mine up and noticed at the dealership that on the inside rear wheel (on the passenger side) what I thought was the remnants of brake dust/road grime. The day I picked mine up it was pouring down rain so I was 'inspecting' her in the service drive thru. I remember thinking to myself that the dealer really needs to get better prep guys.

Mine is pretty much a garage queen and I wipe it down after each drive....grease was there but I kept on 'believing' it was just road grime/brake dust. I think in my minds eye I forgot that there is a cv joint on the beast (I mean where else would black grease be leaking out of and getting on the inside rear wheel). The other thing that masked this (for a while) was (at least for my z06) the brke dust is beyond belief. I mean after I wash mine -and before I dry it - I have to take a drive around the neighborhood then re-wash the inside of the wheels (front and back) because there is so much brake dust it looks like black paint running on the inside of the wheels.

After 3 weeks (and only ~300 miles) started seeing the grease after a 10 mile drive....which did not produce much brake dust.

Got on the internet (because i was not happy about going to a dealer) and found 6-10 posts of the same problem...with the only closure I read was that dealers were saying this was 'overgreased' ball joints or overgrease lower tie road end (on z06/z51). BS

My tear was EXACTLY like one of the above pics....at the large end of the boot on the outside edge right at the buckle of the clamp. The tear was on a slight angle to the outside edge of the boot. All of the other 'brothers' I have talked to on the internet that have had this problem also state that it is the passenger side only giving them problems. ALso when i stared to investigate this problem I saw grease from the underside of the car in the exact same places as the pics above. I remember seeing the grease blobed right on the wheel sensor connector

My opinion...this is clearly either a manufactoring defect when the right half shaft was made (the right and left are two different part numbers) or an installation defect what the shaft was installed.
I'll bet there are a lot more out there...with the only symptions being grease droppletts on the INSIDE of the right rear wheel this can be missed. After a while (one forum guy I talked to in NJ stated that he now has ~9k miles and the grease stopped) the grease stops (due to boot running out of grease). Add that the actual failure of the cv joint could be miles/years down the road.

One last thought...while researching this I did find a few forum members that was telling me about having to have half shafts (passenger side) replaced (I was researching just how invasive the procedure to replace was) and way they were stating that the half shaft was one of the weak points in the Z06....maybe we know why it is weak now (lack of grease)