Car has Flowmasters, sounds good at 30 and cant here the radio at 70, but I digress.

The clutch is very finicky, as I press it about 2" and it engages, but when it disengages, it seems to not disengage as quick as it engaged.

I qualify this by saying, this is the first time I drove a 6sp vette, so it might be normal and I am being to picky.

What else so I need to look out for, when having this car checked out, it has the ride select and Navi radio.

Thanks for the help!!

 

I, like you am looking at a few 05's for sale locally... Here is what I am looking for:

1) harmonic balancer wobble (was a pretty big issue on early 05's and the replacement plus labor can be $1000) tell tale sign is to hear belts chirping, worn edges on the belt and/or visible wobble of the balancer itself.

2) all recalls done (if color matched top, they had an issue with it delaminating)

3) column lock issue- if not bypassed, it can lock the steering wheel in you...was an issue on the C5's- probably a carry over...you can buy a bypass kit from a forum member

4) rear differential issues - though not sure if you can see anything, but the 05's are said to have weak rear diff's- something that was worked out in 06. Said to be due to weight savings, the 6 speeds more so had them blow up under heavy load, launching etc... Some people say look for hair line cracks, others say it just grenades if you are hard on it (lots of posts about this issue) the automatics had a computer program installed to fix it that limited the torque to the rear under heavy load "torque management"

5) not sure about the clutch engagement points you mention, how many miles on it?

6) tires and breaks, if they need to be replaced are pretty expensive to do so...keep this in mind for the price negation...

7) overall wear and abuse, look at the drivers seat bolsters for wear... These things are not the best quality seat covers and tend to wear/rip if well used...

Other then your basic body work, paint work and having the service history run (give the VIN to a Chevy service guy, ask what the history is) and a carfax or VIN accident check...

The cars are awesome! A lot of people will tell you to go 06 and up... Avoid the first year gremlins...and a lot of other people say the 05's are awesome and never an issue...

Oh, the 6 speeds need to be shut off in the reverse gear- some kind of weird government requirement or something...leaving the car in any other gear then reverse will not shutdown all the cars electronics and it will kill your battery!

Good luck with your C6, don't forget to wave!!

 

I bought my 05 (A4) back in 2008 with 6,000 miles on it.. I drag race it as often as I can (it now has 42,000 miles on it) I've replaced the break pads NOT because of wear, but I wanted the Ceramic for less dust and noise.

The only major problem I've had was my alternator went bad at about 30,000 miles... I replaced it and other than that I've only had to buy new Drag Radials once or twice a yr.. (I use then year around) my OEM rear tires have only 6,000 miles on them from the original owner...

I have done a few mod for racing, Kooks Headers, Vararam CAI, 2800 FTI Converter.. I still have the stock OEM mufflers (CAN'T STAND DRONE AT ALL) as of now the car has run a best of 11.61 @ 118 MPH and I get about 24 mpg on the highway (I drive fast (80 - 85 mph)

Honestly right now if someone offered to trade me even for his 08 I'd say NO!!! My car runs too good....

 

All good points. Your a little off on #1 though. All years are having the same harmonic balancer wobble problem. Even brand new cars. The problem on the 05 was that some of the very early #s the harmonic balancer bolt started working loose. It was fixed with a different washer.

 

heres what id look at...

-tires (oem runflats ~$1500 for 4)
-pull all maintaince records you can
-check for recall work
-look at clutch fluid..is it black or clear?
-belts and balancer
-drivers seat bolster

i wouldn't worry about the clutch feel..if you buy the car, pull the spring off the clutch pedal. that will give it a much more linear feel.

those were all things i looked at when buyin my '05. didn't negioate much on the price after i got the dealership to through on 4 new tires. didn't realize how expensive runflats were untill i looked at these cars.

 

Is the Bose radio the Navigation one or not?

Thansk for all your replys!!

 

The car comes w. 2 diff Bose radios. The one w. nav has a single slot for cds. The other one has a six cd loader.

As to the car, I'd let someone who knows C6s (like a true, technician) look at the clutch thing. Replacement runs $2K and in an '05 it could be likely depending on miles and driver. Tires, as stated above can be a $2K cost, too.

Take any vin and either ask CF Vendor Excellente Gene Culley to give you the IVH report on the car, or take the vin to any GM dealer (not necessary to be Chev), and ask the service dept. to give you the stats on the car based on vin. This will tell you if any warranty, tsb or blocks have been done on the car you are looking at. It's free to research also, but only available at GM dealers.

 

THE 05 CLUTCH had on occasion stuck to the floor in certain cars,my 05 included.When the fluid got hot is when this happened.Don't remember the details. Next is the dreaded DBS or dead battery syndrome.If you park a stick shift for any length of time,the battery will go dead,and stone dead at that.DBS is a condition where there is no explanation or visible cause for everything to die on the car.Won't start,won't do anything.They have/had a reflash for it.The rear end in 05's is weaker then the following years and I don;t know why but from 06 on they got better.As other have mentioned,the harmonic balancer is or could be an issue too.You must park the car in reverse when you shut it down too in order for all systems to properly shut off.After shut down,you can move the shifter anywhere.

 

I bought a used 2008 in October 2011. Flew to Dallas from KC to drive it home. Behaved just fine, looked great, carfax checked out, etc. A few weeks after buying it, I noticed the clutch would slip pretty badly in 4th gear at around 4300 RPM. No slippage anywhere else, but when pulling hard on the highway in 4th, it would pull hard, then slip BAD at 4300. $2200 later, I had a new clutch. Oh, the car only had 14k miles on it when I bought it. Apparently, the guy who owned it had no idea how to operate a clutch, much less an hydraulic clutch. Easier to slip the hydraulic clutch, for sure.

Other than THAT, the car was awesome. So, go drive your prospective 2005 in 4th gear on the highway, up to the rev limiter, to make sure it doesn't slip. Oh, you'll be well north of the speed limit at that point.

I had that car for about six months, and was always jealous of the widebody look of the Z06 and GS. I traded it for a 2012 Grand Sport in July 2012.

Greg

 

along with leaving the car in reverse you also have to pull the parking brake, no big deal once everything is set that's where i leave it until next time

 

The only reason to pull the park brake is if you're afraid the car will move or to engage easy exit mode.

 

I have a 2005 vert with 70,000. miles. From my experience I would check the service records to insure all pertinent techinical service bulletins have been performed including the ECM programming flash (reduces the FOB constant polling of the door locks module and vise versa). If the clutch fluid is dirty either do the ranger method to change it out and it may clear up the clutch problem you are experiencing. Make sure you get 2 FOBs, the owners manual (including the additional one for the NAV) and check the NAV for its last update. It may affect what is displayed in your geographical area.
I believe that there is a thread somewhere that list all the problems that a 2005 had and how they were resolved.
The performance of my 2005 has been exceptional.
I hope you find a gem.