Harmonic Balancer Replacement
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Jul 2021
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
From: Johnston County, NC
Harmonic Balancer Replacement
RE: 2005 C6 base coupe 59,000 miles
Hello, What are your opinions on replacing the Harmonic Balancer on the above vehicle when there are no symptoms of the original being bad? From what I read it’s only a matter of time before it goes south. Just leave it alone and continue to drive or do a preemptive replacement? I’m 75 years old and will have to have this done by a mechanic. I’ll furnish the parts. What should be be the labor cost (ish)). Thank you in advance! John
Hello, What are your opinions on replacing the Harmonic Balancer on the above vehicle when there are no symptoms of the original being bad? From what I read it’s only a matter of time before it goes south. Just leave it alone and continue to drive or do a preemptive replacement? I’m 75 years old and will have to have this done by a mechanic. I’ll furnish the parts. What should be be the labor cost (ish)). Thank you in advance! John
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,630
Likes: 188
From: Austin TX
Do it and call it a day. Labor should be around $150-180\hr in this market. Estimated time will be 6-8 hours if I remember correctly. Really depends on who is doing it. Look for a Corvette shop and not the dealer.
Safety Car
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,582
Likes: 1,661
From: Pearland / Houston Tx
CF, like most car enthusiast forums, will more likely than not have members discussing problems and repairs with their cars more than every component of their vehicle that is working just fine. This might give a distorted view on how problematic our cars really are. I would bet that of all the 250K+ C6s made, there are more of them with good HBs than not.
Personally, not a part I would replace as preventive maintenance. I replaced mine as soon as I started hearing the dreaded drive belt chirp on cold starts. Didn't wait for excessive wobble.
Personally, not a part I would replace as preventive maintenance. I replaced mine as soon as I started hearing the dreaded drive belt chirp on cold starts. Didn't wait for excessive wobble.
Advanced
Joined: Sep 2021
Posts: 56
Likes: 6
From: New Jersey
Unless you're going to be in there anyway for other work, or its wobbling or chirping, I wouldn't touch it. If you were going to be in there for something else like a cam swap, then yes absolutely change it; but it usually gives you enough warning to know when its starting to fail. I wouldn't pre-emptively change it
Edit: if you haven't changed your belts recently, maybe change them first. This was how I revealed my HB was failing. I guess the OEM belt had worn slowly with the failing HB, and it was not making any noise. When I changed to a new belt, it started to chirp. I thought I got a bad belt, so I changed for another new belt, but a different brand; also chirped. That's when I noticed the slight wobble.
Edit: if you haven't changed your belts recently, maybe change them first. This was how I revealed my HB was failing. I guess the OEM belt had worn slowly with the failing HB, and it was not making any noise. When I changed to a new belt, it started to chirp. I thought I got a bad belt, so I changed for another new belt, but a different brand; also chirped. That's when I noticed the slight wobble.
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 5,463
Likes: 1,138
From: Chino CA
If you have no problems, don't replace it. They do not all go bad and if it does, it will give you plenty of warning before a real failure.
FYI, mine went bad at 24,000 miles so I am not one of those "keep an eye on it" guys. No reason to spend $1,000.00 if there is no sign of a wobble.
FYI, mine went bad at 24,000 miles so I am not one of those "keep an eye on it" guys. No reason to spend $1,000.00 if there is no sign of a wobble.
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2020
Posts: 182
Likes: 31
From: Michigan
Well it’s up to you, preventative maintenance or wait and see. I know plenty of guys who went the preventative way and others who never did anything. I just replaced mine cause there was a wobble, no belt squeaking so I went that route. Just one more thing I’ll never have to worry about.
This ^^^^^^