I did not know that.
I love this forum! It IS very educational!
Thank you.

 

5 year powertrain warranty should cover,,,,,But yeah Just reading this thread tempers my desire to buy a C7 for now. I will look at some 08 and up C6s. At least I know what to expect and what the costs are.


For those who think this is no big deal and overblown, this is why many of us read these forums. We don't hear "bad oil filter" we SEE more possibilites and hear from more experienced people. Frankly hearing of 5 engines just grenading with no abuse at all is way too many. Even out of 36K many of which don;t have 5K miles on them yet,

If this thing happens more and more and blows up in the press the value of C7s will tank. GM will have a major PR problem. Not to mention owners who cannot give their cars away

 

I don't want to give my Stingray away. Heck I dot want even sell it.

 

I used one of mine yesterday at the dealer. 3000 miles. After hearing all this I decided it probably should be done.
He told me that I could use them any way I wanted. Bad part is when I looked at the work order it showed 8 quarts instead of 7. I checked the oil and it is just over the top crosshatch on the dipstick. Service advisor said that it was ok. Not sure I feel the same way.

 

ALL THESE ISSUES :

99.9 + % of C7s have no issues. Use a percent of BUILT.

Think about what anyone does and if you are 99.9 % successful you are SUPER MAN.

A C7 engine is a complex engine. With that kind of success ration anybody should be happy. OH, read the Corvette Forum and you get an erroneous impression. WHY ? Should be obvious. Folks like to throw in opinions even if they do not have FACTS or understand the LAW.

Oil is doing what it is supposed to do : lubricate. There are traces of metal in the oil when it is removed and tested. Expect that because that is what oil is supposed to do. Rub metals together and you will get elements at the atomic level in the oil. That is the way things work. Oil filtration systems are working. I wonder if these folks worry about their Blood Tests as much . . . . probably most do not get a Blood test either.

 

Asking for a new car is ridiculous. I'm sorry, it is.

Asking for a new crate engine is definitely realistic. They should not rebuild your engine. They should replace it all-together. An engine is NEVER as reliable after its been pulled apart and put back together than when it was freshly built (mostly by machines) at the factory.

 

This is true. Unless a defect is likely to lead to injury, the bean counters have run the numbers, and it's cheaper to just pay them off individually instead of recalling all of them - unless the PR gets too bad.

 

On the LS7, the vast majority were built in 2006, 2007 and 2008. I believe that the 2006 had the earlier warranty that was for 3 years/36,000 miles, so most of the Z06's were out of warranty before they had a chance to fail as most Z06s were not driven that much. My 5 year warranty ran out when I only had 25,000 miles on my Z06. GM knew it had very little possibility of a large number of warranty claims as most of the Z06's were out of warranty very early because of low annual mileages.

 

Car and Driver does not blow up too many cars....In fact I cannot remember the last car they tested that had an engine grenade......99.9% of their autos tested did not have grenading engines!!

LEt me fix that for you...99.9% of Corvettes don't have INITIAL issues. Many have not been really road tested. Like Harleys many are low mileage vehicles. When I start seeing 99% with 30K trouble free miles I may be a tad more convinced there is nothing to worry about. I would think many would be afraid of really revving the car and enjoying 150MPH track runs without some tentative pause

Every forum has their voracious brand defenders. ( I know I have had a few Harleys) But every initial issue AND especially GM's response should be taken seriously and not just crossed off to some "manufacturing fluke" This is still a very expensive low production Chevy....yes. But they have not been out long enough to inspire confidence so engines blowing idling at stoplights , even one, can cause concern and should.. People are just not putting the miles on them yet to know where the issues will pop up.

So far when a major Auto enthusiast Magazine has two engines grenade on a car designed for performance and ever more horse power and suspension designed and sold...well for racing.......Well that is something to pay attention to and not accept a "bad oil filter" as an explanation. The bearing change seems much more believable....

So many have not had issues.....I follow that with....yet because we do not know what the cars will do with real miles on them. Harley says their avg rider rides less than 2K a year...They design parts for a bike for that number. They have gone from Timken bearings to cheaper bearings, forged cranks to press on cranks.......becasue their bikes don;t get a whole lot of miles on them.. a few do and a few have grenaded engines. I would think GM does the same with the Corvette,

 

So go away for a few years, buy one and come back. Seriously, you have been all over this forum asking questions; I don't believe you really want to buy a Vette, or you're so afraid of everything you wouldn't enjoy it if you did.

And every forum has their trolls and those who badmouth everything. The C7 Gen forum has way more than its share for some reason.

 

because we do not know what the cars will do with real miles on them.




Real miles ? I wonder how he defines that phrase ?

Let me see . . . . close to 40,000 units out there being used on a daily basis . . . i would say those are real miles . . .

99.99% have no trouble. Real world in my experience.

Tens of millions spent to develop the C7 engine. Sixty years of experience too. It still is the best in my opinion. This is not my first. I enjoy it tremendously. Folks like to bash it makes them feel like they know what is going on. Many are obsessed with slamming GM and their products. No 99.9 % is fantastic quality control number. The naysayers will not change their minds. There is no evidence to support their speculation.

I remember when the oil used to drip from Harleys like a faucet. Not exactly high tech machines.

close to 40,000 and a handful (one) reported with engine problems. Others have no idea what is covered in a Warranty but that does not stop them from an opinion not founded on what has been agreed upon when the car was purchased.

 

I know of a 14 z51 vert with only 700 miles with blown engine. Not sure what happened yet just came into dealership.

 

If the filter went bad it would be the pieces of the filter that went through the engine that started the damage. If you are relying on the filter to catch pieces of metal large enough to do engine damage you already have engine damage. I hope that makes sense. In other words, the filter is there to catch small things like a piece of casting in an oil journal that may have dislodged, metal particles from wear, etc. Larger pieces mean larger problems.

If the engine is losing a bearing you are going to hear rod knock for several weeks before it tosses a titanium rod. Ti rods are extremely strong and I would bet if you were dumb enough you could drive for a month on rods without bearings in them before breaking one.

All this to say, if the rods are coming off the crank it has to be a rod bolt issue or the rod itself is defective. If a bolt breaks, the cap opens up and bends/snaps the other bolt allowing the rod to exit. Even if the adjacent rod stays on the crank the rod that came off will tear it up. A titanium rod off the crank hammers up the crank bearing journal to the point where the crank either has to repaired or replaced while beating up the block, pan and in some cases getting into the camshaft. If one or more cylinders get damaged (I don't know why they WOULDN'T) they are just pressed in sleeves and could probably be replaced. I would think there would be significant block damage and would demand to see it before it was reassembled if that's the route they decide to go. Pieces and debris will be everywhere and the entire engine assembly including cylinder heads need to be disassembled and thoroughly cleaned.

If the thrust went out it would not cause it to toss a rod unless the car was driven hard for a long time with low or no oil pressure. It would eventully lose rod and main bearings hammering the rods on the crank which would be very easy to hear every time you started the car.

 

 

Spoke with couple techs from various dealerships around here and no one has ever heard about a Stingray with engine issue. Only one blew up but that was due to missed gear. Going from 4th to 1st can really mess things up.

Why is it that everytime someone joins and have like 20 posts under their belt has heard of a "blown" engine but others do not?

 

This scenario makes the most sense to me. I would bet what we are seeing is the result of a bad batch of parts - rods, bolts or caps failing, resulting in blown engines.

As I recall, the rods on the LT1 are a new process - not the same as either the LS3 or LS7. It would be interesting to track the VINs of the effected vehicles to see if there is a "cluster."

I think I read somewhere that the C&D cars were both 21000+ in the build sequence. How far does the bad batch stretch ?

 

How does this make the guy you quoted a troll? He simply posted up a personal experience. Sorry you can't handle real life outside this forum.

Lets hope the new Z06 doesn't have this same initial fate.

 

The forum covers a wider base than your little corner of the world.

Just a little food for thought.

Ed

 

No ****! What's opposite of troll.....Fanboi.

 

Agree!