2016 2LT Stingray with ZF1 package (Not Z51)
Extended warrantee till 2023
Manual Transmission


I bought the car at 39 000km / (24 000miles) with only one previous owner. As soon as I started driving it, I noticed it consumed a lot of oil about 1L per 1000km or a quart every 620 miles. When the oil change was due I brought to the dealer to have an oil consumption test. All summer long I kept going to the dealer to add some oil. When it came to October the test was done and I had to bring it in for the check up. They kept the car for a week, the dealer forgot to send the result to GM and after 2 weeks total I was told to take the car home. They did absolutely nothing, didn't fix the other issues like a slow crank when hot(probably a faulty starter when it gets hot). Anyway I got a reply the results of the oil consumption were all over the place. GM said to the dealer I was probably abusing the car or tracking it. I told the guy I don't do burn outs or doughnuts. Sure I do a few pulls here and there and the car is built for it. I don't go too fast on the highway as our roads are littered with cops. I do some street driving too. He also said he made a mistake of not using the same mechanic to top off the oil each time. He almost said his goons! I was angry when he said that, geez it's not hard to check a dipstick and I was there checking the level too. I also told him I go to the dealer when I have spare time in my work day so yeah sometimes there's less oil to put in because I knew it dipped quickly.

So any way it was now November I had to store the car for the winter and he said ah your warrantee is good for another 2 years, we'll do another the oil consumption test all over again. The guy said they rarely see Corvettes in the repair shop and aren't accustomed to them. Then he continued to say they checked the ECU and they didn't find any mods but I had to bring it in again to see if I didn't abuse the car or find any mods. Is this a normal oil consumption usage on this model?

I'm seriously thinking the dealer is brushing me off and I need a game plan if they do nothing about it next summer. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Here’s my concern - the service guy said they don’t do Corvettes and are not used to them. Find yourself another dealer quick, one with more Corvette experience. If you are not driving the car aggressively all the time, I would be worried about the oil consumption too.

 

Good idea to try and find another dealer, there aren't many though. It's going to take more time to drive to the one who might be used to these cars and get the oil level topped off each time or getting a ride back from the dealer to my home with a shuttle.

 

Find the right dealer, but then be prepared to drive the car home. Don't know about GM, but other brands do a test before any warranty work for consuming oil. They change the oil and filter then seal the oil access. They'll want you to drive XXX number of miles, then return to them where they measure the amount of oil in the pan. You might want to find out what the GM plan is so you're prepared.

 

When they started the test they changed the oil and filter and only checked the level when I brought it in when I when I saw it was getting low. It wasn't a predetermined amount of mile, if it were the case I'd have to park it so not to climb the mileage because I don't always have an opening in my work day to bring it in. What do you mean by "seal the oil access" do they block off the dipstick and I can't check the level of engine oil?

 

Tracking the car isn't abusing it and GM doesn't consider using the car on track abusing it. Those days disappeared decades ago. It sounds like the dealer isn't interested in repairing your car. Doing an engine swap can take up a lift for a week which means that lift isn't busy turning over less time consuming higher profit work.

Find a different dealer and start over again. You could try and talk to Customer Service but they will just refer you back to the original dealer.

Bill

 

Customer service, like calling GM you mean?

It's exactly why I had scheduled for them to keep the car as long as they wanted in November(end of driving season) because my thought it would stay for weeks or even months. I read a few threads about the subject and we never get to know the outcome of those cars that use a lot of oil. I spoke to the storage facility attendant where I parked the car and another C7 owner there has the same problem of burning oil and he carries motor oil at all times and tops it off when gassing up.

Now if the next dealer doesn't take of it that's another part I have be prepared for like either filing a complaint to GM or other governmental establishments or maybe bringing them to small claim court (No lawyer allowed if I'm not mistaking?)(Max allowed case of 15 000$) and probably a 2-3 year wait before seeing a judge and by that time the warrantee will be over.

 

What SUXS is the previous owner probably sold the car fully knowing that it used oil.

 

I bet he did, it just doesn't start like that when I bought it. Maybe he had the same issue where the dealer shooed him away. At the very least I still have a warrantee, however a warrantee is only good if they honor it and it's up to me to fight through the system and possibly the court to make them honor it.

 

If it is using that much oil you must be seeing some blue smoke out the exhaust.. I change the oil on my 17 dry sump engine once a year and it doesn't use any oil..Definitely something wrong.

 

I agree that something is wrong. I change the oil on our 19 GS once a year with about 3000 miles on the oil. Never need to add oil. You are adding oil every 700 miles. That’s a problem. I would think it would show up at the tail pipe, blue smoke a lot of carbon deposits, etc. is the bottom of the engine and underbody free of oil? Maybe a leak? Good luck getting it squared away.

 

OP;

Diagnosing oil consumption:

Assuming that the engine has no obvious external leakage.

The intake manifold on some V-block engine seals the upper crankcase, oil can enter through one or more intake port gaskets. Similarly, worn or cracked intake valve stem seals can leak oil through the valve guides, especially during deceleration and extended idle-speed operation.

Crusted oil ash deposits on spark plugs and upstream oxygen sensors are the best indicators of excessive internal oil consumption.

Many thanks,

Ray

 

Maybe. I'm sure there would be something in the service history relating to that though, and could be found easily enough.

And that really doesn't matter now anyway. Getting rid of a problem is a first owner prerogative. Buying a problem is a subsequent owner risk.

 

Oh yeah I agree something is wrong and my bet is it's internal. I didn't notice any blue smoke all summer but I'll check when I get the car back from storage in April. I did check if there was oil on the ground, nothing. I didn't notice any oil leaks when I cleaned the engine in November before bringing to the storage facility. But still it's not like my beater truck where you can easily look all around.

If the car would be out of warrantee I would of checked in greater detail but this is my first car ever with a warrantee so I was just happy to bring it in for a change instead of constantly fixing my old vehicles. Now I'm going to pay way more attention and document everything.

That's another thing, did the dealer check the service history? This one I'm dealing with right now he probably didn't check. Does the service history follow the car on all their servers and linked or they separated from each other?

 

Using the VIN, you can check the service history via MY CHEVROLET. Just create an account and add your VIN should get you all the past service history.
https://my.chevrolet.com

Would be interesting to see if the car was in for this issue before you purchased it.

 

Meh, mychevrolet's (and gmc, cadillac, etc.) service history is highly suspect. I have three GM cars that have all been dealer serviced regularly and nothing shows up there for any of them. The dealer he was at should have "run a VIS" and seen the true warranty claim history. And they should share it with the OP, there isn't any personal info in it.

 

Missing details in myChevrolet is s dealership issue, not GM. All my service events do show up and I used 2 different dealerships.

Probably need a comments... "Your results may vary."

 

I made a mistake of signing up with your link and once I confirmed the email it asked me my address and quickly realized it didn't accept a Canadian address and I was stuck. I couldn't even cancel the account since it isn't fully completed. I tried to register in Canada with mygm.ca but it said I was registered in another country! I called GM and they'll try to switch the account in 3-5 days. Grrrr.

 

Funny though the guy on the phone says to me "Nice a Corvette, the weather is nice, having fun"? "No not really there's snow and I can't drive it". "Oh ah"... Then he says "press the blue onstar button". I said "The car is stored far away in an underground garage and I won't have access to it for another 3 months". "Ok let me get a supervisor"...

 

I opened a ticket with GMC Canada to keep them updated for a new oil consumption test at another dealer. They still had the first owner on file so I had to have it changed. I told them all the excuses from the first dealer and they will find out who the service manager is and put it on file. They will get back to me within 3 days. I'm picking up the car from storage next tuesday and I took an apointment wednesday morning to retstart the test. Hopefully it doesn't spend 2 weeks there because it also needs a new starter(Slow crank when engine is hot) and a wheel pressure sensor.

I also had to make a new account for mygmc.ca with another email. There's nothing in there, if I want service records I have to put them in myself.