Originally Posted by csgoman

Dan, it's very possible engine damage could or would have occurred depending on the length of time and the severity of the torque tube damage. What happens is when the diaphragm style flex plate expands, the prop shaft moves back. Then when throttle is released, it snaps back into position and when the hold down clamp doesn't hold, the splined shaft slips in the flex plate. However the clamp isn't loose enough to let it slide back in so it forces the crankshaft forward into the block. The thrust washer is only half and located in the upper crank main bearing for number 3. This gets damaged easily and causes excessive crank runout or in most cases wil bind the crank and then eventually locks it up. Mine died after I ran it on the freeway because the crank seized in the block due to excessive pressure forced by the torque tube prop shaft. This was indicated by the starter smoking and no crank when trying to restart. The starter was replaced and the engine ran until warmed up and then died again during a roadtrst. Found a noise coming from the flex plate ring gear was hitting the starter drive gear in the rested position. Found torque tube prop shaft had slipped back again and this is evident when looking through the inspection hole of the bell housing. The beating surface of the prop shaft into the housing should be close to flush but was back about a half inch. GM indicated service procedur may not hav been followed and that was the cause of the failure. I know for a fact this wasn't the case as I was the the doing the repair. I did some research after finding the hold down clamp was the same one from the original replacement of the torque tube and also found the Z06 uses a beefier flex plate and carbon torque tube instead of Aluminum. Very possible the added strength and lighter weight of the Z06 setup helps from failures happening as often in those cars. I'm actually wanting to find more owners with the same issues. There is in my opinion a design issue since these failures are happening so soon. In my case at 2500 miles and again 5k miles after and then again another 7k miles after that. I haven't had the car long enough since the eng e was replaced a second time to see if the new Goodwin clamp for the prop shaft does a better job. Highly suspect that people having the flex plate replaced because of the noise which was indicated in a GM bulletin as the flex plate aren't looking at the torque tube when removing it. Therefore when the torque tube gets reinstalled after the plate replacement, it changes the position of the prop shaft to give more clearance to the crankshaft only temporarily until the customer drives the vehicle a little more and then the issue reoccurs. GM has revised the procedure a number of times. An engineer was called out to verify the service procedures were done correctly. I had to one time correct the engineer as the prop shaft to convert or plate was phased incorrectly. I have 28k miles on the car right now and it's still in the shop. I have had another dealer working on it instead of taking it to mine during the last few repairs just to avoid any conflictt of interests. End results still the same. Everyone of those miles but the first 1500 were plagued with issues. My car was ordered under the employee program and built on a Monday 11-16-15. I ordered the car in August of that year. Very disappointed to experience this as my pre 2002 F-Bodies never had these issues.

Originally Posted by JHEBERT

Does the sound go away when you depress the clutch? if so, torque tube bearings would be the noise you hear, and your description is spot on.

Originally Posted by footsam

Originally Posted by Dan4time

Hello, after two torque tubes, and flex plate issues, all within 5000 of new, I sadly got rid of the Corvette. I am very, very disappointed. I loved the car, but knew I was in for more issues in the future. It can cause major crank damage, and all associated parts.

Originally Posted by Footsam

Update on my driveshaft assembly failure. I just crossed 6000 miles and its back! The same rattling noise I heard before, so I will be going in for my second driveshaft assembly. On top of the first DSA failure, the technician did not properly bleed my brakes which required another trip back to the dealership. I have emailed GM executive office and Chevrolet customer care, anyone have any other suggestions?

Originally Posted by dan4time

hello scott, do you feel i would have continued problems with my 2016 corvette? Either with engine or torque tube/flex plate related problems? Thanks, dan

Originally Posted by terry50

i just got a call from tyi from gm. They told me they arent doing nothing about my problem unless the tech hears the sound all the time. The last mech told me to bring it back when it breaks...that was in florida a dealer called crystal river chevy . Going to look at the kis selento this afternoon. The vett is a piecve of ****

Originally Posted by Kent1999

Something else is mis-aligned or way out of spec.

1 defective torque tube, factory installed? Yeah, it happens. NBD.

2 defective torque tubes in a row, installed in the same car?
Statistically, you're beating the heck out of the odds. Time to start digging into other dependent areas (bent/torqued front or rear cradles, out of spec/alignment mating surfaces, etc).

Another possibility is that the replacement TT was not defective, but was not installed correctly, causing premature failure. To me, THAT seems more likely than 2 brand new but defective TT's in a row.