I purchased my 2015 C7 from Jet Chevrolet on April 4, 2019. The mileage was 14,715 miles and was sold as a Certified Pre-Owned car, which means the car had a powertrain warranty for 6 years after it was placed in service or for 100,000 miles. My engine has the dry sump oil system. The engine developed a “ticking” sound. My local dealer (McCurley Integrity) evaluated this tick for 3 months (July 8, 2021 until October 19, 2021) but was not able to find the source of the noise (there was no charge since they weren’t able to fix the problem). The mileage was 24,772 miles but it reached its 6 year warranty on . On May 31, 2022 the engine suffered a mechanical failure. The power train warranty expired on June 1, 2021.

McCurley says I need a new motor and the cost will be up to $18,000. They say they hope the cost will turn out to be a little less. The mileage is now about 26,000 miles. They say this happens sometimes.

This is not very satisfying. I thought the lessons learned from facing corvettes was applied to the production Corvettes. Why would a car that has never been raced have a mechanical engine failure after only 26,000 miles?

The dealer isn't interested in determining what failed (crank shaft, piston, etc). I would have to pay their hourly fee for their time to do this. They said Chevrolet would only be interested if it was still under warranty.

Is it possible for me to contact Chevrolet directly about my situation?

Have others experienced similar engine failures?

Any advise on how I should proceed?

Thanks,

JGI

 

You can contact Chevy customer care but it will be an uphill battle. Reason being is you aren’t the original owner, it’s a year over the warranty expiration, and the first time they looked at your tick concern you were already out of powertrain warranty according to the dates mentioned above. I’m sorry for your situation but honestly they have no reason to do anything for you and it’s extremely unlikely they will. It would be hard to prove the noise you were concerned with was at all related (when they couldn’t verify) and then to go an additional 7 months before a failure. My suggestion is find a reputable shop to install a new motor, a used motor, or a built motor. All depends on your budget. That or cut your losses and trade or sell the car. It will hurt the wallet but at least you can move on.

 

Since it's out of warranty I'd avoid dealers. They are called stealerships for a reason and I wouldn't trust them to do the work properly even for the fortune they want to charge you. Have someone do it that you can trust and won't rob you. $18k is lot. Shop around. If you bought the car at 2019 prices you could replace the engine and sell it without too much loss. Or just keep it.

 

THIS. Dealerships are a total joke.

 

For the most part unfortunately. Even the best seem to drop the ball from time to time. I have found the independent performance shops that specialize in Corvettes are more knowledgeable, timely and fastidious with their work. They upgrade and replace with better reliability in a lot of cases if one doesn't go to extremes. I would suggest the OP take the opportunity to improve performance at a performance shop.

 

I agree with above. I have had 2 quotes by 2 of the best performance shops in the country. They included pulling motor install forge pistons and upgrade cam. Along with Upgrading all the smaller items that may fail. All for around 10k complete. Including a good tune. The car will wake up drastically and you will have a bullet proof motor for many years.

 

ticking sound was likely a valve going bad from the dod that most modern engines have. its a common failure on the c7 chassis. rebuild with aftermarket cam dod delete and afm delete vvt lockout new lifters and pushrods.new main and rod bearings. cost should be less than 10k

 

You state the car "has never been raced" yet you bought it used with 14K+ miles. Unless you know the previous owner this appears to be an assumption on your part.

Sorry for your issue; from my 4 years of reading this forum the LT1 engine is robust.

 

I would bet a lot of money the tick was a failed lifter. They seemed to have had a batch of bad lifters from a supplier that effected some vehicles. Something about a spring or pin breaking. A lot of people blame cylinder deactivation, but it is just a bad lifter. Not too bad to change them really, remove intake and heads, no need to remove engine from car. That said I'm surprised the dealer didnt know, most likely they played dumb and whomever traded it in immediately when they heard the noise.

If you hear a noise from the engine you should have stopped driving it, not sure what damage you have if any until they can see the pistons

 

I agree that it's unlikely that Chevrolet will do anything for you. You're well out of warranty, and the mileage isn't crazy low.

I also agree with Obe1 GS - unless you know something about the previous owner - you have no idea how the car was driven before you bought it.

The way I see it - you have a couple of options.

1) Buy a LT1 Crate motor (around $9K), and have a shop familiar with C7 Corvettes install it.
2) If your engine is salvageable - have it rebuilt and replace it
3) Buy a built LT1 from an aftermarket Engine supplier - and have a shop familiar with Corvettes install it

Check out places like Texas Speed - they are probably going to be a bit more expensive than a factory engine - but that's because they use far better components to built their engines...

Finally - when the old engine is pulled - you might want to have a competent shop disassemble whats left of it - and see if they can determine what failed. If it was a lifter that failed - you might have a case against the GM dealer that couldn't figure out what the ticking noise was. But honestly - it will be VERY VERY difficult to prove, and probably not worth the time (or risk)....


https://www.jegs.com/i/Chevrolet+Per...hoCUO4QAvD_BwE

https://www.texas-speed.com/p-4418-t...ong-block.aspx

 

Since you only have time to lose at this point, email mary.barra@gm.com ... Explain the details of your situation and you may get something for your time. Highlight this in your response "My local dealer (McCurley Integrity) evaluated this tick for 3 months (July 8, 2021 until October 19, 2021) but was not able to find the source of the noise (there was no charge since they weren’t able to fix the problem)". Sounds like the dealer stalled you in order to avoid addressing the issue. In my case my car was under warranty so your results may be different. Good Luck.

 

First of all, sorry to hear of your engine failure. The 2016 Z51 I purchased a few months ago had a complete new long block installed at 28K miles by the dealer under the previous owner's warranty - I bought it with 44K miles that's now on the clock. Report said borescope showed it was due to cylinder scoring. I guess some people would have run the other way, but I have receipts of the dealer work and all part numbers that were replaced in addition to the new GM long block. I knew it was replaced when I bought the car and also know things can and do go wrong sometimes with mechanical things. So the way I look at it the engine only has 16K miles on it. Buying a low mileage car is a false sense of security and doesn't guarantee something like that won't happen in the future as you well know.

 

His Warranty expired in June of 2021 which was before he took it to the dealer. I don't GM will help him at all. I think the mistake here was that the owner should have had the tick diagnosed and fixed before it caused engine failure.

I agree with the others advice in here. Do not let the dealer rip you off. Take the car to a well known performance shop and have them rebuild the engine with forged internals, port the heads, and MAYBE a baby cam. All of this will still be cheaper than the dealer fee's to put a stock engine back in the car.....which still won't have any warranty.

 

Turn a negative into a positive. Take it to Phoenix Performance in Phoenixville PA and have them install a new crate motor. They do that kind of thing on a weekly basis. They primarily build race cars but many SCCA race-cars are mandated to use stock motors and Phoenix installs them all the time. They'll computer tune it on their dyno too. Other great shops would be Katech, Ligenfelter, or Hutter Racing Engines. All have their own dynos, computer tuning and will stand by their work.

 

Forget about all the hoops one has to jump through to satisfy the 'rules' of the dealers instead of them satisfying you. Although there are a few decent dealerships they are sometimes a good distance away from your location. Go aftermarket and get what you want with those that appreciate your business and will be there for you in the future at your beckoning. Thank goodness the engineers at Corvette have given us some great vehicles. The great let down comes after the purchase with service at most dealerships. America used to do business with the attitude that the customer is always right. As of late it appears to be shifting to the attitude of the customer is always wrong.

 

Terrible noise but 18k could build you a pretty decent engine. If you engine isn't destroyed it would be significantly cheaper.

 

Did you find out what it was or are you able to post a video of it? Mine was a ticking noise coincident with the RPM speed, ended up being the High Pressure Fuel Pump. Some other people say there is a service bulletin about the check valve on the supply line to the HPFP going bad as well.