Beautiful car but that design screamed out 'future problems' to me. Same way with the DCT.

 

I completely agree. The DCT may have more problems than it should but the competency of the dealers and GM, GM parts inventory, and the coordination between needs much improvement. Some people are lucky and have the DCT problems resolved quickly but it appears that most are not.

I think anyone that has their car at the dealer without an expected resolution date should start the Lemon Law process if they qualify.

 

I've read many posts regarding DCT's. Searched for many vids online also. There is an issue, big or small is not the point. My query is why is there so little info regarding the issue ***independent analysis*** of the transmission and what exactly is going on with them. It seems so secretive. Tremec builds them, no info out of them either. Why does it seem to take so long to get through the process of getting the necessary parts, fixing the car and having a satisfied customer. I believe there is a problem on the warranty side. So let's guess it's a 1% DCT failure X approx.150,000 cars built. That equals 1500 cars that are problematic. Is that number acceptable? What if the percentage is 10%...that equals 15000 cars. Hmmmm. Chevrolet knows exactly how many transmissions have failed, I'm sure Tremec does too. What if Chevrolet came clean with this info and suggested to the customers that you will be looked after to the best of our ability, would that gain more confidence and more sales or would it be bad for business? What about 5-10 years down the road if these cars become more problematic and the used market tanks and we feel like we are driving a bit of a time bomb. It is clear lots of people already feel this way. I absolutely love these cars and personally don't worry about it. I truly feel for these guys who have had issues and only wish the best outcome for them.

 

Simply right now they are all under warranty.

 

I saw that my car was actually being test driven today, so I am hoping for a resolution, but if they need to order more parts, I am at the point where I am going to lemon law it. How they get you is by saying it is almost done. I keep getting sucked into not wanting to lemon law it then have the car done the next day. Customer service has been horrible and honestly just make me more stressed out.

 

Absolutely right. The problem is that the trans is so complex, the dealers can't work on it. Or GM does not want them to work on it. They don't replace the valve body or the shifter forks or shafts, they just replace the entire trans.
That could go smooth or be a real nightmare. It really varies depending on the dealer. Nothing could be worse than having your baby in the hospital.

 

agree. The lack of dealer on site repair options and logistics/ availability of a replacement transmission and the time involved to fix back GM up against the wall
of lemon law claims, which is in a number of states, 30 business days.

 

The service center replaced both of the valve bodies on mine. Still was a nightmare.

 

The problem I experienced with my 2023 Z51was that the engine failed while I was at the track doing a HPDE with NASA. #8 cylinder completely disintegrated. This happen April 13 last year. Was fixed under warranty but took 3 months. Filed a lemon law claim right after the 30 working days that the car was in the dealers shop. Hired an attorney right away and GM has still not offered to settle. This week the Court ordered a March mediation and a December 2025 hearing date. My attorney says that GM usually settles these claims in about six months time. I am wondering if there are so many lemon law claims now that GM is really delaying getting to settlement negotiations? Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

Your last sentence is most likely the reason GM has not settled. I used to work with attorneys settling civil cases filed against my company by employees. I had the authority to settle the disputes that caused those lawsuits but the minute the employee hired a lawyer our attorneys got involved and slowed the process to a crawl.

 

Wow, any warranty for track use is amazing. That is what Z51 is sold for so they should stand behind it.
Three months to replace a motor is unreasonable, so I do understand your lemon law claim.

I hope it all works out for you. That experience does not exactly give you any confidence to go to the track again.

 

Here is my anecdotal data points

Mustang GT - flawless

997TT - coolant issues + cam sleeves were starting to spin

2x F30 335i's - one had an over heating issue and hpfp issue and the other blew a charge pipe while I was 1hr from home

GT350 - spun a rod bearing on track (Ford gave me a new motor, no questions asked)

Raptor - coolant issues (possible head gasket or water pump, sold it because I didn't want to deal with it)

CTSV 3rd gen - 8l90e trans shudder - I did resolve it with the right trans fluid and relearn. Wire harness failed in the trans and it was fixed under warranty

C7 GS - flawless until it was retired by a drunk driver

C8 z51 - so far no issues @ 6 months and about 8k total miles. I daily drive the car as well.

So either I am super unlucky with cars new or used. Or cars are generally reliable and it's not as doom and gloom as everyone says it is. I think it is possible that the c8 might have a trans issue, however compared to my gt350 which when mine was in the shop I had to wait for new motors to be available from Ford and they shipped about 25 in the batch I got mine from. I have not heard about a similar number of c8 transmissions being replaced in one sitting so to speak. Even with that said I have not met another Shelby owner who needed to have their engine warrantied.

 

Tells me Chevy is a lot better than Ford.

 

As has been my experience. I resisted GM for a loooong time. So far their products have been great and my wife really misses the cts LoL.

 

There are enough C8 DCT trans issues reported to know it is a problem for many. Yes, many have had no issues but those that have seem to find GM warranty repair a problem at times. My question is what happens to future C8 buyers that buy a 2021 or any year out of factory warranty. These aftermarket warranties won't want to spend the money to replace one. They will find a hidden loophole in their contract as their out. And independent repair shops, even transmission specialists won't touch these units. What will that do for the future value of the used C8's platform?

 

This is horrible, absolutely no excuse, sorry for you. All you C8 buyers, have to be gamblers with a great deal of intestinal fortitude, betting you won't have issues, or they will be minor.

Any vehicle, or any "thing" is only as good as its weakest component. The C8 DCT apparently is overly complex and GM nor Tremec want to find out why, do a redesign, simplify, improve the software or make it right. They would rather deal with unhappy customers, keep removing and replacing, several times if necessary for the duration of the PT warranty. I pity those that own a C8 in the future, when parts become obsolete and no one will consider working on one, and sadly there are no replacements that can be retrofit.

This whole fiasco will tarnish the reputation of GM, Chevrolet, and Corvette forever for those that are in the know. GM's refusal to address the DCT issues once and for all, is what you would expect for a small cottage industry manufacturer, that hand builds a select few cars and is undercapitalized, not one of the largest auto manufacturers in the world. Sad state of affairs indeed.

 

I'm of the belief that GM/Tremec, fixing your car under the terms of the DT warranty, are wanting to do it in whatever way will minimize their total cost outlay and not inconvenience their building new cars. You've already put your money down, they are busy building dealer and customer ordered cars that are essentially presold. You have been essentially been told to move to the back of the line. I've been there, I know. Sadly GM treats customer issues with very little urgency.

 

The biggest problem that I have seen on all Z51's is brake dust. Change the pads unless you are racing it.

 

I can only speak on my experience. I own a 2025 Z06 with the Z07 package and so far no issues at all. Before this one I own a 2016 Z06 and I never had any issues with it either. I guess the trick is on doing the maintenance when schedule