Long story short... I ordered a new c8 z51 Stingray and wanted to pick it up out of state and make a road trip out of it, from NH to WI. A radiator hose came loose and all the coolant leaked out about halfway home and 800 miles into the trip. It was at night with the cruse set to 76, the speed limit was 70. I didn't notice it until the engine started making a lot of noise. It sound like valves ticking loudly with a slight knock. The dash said car overheated, Oil life 0%, Transmission fluid life 0% by the time I pulled over. After 4 hours on the side of the road witch is now 12:00am it was towed to the nearest dealer, which was a Buick dealer. I had to rent a car to finish my trip home since I had to work on Monday and the dealer was closed on Sunday. Anyway, I wanted the car shipped back to the Corvette dealer that I bought it from and GM said they would pay for the shipping charges. I called the dealer the car was towed to at 8:30am to tell them not to work on it and that I wanted the Corvette dealer to handle it. They told me the car was done and there is nothing wrong with the car. Apparently there was a loose hose and they snapped it back on. They proceeded to put 6 miles on the car after I told them I wanted the Corvette dealer to handle it on test drives. I ask if they did an oil change and the answer was No. The oil life on the Chevrolet app on my phone says the oil life is 100%. How can this be after 800 miles of driving? Anyway I'm concerned with the condition of the engine. I'm in contact with GM and will contact someone higher up the ladder with this matter. What do you guys think about this? Any advice?

 

Someone re set the oil life system monitor. It is my recollection that most cars today will go into a limp mode if they lose coolant but will still run on alternating cylinders to air cool the engine in a pinch to prevent damage. ?? Did you drive the car home without issues?

 

I find it troubling that the first sign of a problem was engine noise, and not a dashboard warning. Agree with contacting GM. But I would try to get it to a competent dealer and have them go over the engine. I wonder if the Buick dealer reset all the codes as well. There would normally be a code history.

 

Trouble code reset and oil life reset are two completely different procedures. They'd have had to make a conscious choice to reset the oil life counter.

 

Not sure if you were commenting on what I said, but that's exactly my point. Oil Life indicator is not a code, so there might still be some history codes still set. And, there are current and history DTCs - and I don't know if the act of clearing the current codes (if there were any, he doesnt say he got an overheat or reduced power code) would also clear the history. From reading the Service Manual, many history codes are cleared after a certain number of ignition cycles, if the fault has gone away. Attached below is some example information on the reduced engine power condition that could have happened due to the overheating, but which the OP did not mention. It says that "a DTC may not be set", but also says Observe the scan tool REduced Engine Power HIstory parameter..". This is just one history parameter - there are many - which might reveal more about what happened to the car - if they were not cleared by the Buick dealer. By the way, when I have my other Chevys in for a DTC, I usually get a review of what codes were actually set. So it may be possible, OP, the the Buick dealer who "fixed up your car" might have a record of what codes, if any, were set.

 

So the car stated that it overheated on the dash. That's when it said the oil and transmission fluid was at 0%. Later I got a text when I started it to drove it up the flatbed. I'll attach the text message I got from the car. The first text was when I was driving and the second is when I started it to drive up the flatbed. I'm really not to happy with how this dealer just attached the radiator hose and drive it 6 miles and said everything's ok. I found a corvette guy in a dealer Close to home. GM won't ship it back to the dealer I bought it from because it is further from my house. The car is still in PA and I waiting for roadside assistance to get back to me for the tow.

 

Good luck. Hope it all works out for you.

 

If the car has coolant and the cooling system has no problems you can drive it to your dealer.
Problems like air pockets from not being filled correctly to purge the air out of it.

You should definitely get the oil changed.
You can drive the car to the corvette dealer. Just no hard acceleration.
The engine should be fine. If its not there is nothing the corette dealer can or will be able to do about it until something shows up.
Heads on some cars warp or lift if its overheated enough and then headhaskets blow. I dont think LS motors have this issue.
Other then changing the oil there is not much that an be done at this point. It is what it is but I think the car will be fine and you dont have a lot to worry about if you were just cruising.
High bearing loads are generated by heavy acceleration and engine loading. Even if the oil film was in bad shape I doubt you did damage to bearings if you were just cruising.

I have overheated a few cars before and only on ones which had a specific known history of head gasket problems from overheating did any problems, after the fact, manifest.

 

Does the Buick dealer have Corvette certified techs?

 

Not sure if they are Corvette specific techs but it is a GM certified dealer. I talked to a buddy of mine who is an A-Tech at a Chevy dealer and he said that GM may have told the dealer to work on it regardless of what I wanted done. Now I'm waiting for roadside assistance to find someone to tow it 600 miles to Wisconsin. They say that they are searching for someone but there is a shortage of drivers and may take a while. I may just have it shipped with a private company and pay the $1300 otherwise I feel like it'll take a month.

 

You definitely need to have a Corvette certified mechanic check it over at the very least. The owners manual will tell any idiot how to reset the oil life counter. hopefully there's enough history left in the ECM to see any other codes that were generated.

 

Just checking to see how this ended. My car (HTC w/Z51 package) popped a radiator hose 2 weeks ago, under easy driving conditions. there were no signs in the cockpit that anything was wrong until it overheated and the car started to send error messages to the screen. No milky stuff on the road, just coolant as far as we could tell.

I had the car towed to a certified dealer here near Stuttgart and was told there was a "friction" hole but that it would be replaced under warranty. While it was there, I'm having them do the 1st service and change the brake fluid to RBF 600.

I'll update once I hear back from the service manager that the car is ready.
Tom

 

How can a brand new corvette c8 engine overheat?? Is that even possible

 

He said a hose had popped off, but if it was a coolant hose, seems like the dealer would have mentioned refilling the coolant in addition to popping the hose back on. What other hose could cause this if it "popped off"?

 

LOL. Lack of coolant🤣. Sounds like a minor but inconvenience for the OP. Hose back on and coolant topped off and car will be fine.

 

Did you visually see the coolant leak out?

JUst wondering if it wasn't something else. As an example when accessory belts slip off they cause the car to overheat, the engine to start chugging and acting crazy and a biat load of faults that you get from having low voltage.

Obviously that wasn't your issue but wondering if your sure it was a disconnected water hose.

 

So apparently the radiator hose is kept in place by a plastic zip tie(according to the service manager) and this zip tie gave up the fight and allowed the hose to rub one of the pulleys.... Pics provided by the dealership.

So far, no further issues and as far as we know, no permanent damage.


you can see the hole where the screw driver is pointing.