machwi55

2012 Base Coupe with 10,000 miles Rydell. Warranty repair. Do I have a lemon?

C5Natie

Nope, just a bad balancer. Easy fix my friend but u can always upgrade to a high performance one after your warranty expires.

sd7ss

Been there, got the T-shirt. Many threads on this here on the forums. No, not a lemon, but sadly this is a fairly common problem. Goes back to at least early C6s. Happens from 10k or so and up mileage. GM should have engineered this out many years ago.

Be sure to renew the warranty if it runs out.. It's usually cheap insurance on a vehicle with many expensive parts.

Don't let this spoil your fun.

bearphoto

This was a problem with the C5's and all the C6's except the ZR1's. I'm surprised that forum members are surprised when their balancer goes bad. GM has ignored the problem since the C5's came out.

machwi55

Thanks for the input guys.

Mark

skyavonee

I knew this was a somewhat common issue, but I didn't think it would happen at 10k miles. Sounds like Rydell took care of you quickly, though.

Dirty Howie

What are the symptoms of this? How do you know if yours is bad or not?


DH

BLW BY

Going fast

Dirty Howie

Seriously, I don't know. Do you feel a vibration or can you see it wobble?


DH

bearphoto

I have not lost a balancer on any of my vettes yet but they are still pretty new. But for those that have, they all pretty much report a belt squeak, on start up or at idle or light acceleration. Replacing the belt might take care of the squeak briefly but it always comes back. Upon looking at the balancer, many report slight to moderate wobble of the pulley.

Replacement costs seem to be around $1000 unless warranty is picking it up.

Dirty Howie

Thanks


DH

machwi55

Yes that's what I experienced. Started hearing a fairly constant chirping like a hamster running in his cage.

Otherslost

Rydell took care of me when mine went bad with ~27000 on the clock and I was out of warranty. So far so good with the new one. Rydell service is what all dealers should be.

machwi55

That's good to hear!

lathrash

What do you mean when you say they took care of you when you were out of warranty?
I'm out of warranty with 30k miles on my '08 and have a wobble.

machwi55

So now, ever since I got the car repaired the car has a ping! Donny put it on the scope and we went for a ride and it is pre detonating. He is researching it.

Will update when I get more info.

Dirty Howie

Bad gas or wrong octane??


DH

machwi55

Well it was the same tank of gas I had when the harmonic balancer went out. Before the balancer repair, no ping. After, ping, same tank of gas. I always put 91 octane, usually from Union 76.
I think it's related to harmonic balancer, somehow.