It hasn’t been much of a secret the LT4 6.2-liter supercharged V8 found in the C7 Corvette Z06 has had a few hiccups along the way, but the problem some owners are experiencing with the LS7 7.0-liter V8 in select C6 Corvettes may be lesser known.
A group of 19 owners, combining C7 Z06 and C6 Corvette drivers, have officially filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against General Motors, according to The Truth About Cars. C6 Corvette owners claim the LS7 V8 has issues with excessive valve guide wear, leading to engine failure. C7 Z06 owners continue to experience engine failure with some LT4 V8s dying with as little as 1,000 miles on the odometer.
The filing mentions GM has been aware of the valve guide wear problem, and has continually failed to address it. In total, the 19 owners have filed 70 claims.
According to owners, GM originally tested Corvettes with the “wiggle method,” but when it found the cars to have out of spec valve guides, the automaker dropped the test altogether because it “would lead to more repair and investigations than it wished to perform.”
Comments
Woooo! How is GM gonna handle this? In fact, how they handle it will be very telling of GM’s commitment to quality and customer satisfaction! It seems with each passing performance behemoth from GM the number of heat soaking, engine failure and limp mode claims increase. I love these new GM vehicles, but the confidence in purchasing one is decreasing with each report that comes out…….It’s only a matter of time before we start hearing reports that the new Camaro’s engine is experiencing issues!
My 2010 Camaro has nearly 60k miles with no engine problems whatsoever.
This is the flagship, there’s no goddamn sense in it leaving the factory with issues.
First off the Corvettes with issues have been handles and repaired. These cars are under warranty.
Generally they will extend the warranty time to cover those who do not drive the cars daily so that should be a non issue.
We here need to not confuse a class action suit as a corrective action. Generally these suits are place in the name of representing the customers by a bunch of lawyers who just want to get a settlement to take the majority of the money to pay themselves for representing the customer. Often their take is most of the settlement money.
What do the customers get? Generally they get a discount on a oil change or new car that amounts to very little if anything.
The cars involved here are small in volume and even small in number of cars with issues. It is more bad press and legal blackmail than anything else.
Yes as to Shister~Slime Ball Lawyers, we are way over time do to destroy Tort that only pays the Shister~Slime & does nothing for the victims in products &/or in medical damages. It was why I hate O’BamYa’ not affordable No Health care because it no longer allows us to sue doctors, hospitals, pharmacies every one in medical care. In all lawyers should NEVER be allowed to take ( note I did not say that you should pay because they just take your pay off ) more than 10% of any class action order. I have been of this head set since the late 1980’s early 1990’s over BLOCK BUSTER’s member ship that ripped off no less that 18 months of member ship fees & as much as 30 months & never had the New Movies that where to be reserved for members for the first 6 weeks after release. The Shister Lawyers made over $187,500,000.oo the former members got 6 free rentals but one had a 28 day window to use them, in addition one was now forced to resign ones membership. In addition it was also when Block Buster stores very much where closing sighting chapter 11 that does not allow the very people you ripped off from ever getting any settlement . . .
POTUS Trump can reset heath care with just 5 things : : :
1) Zero use of generics because they use them then jack you for the brand name fees . . .
2) One can buy ones Insurance from any agent in any US state. This act will force prices down . . .
3) No more 3 am wake up to give you an 81 baby Tylenol that show up on your bill as costing $375.oo, as well as all other things done hat are not needed . . .
4) No more rejection do to per health needs & no jack up of fees & cost do to to them . . .
5) No more holding copy rite & / or patented on any medical condition or disease that in any way hold the person to that owner ship of the condition of ones body that disallows one to go to other doctors that may have a cure in there study. In other word fine you can own the dam DISEASE but you can not own the victim of the DISEASE ! ! ! Slavery is owning some one for any reason not just like in the 1850’s in the US Southern states when & where people where starved, beaten, and killed to make them work 16 hour days 6.5 days a week . . .
In all this maybe the fools of the left will see why O’BamYa’ health is so not health in any way for it is a federal contract of forced slavery forced on us by ONLY the Demon Kraut Commie Ratz Jack Ass Party who voted it as law & in truth is a TAX TAX TAX that is not & was not voted for by ” WE THE PEOPLE ” & that as like every other tax they have passed for the last 105 never ends even after your death . . .
One of the reasons I buy a NEW car is to drive it, especially a car like a Corvette. I do not want the car to spend a good portion of its time in my possession at the dealership getting repaired regardless of a warranty or not. New cars should not have to be returned to the dealership period. If we expect that all new cars will have problems and trips to the dealership are part of the ownership experience then we have lowered our standards and will pay good money for junk. I have owned 7 Corvettes in my life. I have not had any issues with any of the 7 dating back from 1977 through my latest a 2015 C7 Z51 package. But if I started to have the problems that some of these Z06 owners are having, I would be the first to sign up for a lawsuit. And scott3 is sadly misinformed, lawyers don’t get it all, the customer gets what is needed to make him/her whole if the customer prevails in court or in a settlement. Often, legal fees are paid as part of the judgement or the settlement.
Manufacturers need to be held accountable. If the government doesn’t do it, it is up to the customer.
Spoken like a true misinforming lawyer.
Show me where a class action suit has lead to major changed for an automotive customer. Line up the cases. I have been a part [not willingly] of class action cases and they rarely ever end with any kind or real resolve for the customer.
Cars are made by man and most to a high level of quality anymore. The truth is most car never have to go back to a dealer in the first 10 years outside normal service. But with as advanced as models are today it is amazing we do not have more failures than we do. The fact is there is never going to be a time where all things are going to go perfect.
Because of this we have warranties and as long as the company willing takes a car with a MFG fault and repairs it they have held up their promise to you the customer. Now if they deny there is a problem they should have proof that it was not their fault otherwise they should take care of it as most do.
I do see times now here some warranties have been denied due to abuse that can be proven. Youtube has burned many a dishonest owner.
To think GM willing put this car out to have issues is foolish. Second if you do have a problem the 5 year 100.000 warranty will cover it. You may even see an extension here as GM has often done in the past.
If you really think a class action suit is going to solve your issues well good luck and enjoy the free oil change.
As for the government holding anyone accountable they should first start with themselves as they have done a poor job of it and the legal lobbyist that pay them to ignore tort reform in this country that add cost to everything we buy.
The fact here is if GM is refusing to fix these cars and it is proven to be a MFG problem you have a case. As it is now some legal firm is going to jump in here and get GM to settle with them because a long drug out case would be more expensive to fight than just to pay the legal corporate blackmail. They will walk with about 85% of the settlement and the rest will go to those they claim to represent in the form of a GM forced Discount on a new car or free oil change and wash.
The bottom line is no one will walk away with new engines because of the law firms actions if that’s what you are expecting. Services rendered will be just what they would get if they went in for warranty work.
Also look a the production numbers and the number of real issues it is small and GM will deal with it quietly.
Most new cars Ive bought has spent lots of time in the dealer within 1 year. The only exception was my 2011 Ram 1500 and my 4 cylinder 2002 GMC Sonoma! My 2010 camaro SS lost its transmission at 1,700 miles. My 07 patriot saw 6 dealership visits for water pouring into the interior during the first 5000 miles, My cadillac CTS ran into bubbling interior panels, my 2006 BMW 3 series had the failure of its CCC module…
In my mind, the only difference between a new car and a used car is who pays fo the repairs. Cars are too complex now days, the likelyhood of failure SOMEWHERE is inevitable.
I blame most of the shoddy work man ship of the fact of NAFTA & the rush to put factories in mexico to save money. I call it ” Because Jesus Garcia Does Not read the blue print ” he never has & never will . . . be it a car, truck home, road, bridge hell even blue jeans are NOT AMERICAN made thanks to Wallie Mart who told
” Levies ” how to make Jeans . . .
Why don’t you assholes fix it fast, before everyone starts bitching!!!!!!!!! Then we all bail, and GM is left wondering what the hell happened!!!! It may take a few years, but GM WILL FEEL IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a 2015 Corvette Z06 and the dealer is trying to tell me its not an alignment issue when 3 of the tires are worn down to the nylon on the inner portion of the tires, even though the 4th tire is perfect and the other three are fine except for the inner portion of the tires. 2 independent tire places told me its obviously alignment yet Chevy won’t take responsibility. I will leave and go back to my SL63 Merc. This is ridiculous and chevy will ultimately pay by losing above average buyers.
I work for Toyota, in the service lane. You don’t know how many times people came from these tire places with other issues on their cars. The cars also come in with issues no matter what. Cars in 6 months ownership having battery issues and many other things wrong. Try a different GM dealer if possible, I have 6 in my area, one misunderstood GMs requirements for warranty coverage, on condensation in my taillight on my 2015 Camaro, and told me warranty wouldn’t cover it. I went to another one through the service manager,and got a new tailight under warranty, problem solved. There’s a Mazda that just came in to us from getting an automatic transmission flush at Precision Auto, and the reverse gear is no longer. Also, if the tire places found the alignment was off, did you get an alignment?
When you say chevy wont take responsibility, I am thinking you expected them to replace the tires, is that right?
Or you just wanted them to do an alignment?
Alignments are cheaper than tires, get it done and forget about it. If thats the only thing wrong in six months youre doing pretty good.
Could be worse cough ahem mercedes biodegradeable wire insulation ahem cough cough!
You hear about that? Nightmare.
Yes, manufacturers need to be held accountable, but that doesn’t mean jump right to filing a lawsuit. Cripes. This country is WAY to lawsuit happy.
There is no such thing as 100% perfect quality. No-one has it—not Toyota, not Tesla, not Bently, not Chevy. Yes, there should be an expectation that the manufacturer has gone through all reasonable efforts to develop their product to high standards. But, there is always going to be a chance that something is going to go wrong or something is going to be overlooked or not considered or whatever. It happens. Everywhere and all the time. Simply suing because something went wrong is ridiculous.
These cars, being brand new, are under warranty. If something goes wrong, you contact the manufacturer (through a dealer or through the manufacturer’s customer-service or whatever). The manufacturer evaluates the issue and provides a response they feel is appropriate under the terms of the warranty (which, a buyer is reasonably responsible for understanding before purchase). Sometimes that response may be to repair; sometimes it may be to update; sometimes it may be to replace the car; sometimes it may be to say “Sorry, we won’t cover this because these specific modifcations you made led to the problem.” (I’m not saying that any of these owners made any modifications—but it’s a situation that crops of in warranty claims from time to time. Heck, sometimes they’ll help cover a car even though a modification led to a problem.) It’s how they respond that matters.
Saying that a car should not have to be returned to a dealer, period is completely unrealistic. Filing a lawsuit over it is beyond ridiculous.
I don’t know what the specific situations were with these particular owners. Maybe they experienced a failure and took their car to the dealer and were told to shove off. If that’s the case, I do believe some legal action is potentially reasonable. But, if they are simply suing because a problem occurred without giving GM the opportunity to make right, I just shake my head sadly.
This is Chevy’s flagship car. A LOT of attention gets paid to the Corvette in all its trims. The last thing Chevy or GM as a whole wants is for there to be a black-eye on the Corvette. A great amount of R&D went into this car. They put out the best product they could. If this problem extends past a few isolated incidents and is a potential design-flaw, I guarantee that GM is working hard to figure out what went wrong and will work to make it right.
If this was a design flaw, one would think that every C6 Corvette Z06 and every GEN 5 Camaro that used the LS7 7.0L V8 would have this issue and not just these 19 individuals which means one of two things; these guys were unfortunate enough to get lemons or these individuals did something to cause the excessive wear of the engines.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Here we go again! All the auto
companies are jumping on the band wagon of cylinder
deactivation technology. What a Dumb Sh_t Idea!!! If you want
a 4 or 6 cylinder engine, buy one, but don’t expect an eight
cylinder engine to run or act like a four cylinder.
The whole idea of deactivating pistons is moronic. I don’t care
how advanced our technology becomes, this is a stupid ideal
from the get go! The cylinders will carbon up and some cylinder
rings, valves and parts will wear more than others, creating
pistons that run at different compression ratios and different
tolerances, than others.
Eventually this will cause overheating, part wear and an engine
that runs like a piece of sh_t, culminating in premature engine
failure and costing the customer thousands of dollars in repairs.
I don’t care if you are the world’s greatest mechanical engineer,
you CAN NOT make this technology work.
It is self defeating and contrary to all the principals of engine
design. It didn’t work for Cadillac in 1981, it will not work now.
May I suggest, some of you engineers turn a few wrenches,
before you start designing crap like this.
If your goal is to sell more cars due engine failure, keep doing
what your doing. If you want to lose customers, keep doing
what your doing.
To my knowledge, FORD is the only motor company, NOT
gearing up to sell this junk. They will sell it as an option,
although I can’t think of anyone stupid enough to order it.
I was strictly a Chevy Fan for 46 years, I am now switching to
FORD. http://www.backfirealley.com/dads100-150/117-afm-dod-cylinder-deactivation-ford-chevy-gm-small-trucks.html
Well Einstein you have a better idea?
If you note Ford is working to eliminate the V8 all together. They offer the engine only in the Mustang and Trucks at this point and it will not be long before the Coyote will go away.
When a company puts a V6 in their Super car the GT and the Raptor truck it is telling you where they are going.
You may be fine without a V8 but many people still want them. Deactivation is the only way you will keep larger engines and it has nothing to do with this problem anyways.
Note too the first Cadillac design was well before the computer technology and electronic technology was there to deal with it. Today it is pretty much a fool proof system and works well. If it were the issue here we would have seen millions of GM trucks with this issue.
You are either a troll or a fool as you really need to do your home work on just how this system works and how it would not affect the issues that are claimed.
Switch to Ford I hope you like the 4 cylinder.
Well, dumbass!
You’re evidently not a mechanic! Is this what you do for a living, run a blog! Work for GM?
Having pistons run up and down without firing, can cause all sorts of problems.
Heat, gunk, unusual wear, a whole multitude of problems.
I know all sorts of people that were driving Chevrolet and Chrysler Products, that were running unevenly, missing, spitting and hesitating, because of cylinder deactivation technology. They either
disabled it or bought FORDS.
I notice my entire article was not posted. Yes, the technology can be disabled.
When you decide to turn a few wrenches and put in a few years, you might understand how damaging this technology is to an engine.
You’re not gonna learn a damned thing about engines behind a computer, boy…
I’m not a mechanic, but I did build and dyno test hundreds of race engines over the course of about 7 years. I’ve turned wrenches for the better part of 30 years.
I’m curious as to what you think the “whole multitude” of problems are.
As I see it, a “piston running up and down without firing” experiences nothing different from all the other pistons on 3 of the 4 strokes. The only difference is the power stroke, which creates a bit more lateral force on the piston skirts then they experience on the intake, compression and exhaust strokes. Temperature-wise, the piston, cylinder wall, rings and valves will not experiences the higher temperatures that the others cylinders do, but they will reach operating temperature like the rest of the engine due to the coolant circulation, so they will never be “cold.” This may, over the life of the engine, equate to less normal wear due to thermal expansion, but that difference will hardly be enough to affect engine performance. Since no fuel is entering the cylinder, there’s no reason why anything should get “gunked” up, unless the cylinders *never* fire, in which case you may get some small amount of oil getting past the rings and not burning. But it’s unlikely that the cylinders will ever be off long enough for this to happen.
I don’t disagree that the activation/deactivation technology could lead to misfiring or less than optimal performance if it malfunctions, but as far as it doing actual damage to the engine, I cannot see this being the case.
The new GM – Right!
Got a problem, ignore it and bury it. Same situation I had with my 1998 C5 – no help from GM and to top it off they denied my $50 claim for an aftermarket repair I installed only to later send me a recall notice for the problem – Steering Wheel Column Lock. It’s not the problem that is my concern, it’s the GM attitude of ignoring it and screwing their customers. Last GM product I will ever buy from them.
…19…that’s it…19 people had problems? See what the internet forums do? Blow shit out of proportion. Why not more than 19 people?!?!
Dude thanks for the clear thought.
Just a note valve guide issues are generally either a head casting issues or Geometry issue. I would say there may have been some kind of defect in one of the parts that did not affect all the engines. A short run of rocker arms or pedestal mounts can change the geometry of this.
This would be a lot more interesting if we had more information and facts here as we have only heard one biased side here.
GM probably isn’t recalling them because there’s really no issue if they’re fixing them under warranty. I’ll agree that if they had a major recall with a fix, then they can get it done with. GM along with every other single manufacturer on the planet goes through warranty fixes first, with things similar to this. If I’m not mistaking haven’t they had recalls about the engines before? Either way if GM is repairing these under warranty what’s the issue? Even if it’s a huge inconvenience, I’m sure there’ll be a recall soon if necessary.
Motor Trend did an article where they did a dyno test between a 2015 Chevy C5 Camaro Z/28 with a LS7 7.0L V8 as it is part of their long-term test car with 16,000 miles on the odometer and you’ve got to wonder whether these C5 Corvette Z06 owners didn’t allow their LS7 7.0L V8 break in properly which lead to the problems they’re explaining because Motor Trend apparently didn’t have any issues with their LS7 7.0L V8.
What the other guy said…. 19 owners out of how many produced? Statistically insignificant.
As for cylinder deactivation I have always thought it was a bad idea due to balancing issues. The engine was designed to have all cylinders firing, pushing the crankshaft. Remove 2-4 from contributing their share of the work, shifting the burden of moving theor mass to the firing cylinders, doesnt this throw the whole thing out of whack?
My 2015 Z06 engine gave up completely! less than 11’000miles and some other issues but the fact of the engine makes me very unsecure. i mean yes the Porsche and others cost some more money but last for 100’000ends with no problem at all.
So would like to know which law firm is representing these 19 owners so i could join the club.