Chevrolet To Z06 Owners: Change Your Oil, Stat!
Last time we checked in on the reportedly fussy Corvette Z06 engine, it was leaking vital fluids after Fox News reporter Gary Gastelu took it to the track.
Now it appears that Chevrolet has a fix for at least one of the Z06’s reported engine problems: change the oil, stat.
According to a General Motors spokesman, the catastrophic engine failures all seem to have three things in common: early production builds, oil contamination and low miles (under 2,000).
( Maybe that explains the one that bought the farm at 891 miles.)
According to Chevrolet, contaminants in the oil can cycle through the engine during break-in, causing all sorts of fun for owners. (We haven’t heard official word from some owners as to what exactly went wrong, but we’re efforting.)
On its own, Chevrolet said that it was upgrading its manufacturing process to minimize the risk of contaminating the oil. The cause could be thread shavings for the oil filter which may have made their way into the oil pan when the threads were tapped.
As a result, Chevrolet is asking owners to ditch the break-in oil quickly.
“We now encourage all owners to change their oil at 500 miles to remove possible contaminants created during the engine break-in process. And, as always, we encourage the use of Mobil 1 synthetic oil – which is a factory fill for all Z06 models, and Stingray Z51 models – and encourage owners to follow the engine break-in process detailed in the owner’s manual,” stated Monte Doran, spokesman for Chevrolet.
Owners are still reporting heat soak issues and intermittent power steering problems.
Chevrolet says less than one percent of the 9,000 Z06 models on the road have had engine troubles.
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"...In Tonawanda, in the western part of New York, it will mean the creation of hundreds of jobs at the town’s General Motors engine assembly plant. Officials announced this week that the Tonawanda plant will be the site where the C7 Corvette’s state-of-the-art LT1 V8 engine will be built starting early in 2013. “We have done pretty much bread and butter engines for a while,” said Mary Ann Brown, plant communications manager. “We haven’t done a Corvette engine in a long, long time. We are very excited.” Even more excited now, I'd guess. http://www.corvetteblogger.com/2012/10/29/tonawanda-engine-plant-excited-to-build-the-lt1-for-the-2014-c7-corvette/ How could any properly vetted assembly process allow this to happen? I'll tell you: Budgets and timetables, beancounters and understaffing. Managers who are pressured to say the equivalent of "I can name that tune in ONE note".
This engine-failure problem with the Corvette is only newsworthy because it's so unusual. Say what you want about the Corvette's interior, but one indisputable fact is that compared to exotics and luxury cars, they're mechanically indestructible. They. Don't. Break. You never hear about Vette transaxles exploding, springs sagging, sensors mysteriously dying for no reason, valvetrain components shearing off or PCMs giving up the ghost for the hell of it. And that's the ONLY reason we're hearing about this engine debacle - because the Corvette has established a reputation for mechanical reliability that no other sports car but the Miata can match. If this were any other car of this performance class, a random engine failure would be seen as no big deal - maybe even fobbed off with a faint suggestion that such a problem is "simply a mark of cutting-edge performance and pushing the technological envelope." Don't believe me? That's exactly how Audi, BMW and Mercedes handwave their repeated technology failures and consequent reputation for poor long-term reliability.
"Yeah Corvettes have great reliability, but no better than the Silverado." "and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does." -Groucho/Animal Crackers
I thought oil filters took care of particles in the oil.