Bought this vehicle 1 month ago. Driving along the freeway the engine stops. coast to the side and try to restart the car and the battery is drained. Had the cor towed to local dealership, the still have the car to this date, The car would start and then die. Service manager said they dropped theoil pan and found metal shavings in there. Spun main bearing. The vehicle has 40,000 miles.
I would ask them to show me your bad parts while the vehicle is on the lift… Sounds like it lost oil pressure and starved the bearings, It’s a Corvette, grandma probably wasn’t the main driver, if so then she probably had a grandson that drove it some… lol
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Pretty good chance the spun bearing was caused by the prior owner(s) not following the manufacturer’s recommended servicing. Most likely engine was run with not enough oil. This problem is very unlikely to be caused by a manufacturing or design problem.
Once you get it fixed, suggest to replace oil and filter at least as often as manufacturer suggest, more frequently, even better. With my vehicles I replace those every 5,000 miles.
Re: “spun bearing”
Your car’s engine bearings are a hollow metal cylinder* that the crankshaft goes through. The idea is the bearing material is sacrificial, designed to wear with use, preventing the crankshaft itself from wearing. As long as there is proper lubrication (engine oil), the bearing doesn’t rotate, only the crankshaft rotates, inside the fixed-in-place bearing. Without proper lube however, the bearing sticks to the rotating crankshaft, which in turn causes the bearing to rotate (or spin). This should never happen with proper servicing. If it does, you have a “spun bearing”. If you have one spun bearing, most likely all of the similar bearings have failed or are about to fail.
“*” For practical reasons, they aren’t actually hollow cylinders. Engine bearings are two-part gadgets, split in half lengthwise.
I expect OP already knows this will prove a very expensive fix. Installing a used-from-wreck/rebuilt-used/or new engine might make the most sense.
Basic engine main (crankshaft) and rod (connecting) bearings (main shown, rod similar)
OHV Cam bearings…
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Terrible. Sorry to hear this. Stories like this are why I buy new but lower cost cars.
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Sorry to hear you need engine repair. What’s the history of the car? Perhaps you found the reason the car was sold or traded in.
If the previous owner was a typical Corvette driver, that 40,000 miles could be the hardest miles put on a car. Corvette drivers tend to always have one of the pedals all the way to the floor.
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Not sure, purchased the vehicle Jan 17 2023. Car stopped on me less than a week later, been in the shop till now
+1
A 9 year engine is not likely to be suffering from a serious manufacturing defect. Much more likely that the (unknown) way that it was driven by the previous owner(s) is the source of the problem. Or, it could easily be due to the (probably unknown) way that the previous owner(s) maintained it.
Previous owners only had the vehicle for 1week before this transpired. I do have a mechanical background and realize the need for regular maintenance.
ouch, I think you figured out why they were so eager to get rid of it…
this stinks, sorry.
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I did get a extended warranty
Well here we go again on warranties. Pretty sure they will claim abuse or maintenance unless it was a dealer with a 90 day or so used car warranty, but good luck. Not sure if just new bearings could take care of it.
Not if it spun a bearing…
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That is what they are telling me at the Chevy dealership here
At the very least the crank will need to be machined, which means it needs to come out of the block and sent off… Dealer will probably want to just sell you a new crank… There is a very good chance the cam bearings are toast as well if this was a low oil pressure issue… which means new cam bearings and cam and anything else they find once the engine is torn down…
All said and done if you are paying for all this and not doing any of the work yourself, it may be better to just buy a GM crate engine and have them drop it in… maybe even an upgrade…
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Warranty should pay
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lets hope so.
That depends. We need more info from the fine print. Many aftermarket warranties aren’t in force until 30 days after the purchase date. They do that because unscrupulous dealers will sell a car they know needs repairs and are trying to pawn it off on the warranty company.
You buy a warranty on used car. 30 days later Motor fails. Tell me how a used car warranty won’t cover a failed motor. Let’s see. Oil plug fell out? Ok, that might be denied. How can you ruin a motor in 30 days?
You can ruin a motor in 30 seconds… a Corvette would be a prime candidate for a “Hey, watch THIS” moment!
Redline a cold engine doing donuts would be a pretty good way…
Not that this was the OPs problem… but might be the previous owner.
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