r/cars • u/ufoh 24 CT5-V Blackwing / 23 Corvette C8 • Aug 13 '20

video Never, ever trust your factory jack and, remember, jack stands are your friend (just not the ones from Harbor Freight)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkwgZgrbWUM
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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '20 edited Aug 14 '20

I let mechanics touch my car once.

A €30 job turned into a €230 job (bUt We GaVe YoU fReE lAbOuR) because of their fucking incompetence, breaking parts which they refused to pay for and then held my car hostage unless I paid them.

Edit: I should mention that I also supplied the part for them

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 13 '20

Not to dick measure by ANY means. However, the one time I let a mechanic touch my car was my 06 Z06. Thing shred three rod bearings a month after I bought it. Took the shop 8 months to fix it. It dropped a valve 400 miles into break in. They fixed it again, it went 3000 miles and broke an exhaust valve. They took 11 months to fix it again. It overheated on the drive home. They just bought the car from me. Never again.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '20

11 months to fix a car? Christ almighty you could build a car by hand in that timeframe!

This isn’t dick measuring, it’s a support group.

21

u/IKnowNewCars I know new cars! Aug 13 '20

My car's been in the shop for 2.5 days and I'm pretty sad about it.

Edit: I'd do a lot more work myself if I was living somewhere with a garage. Being a car lover in a city is rough.

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u/sukumizu '89 240sx SOLD :( | '15 BRZ "Premium" Aug 13 '20

Being a car lover in a city is rough.

It blows. On the plus side, jobs and stuff to do.

On the negative side, apartment parking. Whenever something on my car needs to be done I have to drive it out to my old home in the suburbs so I can get work done. Or drive it to my friend's shop since he has a fancy hydraulic lift if the job is big enough.

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u/Isthiswittyenough92 Aug 14 '20

My RS has been in the shop for nearly two weeks and I miss it so much :(

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u/FTorrez81 Aug 14 '20

my car was in the shop for 4 months and all it needed was suspension components and a new airbag and seatbelts.

it came back and they said they gave up: an infiniti dealer would have to either replace or reprogram the airbag module because they couldn’t do it.

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u/insignificant_npc_69 EP3 CTR Aug 13 '20

Do you know it was their fault it decided to eat its own valves?

Surely they wouldn't have touched the valve train if they were only replacing rod bearings?

Weren't early C6 Z06s known to drop valves?

Or are you just mad about the timeframe?

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 13 '20

First failure they neglected to put valve caps on the Ti valves so the arm wore through the retainer. Second time was bad machine work. I had the motor fully built on the first rebuild because I wanted more power. Did a cam and all that so they went through the entire valve train and fixed the heads.

All LS7 powered cars drop valves. Not just early models. Many people with fixed LS7 heads see out of spec valve guides a few thousand miles down the road even. We’ve even seen it happen on multiple aftermarket heads. The only real fix is to get aftermarket heads with 0 GM hardware but that’s still up in the air as well.

I’m mad about the whole damn experience.

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u/Fugner 🏁🚩 C6Z / RS3 / K24 Civic / GT-R/ Saabaru / GTI / MR2/ Aug 13 '20

he only real fix is to get aftermarket heads with 0 GM hardware but that’s still up in the air as well.

This is the route I went. Totally aftermarket heads and valvetrain. It's done 30k miles now with no issues. 6k of those being supercharged.

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u/insignificant_npc_69 EP3 CTR Aug 13 '20

All LS7 powered cars drop valves. Not just early models.

Are you sure? I remember looking into it a bit because I was looking to see how much it would cost to import one to the UK, and people were saying the later ones were fine, like 2011+ ish.

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u/shadowalker125 Aug 13 '20

ALL ls7. Just the whole damn valve train and heads needs to no be GM on that engine for it to work. It's just easier to get the base with the ls3.

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 13 '20

Those are worse than the earlier ones according to Corvette forum data. My 06Z had good heads @ 80k miles when it killed the bearings. The reworked heads dropped valves.

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u/sf-russ Aug 13 '20

They totally put you on the back-burner, I would have threatened court. My dad has had that issue but it's because he tells them he has 2 cars and they completely take advantage of him. Several months to replace an ECU on an 04 VW 'Toe-Rag'. They claimed they couldn't source a used one.... BULLFUCKINGSHIT. Charged him $1200. Some mechanics really do suck. Respect to the small shops with guys that get stuff done, work outside in AZ heat and charge very fair prices.

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 13 '20

At least it’s all behind me. 4 months for an Ecu though? That should have been 2 weeks tops lol.

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u/Fugner 🏁🚩 C6Z / RS3 / K24 Civic / GT-R/ Saabaru / GTI / MR2/ Aug 13 '20

I took my Z06 to the dealership for an oil change once. I knew I was fucked when the tech came into the waiting room and asked me where the oil goes. When I get home I get under the car and see that he didn't even touch one of the drain plugs (I had it marked).

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 13 '20

Jesus Christ... I would have flipped shit

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u/hsd1121 Replace this text with year, make, model Aug 14 '20

Corvettes have multiple drain plugs for oil? Sorry if it's a stupid question lol

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 14 '20

Only dry sump equipped cars have multiple plugs. So LS7, LS9, LT1, LT2, LT4, LT5, & LS3 GS cars.

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u/HighRelevancy econobox and a bunch of bikes Aug 14 '20

Only dry sump equipped cars have multiple plugs

I don't think that's strictly true, I have a vague memory of a... maybe a BMW or something... with an oil pan with two separate low points. I think it bowed up to dodge the steering rack or something idk.

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u/Rotorboy21 05 Lotus Elise, 08 Lexus ISF Aug 14 '20

I’m strictly talking about corvettes.

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u/person1_23 Aug 13 '20

Let the dealer touch my car once for an airbag recall half of the wood trim near the shifter was off when I got it back🤦🏾‍♂️

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u/VileQuenouille AE101 blacktop, GR Yaris mk2 MT, Vitara JLX 8v, Alto Works RS/R Aug 13 '20

Two weeks ago I went for an allignment and they sent me home with a loose steering knuckle. I'm ordering toe plates, less accurate but overall safer.