Long Term Ownership and Durability

[RyanR3KC]

Hey all,

Just had some basic questions about long term cost of ownership, potentially other fit/finish issues and durability you all might have experienced over the life of the Z.

Paint or body issues?

any LS7 issues? It appears Chevy solved all the "LS7 killers" by the time they dropped it in the Z/28

Brake/Brake Pads/Tire longevity? normal driving and track events

any suspension issues?

Thanks for your time

[1970judge]

1) Fit and finish is great, paint and body is fine. The lower portions are subject to getting sanded due to the tires kicking up rocks. Buy the rock guards, get it wrapped, or dont worry about it like me. Some have complained about wear on the seat bolster, from the seat belt. Hasnt happened on mine, but eh..I wouldnt really mind if it does.



2) Of the members here, there has been a couple failure, overall <5 I believe. No worry item really.



3) All of those have dependencies. Do you track? Whats your skill level? What tires will you run? Street miles, the rotors/pads will last for a very, very long time. Throw some HPDE in there, it shortens the life...live eat and sleep at the track..shortens life even more. The Hardcore, track rats, who live and die at the road course get 10-15 track days on rotors before switching to steels.



4) Not that I know of..

[MrRaZ28]

This is probably the cleanest 5th gen they produced in terms of issues. There really are none except for a very, very few like judge pointed out.

PO daily drove it, and hauled dog food etc. in mine. Scratched up paint from putting stuff on the roof and trunk lid. Doesn't bother me as much as it should. I've messed the paint up on the front end and in front of the rear tires from 3 HPDE events and meh. I'll just get it wrapped later. Outside of that, it's pretty great. Interior is excellent. Seats are seats and will show wear the longer you drive it.

Judge has it right.. brakes/tires etc. there really is no metric. I can give you an idea though: Almost 50k miles, and 5.5 hours of track time on my rotors and pads had the front rotors about 107-110 grams over minimum spec, and about 79-83 on the rears. Front pads were at right below 50% and rears were pristine (I didn't measure thickness because I didn't expect them to be wanted). Tires really depend on what brand etc.

Suspension is noisy. If you don't like that, maybe not for you. It's stiff on purpose, but control is just shy of god-like, and the seats take 80% of the harshness out of bumps so I don't care. Even my wife loves riding in the car and wants to road trip in it.

As for cost of ownership, it's good that you aren't being like me. I didn't look anything up until after I bought the car lol. No regrets though, I would do it again. Summarized:

10.5 quarts of Synthetic oil on oil changes. Do them yourself. It's easy. Need a good lift or set of race ramps.
Brakes: OE rotors are $5-6k all the way around. OE pads are $1-1.2k all the way around. Need to swap pads at roughly 50% to prolong the life of the rotors. Swap out to Girodisc (for an example) costs about $2900 (with pads) the first go around. Can buy outer rings for $800 an axle after that.
Tires: Trofeo's really should be track only. Expensive as hell. Grips tighter than a 2-year old toddler holding onto something they shouldn't have. Conti ExtremeContact Sports (another personal example) $1220 for a set. Lasts a lot longer than Trofeo's.

Grin every time you start the car and drive it.. even in traffic? Priceless.

[hollywdv]

Awesome car!

paint/body - still good

motor - change oil / add gas

suspension - no issues

expect your consumables/expenses and such to go up based how much you track.

try not to compare this car to a “regular” car. ride is firm, it makes noises (motor/tranny/diff/exhaust) and attracts attention. the best compliments come from folks that know how rare it is.

compared to some of the issues the GT350 owners are going through, we’re a lucky bunch.

2015 and currently at 13.5k


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hjdca]

2015 Z/28 Air, Stereo with 12K miles. It is strictly a street car. No real issues except a few minor things:

1. Lettering comes off the engine covers. I had mine carbon fiber wrapped.
2. My check engine light came on around 9K miles and the dealer had to replace the mass air sensor under warranty.
3. Paint Chipping -- I wrapped my front with XPEL and now have Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires on it. I also have the Zl1addons front long rock guards installed. This solved all paint chipping issues.
4. On 100 degree days, if you keep the rain tray in, sometimes the A/C compressor will heat soak and not turn on until you get air flowing through the front of the car. I solved it by keeping the rain tray out and letting the heat escape the engine compartment. Note: Engine always runs really cool, even in 100 degree heat -- coolant and oil are always cool.
5. Towing - No real way to flat bed this car unless you add a tow hook. I added a ZL1addons front tow hook in case I ever have to flat bed the car.

Suspension is unbelievable. It never bottoms out and the chassis is always super stable - even when you go airborne.

Regarding optimizing the car for the street, you can look up my id and see the things I did, ie. spare tire, mats (trunk), GM amp, GM suboofer, blue tooth, etc... All plug and play, no drilling.

Maint so far -- just changing oil a bunch of times and rear end fluid. At 12K street miles my brakes and rotors still look brand new. I never followed the brakes break-in procedure. I just started driving it on the street. You can find 11K pics of my brakes and rotors by searching my id.


One of the greatest cars built.

[Snoman]

Absolute best car for the money, no matter what your perspective is, period.

[NVNO1]

Originally Posted by RyanR3KC

Hey all,

Just had some basic questions about long term cost of ownership, potentially other fit/finish issues and durability you all might have experienced over the life of the Z.

Paint or body issues?

any LS7 issues? It appears Chevy solved all the "LS7 killers" by the time they dropped it in the Z/28

Brake/Brake Pads/Tire longevity? normal driving and track events

any suspension issues?

Thanks for your time

What proof do you have to show that Chevy “fixed” the “LS7 killers”? I assume you are talking about the well known dropped valve issue on LS7 motors? From all the reading and research I’ve done I have found no evidence that the heads have been “fixed” or changed at all to correct this well know problem in LS7 motors. That said my 09 Z06 is sitting in my garage as we speak with a blown motor due to a dropped valve. 5,700 miles on the car. I’m now in the process of having my new motor built by American Heritage Performance. I purchased an extended warranty on my Z/28, but still plan on having the heads redone to prevent a blown motor on my Z/28.

[macalot]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeROC

Yes, I thought the valve guide issues were never addressed? I've been told that every LS7 should need the heads pulled at some point to fix the guides, the sooner, the better. Is that not accurate?

Searching this forum you will find a number of threads on this issue. The Raging Bull gives a good synopsis and a link to a definitive article by Hib Halversonherean at the Corvette Action Center here:

https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showt...=454656&page=2

[NVNO1]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeROC

Yes, I thought the valve guide issues were never addressed? I've been told that every LS7 should need the heads pulled at some point to fix the guides, the sooner, the better. Is that not accurate?

110 percent correct from everything I have seen. I wish there was something to disprove this, but that does not appear to be the case. I’ve heard of valves being out of spec that are brand new never even been on a car.

[hjdca]

Originally Posted by NVNO1

110 percent correct from everything I have seen. I wish there was something to disprove this, but that does not appear to be the case. I’ve heard of valves being out of spec that are brand new never even been on a car.

Are there any stock Z/28 out there that dropped a valve on their LS7 motor ?

[ronchev]

I too was nervous about the valve drop problem and could never find a clear answer to if the problem was resolved so at 5k miles I tore mine apart and in the process of replacing heads with aftermarket upgrade along with cam headers and intake......probably overkill but why not if your in there already.

I can say that At 5k miles there was way more clearance in the valve to guide clearance than what I though it should have.....but there are a few on here with way more miles that seem to keep running just fine so who knows.

Me Im just paranoid I guess but being around racing endurance engines for a long time have seen first hand what a dropped valve can do at ruining a lot of expensive parts.

[Mark_Z28]

Originally Posted by NVNO1

What proof do you have to show that Chevy “fixed” the “LS7 killers”? I assume you are talking about the well known dropped valve issue on LS7 motors? From all the reading and research I’ve done I have found no evidence that the heads have been “fixed” or changed at all to correct this well know problem in LS7 motors. That said my 09 Z06 is sitting in my garage as we speak with a blown motor due to a dropped valve. 5,700 miles on the car. I’m now in the process of having my new motor built by American Heritage Performance. I purchased an extended warranty on my Z/28, but still plan on having the heads redone to prevent a blown motor on my Z/28.

There is an article regarding the fix for the valve guide tolerance issues. That is the only information I have when I was concerned. I apologize as I don't have the link saved but someone is surely going to post the link here soon.

[Mark_Z28]

47K on mine after buying mine in Sept 2016 with 840 miles. It has not been babied at all therefore it is no garage queen. Its been driven from cleveland to louisville many times and all the way down to dallas and austin twice and only issues I had was the trim around the passenger window was coming out the first week and the dealership fixed it. Other than oil changes and fluid changes I've not had any issues yet. I have purposefully kept it off the track to preserve the rotors but it does get ragged hard on the back roads which is more stress on the powertrain than the suspension or the brakes atleast IMO.

[MrRaZ28]

49xxx on my original heads and I have zero issues so far. I haven't yet pulled them to check, and really don't want to until I either have a failure or am ready to start doing my upgrades.