When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Unexpected Costly Repair For C6 Automatic: Beware!!!
The other day I pulled my 2010 Vette into a restaurant parking lot and was about to readjust my parking. As I was about to back up, the shift selector handle suddenly "free floated" forward & backwards not engaging into Drive or Reverse. It actually became stuck in Park. Long story short, had to have it towed to my mechanic that also knows and works on most C4 - C7 Vettes. It turned out to be the automatic shift cable/linkage. He told me it's quite common for C6s to have the plastic connector bushings wear out, or the cable to break. The part itself cost me $60, but the labor was $495. I was told it's quite a labor intensive repair requiring two techs at one point to install the new cable. They had my car for a day and a half. My LOVE meter for this Corvette has dropped from a 9 to an 7.5 I'm just glad this 2010 is an extra "Fun Car" not a daily driver.
Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Vette Tax. My Grand Sport is a manual, but we had this happen to us last year in our 2001 A4 Coupe. Gotta love it (or not).
I would rather pay Corvette tax than Federal tax any day of the week!!
Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Vette Tax. My Grand Sport is a manual, but we had this happen to us last year in our 2001 A4 Coupe. Gotta love it (or not).
Wasn’t that bad. Did mine myself as preventive maintenance, only cost me the part/bushings on each end. My cable was fine, just did new bushings on each end. Probably took 3 hours start to finish.
Those bushings are available for 5-20$ depending on brand. It's a super common issue on like... All automatic transmissions. GM, Dodge, and several others use the same setup. I had to do it on my TBSS a few months ago. It wasn't a terrible job, just had to get under the car and pop it in.
I'm glad I can still work on cars. It happened to me too but I fixed it in the parking lot for $35. I still need to change the bushing at the other end.
Whew!!!! When I read your thread title.......Unexpected Costly Repair For C6 Automatic: Beware!!!...
I was expecting to read of some future problem I could expect with my car .....and not about an issue that is discussed on here literally hundreds of times....
and is neither unexpected nor costly if you are lucky not to be stranded somewhere.
I have replaced $8 bushings twice (once on each end) over the years.
Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Vette Tax. My Grand Sport is a manual, but we had this happen to us last year in our 2001 A4 Coupe. Gotta love it (or not).
I would rather pay Corvette tax than Federal tax any day of the week!!
Whew!!!! When I read your thread title I was expecting to read of some future problem I could expect with my car .....and not about an issue that is discussed on here literally hundreds of times....
and is neither unexpected nor costly if you are lucky not to be stranded somewhere.
I guess I was just frustrated and disappointed in the engineering of this auto shift cable, and its failure after less than 55K miles. It's virtually impossible to predict when it will give out, and periodic maintenance on it isn't really suggested by GM.
I guess I was just frustrated and disappointed in the engineering of this auto shift cable, and its failure after less than 55K miles. It's virtually impossible to predict when it will give out, and periodic maintenance on it isn't really suggested by GM.
Of course GM doesn't suggest maintenance. They want you to be dumb and uninformed so you spend multiple hundreds of dollars on installation of a new cable at the dealership.
I guess I was just frustrated and disappointed in the engineering of this auto shift cable, and its failure after less than 55K miles. It's virtually impossible to predict when it will give out, and periodic maintenance on it isn't really suggested by GM.
Welcome to the world of plastics. They get old, they get exposed to thermal cycles, they get brittle, they crumble into nothing.
That said, most of the time on other GM vehicles with the same.setup, you only hear about the bushing at the transmission failing due to age. Makes sense, it sees the outside, the heat cycles, all that. Corvettes are the only ones I see complaints about the interior bushing going out too. Probably just due to the design, our center tunnel gets a lot hotter than one on a Tahoe for example.
Welcome to the world of plastics. They get old, they get exposed to thermal cycles, they get brittle, they crumble into nothing.
That said, most of the time on other GM vehicles with the same.setup, you only hear about the bushing at the transmission failing due to age. Makes sense, it sees the outside, the heat cycles, all that. Corvettes are the only ones I see complaints about the interior bushing going out too. Probably just due to the design, our center tunnel gets a lot hotter than one on a Tahoe for example.
the OP's car is 13-14 years old. Stuff is going to break. Thankfully, I found the C6 to be one of the easiest cars to work on. Many people have to pay high prices for simple repairs because they either don't do research before taking the vehicle to a shop and/or don't learn how to repair themselves.
I have the Dorman bushings and some loooong needle nose pliers that stay in the Vette all the time.... Just in case.
The dorman bushings I ended up replacing after using them, they fell off. They just don't fit in quite as well as they should. Do yourself a favor and order the "bushing fix" one off amazon. It's like 20 bucks, somea with a little orange/red install tool, but it fits a LOT better.
The dorman bushings I ended up replacing after using them, they fell off. They just don't fit in quite as well as they should. Do yourself a favor and order the "bushing fix" one off amazon. It's like 20 bucks, somea with a little orange/red install tool, but it fits a LOT better.
10-10-2023, 10:42 PM
Unexpected Costly Repair For C6 Automatic: Beware!!!
I'm just glad this 2010 is an extra "Fun Car" not a daily driver.
the OP's car is 13-14 years old. Stuff is going to break. Thankfully, I found the C6 to be one of the easiest cars to work on. Many people have to pay high prices for simple repairs because they either don't do research before taking the vehicle to a shop and/or don't learn how to repair themselves.
