MikeBotz

Has anyone else had a problem with the tie rod end boots melting when at an HPDE? My front rotors have never warped or cracked from heat.

Happened last year, dealer covered it under warranty, this time they said no.

I have a stock 06 Vert A6/F55 and run it with runflats.

I also had my rear calipers stick and on both sides and kill just the outside pads.

They said I drive the car too hard.

Chevy advertised a 186MPH Car and I supposedly drive too hard.

Thanks

Joe Lynch

My opinion is that you drive the car too hard for the stock parts. You want to do HPDE that hard, buy some aftermarket parts that can stand the heat. You can go 186 mph, you just can't do it from 0-186-0 30 times in 30 minutes.

AORoads

I'd have to agree with Joe. Look at Lou Gigliotti; he's developed his own parts to go racing. Now maybe you're not in the same category, but if you're going to push the car like that, you're going to have to upgrade some parts or expect things to wear out, stick, etc., sooner than later.

I mean, you don't expect to get 25K miles from your runflats, using it the way you do, do you?

redzone

Agreed....

avacorvette

Gee.... I wonder why they have a competitive mode button on a stock vette.

MikeBotz

No I don't expect 25K out of runflats. I expect to replace pads for every event, change out oil, bleed fresh fluid into the brakes and other wear items.

I have over 20K on the car, changed the tires at about 18K.

I don't expect to melt tie rod ends. Has anyone seen how little space there is between the rotor and tie rod end? I wouldn't consider them to be a regular wear and tear item to change yearly.

Its not like I do this every weekend, Its two or three time a year for 15-20 minute sessions.

I was trying to see if this is something common to happen on the C6 at the HPDE events or is my car have other issues. Sure I run hard and want to have fun, but I am not heating things up enough to get brake fade, warp rotors, trani temp got a little high for my taste last time, and I will put another cooler in before the next event. I like to be preventative.

I am not building that much speed on the north course at Pocono, 115-120mph

I know the 07 got the upgrades for the F55 (brakes,sway bars).

I wasn't looking for a poll about me driving too hard or not, that's probably a given.

I was looking to see if others have this problem, and if so what was there fix to prevent it in the future.

My 186MPH comment came out because I was a little disappointed in the way Chevy treats warranty issues, This is there Flagship line. This isn't a $15k car, its a $63k car and expected a little better from them. Friends of mine that race their Porches never have warranty issues, something broke its fixed. I never saw a warranty claim denied on a viper when I worked for dodge in the 90's, even when they came in with race tires. (And those cars broke down a lot early on).

I Love the car, it's great in so many ways. Its GM's attitude towards the people in my situation that upsets me a little. I know racing is an expensive sport, but I'm not a pro or weekend racer. The average working guy who managed to get his teenage dream car should be able to take their stock car to a short HPDE and have fun without melting things like tie rod ends.

Thanks.

MikeBotz

Do you ever run at summit point for the NCCC spooktacular event?

Evilways

MikeBotz....this is the norm from GM right now, looking for any reason to deny a claim. I hope you didn't tell the dealership you ran your car. They'll post it in your "warranty file" and possibly block you from any further warranty work. Call GM directly at 1-800-222-1020 and tell them you got denied for an item that should be covered and see if they can assist you or take it into another dealership.Good luck.

AutoCutter

I have never heard of that one before Did you have the larger Z51brakes? I forget what year the F55 got em' Anyway, sounds like you had a lot of heat build up from repetitive braking-is this a warranty issue-yea, I would say it is, but you'll now have to go over their heads to get anywhere.

That said, this may be time to upgrade your brake system before you meet a wall because of brake failure. I would order the Z51 or Z06 brake front cooling ducts to replace those F55/base ducts with their 1" openings If you get the Z51, I would also order the duct hose and rotor clamp to get all the air to hit the rotor. Good luck!

MikeBotz

07 got the bigger brakes on the F55. Brakes failed on the way home, not on the track, I guess the cooling down heating got to them, but I would have figured the fronts are doing the bull work, it was the rear that crapped out.

The thing that got me was the fact the tie rod ends started to melt again before I HPDE'd the car. I saw them getting bad last week when I was getting the car ready and checking everything for this past weekend. I haven't done any HPDE's since they were replaced, so this is happenening with street driving.

I know, the thumb sized ducts on the car are a joke. I am going to have to spring for the $175 hoses to cool everything down.

I hope I can get things fixed. I am going to try and get to another more flexible dealer, and go up the chain. They changed the package for the F55 the next year, bigger brakes, better cooling, bigger sway bars, oil cooler.

FLZ_Boy

It's not uncommon that the tie rod rubbers melt if your tracking your a C5 or a C6. The tie rods rubbers are very close to the rotors and the amount of heat generated by the rotors on the road courses will degrade the tie rod rubbers.

Some ways you can minimize some of the heat generated on the rotors this is to use ductings or the Z06 brake extension ductings (not quite as effective, but helps a little).

I believe there are aftermarket tie rod end protectors you can also buy to add additional shielding against the heat of the rotors.

Unless you can show GM that your normal driving caused the tie end rubbers to fail prematurely, the HPDE days are the likely cause of your tie rod rubber melting.

UberR32

I zip-tied header wrap around my boots and they did fine for the 3 HPDE's I've been to. I also added the Z06 front air ducts . . that had to help a little bit.

Evilways

Actually, it's GM's and the Service Dept.'s place to prove, without a doubt, that his spirited driving caused the failure. If they can't prove it without a doubt, they should replace under warranty. These cars were built specifically for the type of use the OP said he did.

FordDefector

IMO stock parts should be able to hold up to anything you can throw at them if you're running the car on street tires. Granted, if you throw on some R-compounds you will be taxing the brakes a lot more with the added grip, but if the 'Vette can't handle HPDE with street rubber that's just sad.

FLZ_Boy

I would agree Corvettes are built for the track, but some of the components are not built to endure the heat of running on HPDE days.

Some of the items needed to be addressed before running on HPDE days are: brake lines, brake pads, the tie rod rubbers, brake and clutch fluids, differential cooler, rotors, are the control arms and sway bar bolts tighten (they tend to come lose over time and should be checked every HPDE event), brake duct extensions or ductings, additional heat shielding for the transmission and differential.

I can understand the OP getting upset that a Corvette is a track car, but not addressing some of the items mentioned above shouldn’t be a surprise why the tie rod boots melted nor why his rear calipers gave out.

Yes, the service manager/tech would have to prove that the components failed before they can deny warranty. I guess the OP can say he drives his Corvette as a weekend car on nice paved roads and the rear caliper pads went bad, causing the rear rotors to heat up and melt the tie rods.

Silverton

The solution for this is the LGM or Baer bump-steer kit which replaces the tie-rod end boots with rod-ends than can take the heat!

vetracer

Anyone know how long the tie rod ends will last once the boots are ruptured?

PowerLabs

It is a street car that can be tracked, not a track car; you want to race that hard at least upgrade the brakes...
Is your car bone stock?

ALSO... I noticed yours is an F55. On the Z-51 Sport/Handling package, there is a Zerk fiting on both tie rod ends. The manual instructs you to re-grease the fittings every 15000 miles or every track event; this is because the grease will melt out of them if they get too hot. I wonder if yours melted out and without the fitting you couldn't refill it so there was nothing there to prevent it from heating up further (the grease would absorb some heat at least while it melted). Perhaps you should look at getting some Z-51 tie rods?

PowerLabs

Erm... So you can maintain Active Handling (a safety feature) while disabling traction control.
NOT so you can get the car up to triple digit speeds and then slam on the brakes repeatedly for 20+ minutes untill the entire brake mechanism gets so hot that it begins melting adjacent suspension parts!

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Chevy cannot be expected to sponsor your "off road"/ "tracking" program by replacing parts, as you destroy them, or wear them out, as a result of running the car on the track.

Thats what racing teams and sponsors do.

Tracking your car eats parts, and Chevy cannot be responsible for getting your car "track ready" every time you bring it in.

Now if you want to become a professional, I am sure that some of these big name companies will sponsor you.

Good luck.