Walt White Coupe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean99SS

I have an 05 with the last 6 digits of the VIN Number being 02286 which would fall under this TSB correct? I have owned the car for the last 3 years since 58,000 miles and have not had any problems. A couple of days ago I heard a bad chirping and it got worse where it was embarassing even rolling at idle through a parking lot. I knew something must be wrong and took it to Firestone because I know the people there. They tell me its the harmonic balancer and the AC belt has even been thrown off and another belt shredded. The car is out of any kind of warranty but this problem definitely sounds like it should have been a recall. Do you guys think I should try and fight this with a Chevrolet dealership and have it fixed for free? I bought the car at a Chevrolet dealership used saying it was certified.

Sorry but you are going to have to eat the repair unless you got some kind of extended warranty. The TSB was about the center bolt of balancer coming loose. You have a failed rubber flexible coupling between the two rotating masses of the balancer. There was never any TSB or recall for that failure mode. Mine failed at 19,000 miles and for me was replaced under the original warranty.

k9pig

Mine failed around 18,000 also 1 month out of warranty. My extended warranty covered it. I check on what the certified pre owned warranty covers. I know whenni looked at them they said it extended it out to 100k. But if not it about 1k w/o belts at the dealership. Plus the front end alignment.

BigMay60

I've done this twice in my garage during a number of previous mods. The hardest part if you are performing this procedure with the engine in the car (with an A6) is pinning the flywheel so you can torque. I used the friend with screwdriver in flywheel technique.

SpecialSause

This just happen to me recently, unfortunately I caught it to late. The pos forged aluminum crankshaft splines stripped. I was installing an slp under-drive because I knew the factory pulley was bad. The install is easy all I did was remove the radiator, undo the 2 engine mounts and hoist it up as much as possible (bell housing hits on the firewall and so does the intake manifold so be careful), and drop the front sub-frame about 4 inches. This gave me plenty of room to work and since the crank is bad it's just a few bolts and clips from me removing the engine to rebuild.

I wish there would have been a recall and I would like nothing more than to drive over the person responsible for this who decided not to recall it multiple (times with the vette) then proceed to place their body into an over-sized industrial strength microwave oven.

jbauer3

I too have an 05 C6 and after a great high speed run I experienced a massive system failure. Upon stopping and looking the whole balancer had come off the crank and was sitting there with the bolt kind of rattling around. I was able to put it back on and limp the car home. What would have happened if I had this happen during the high speed run at the top of 184 mph? Not only is this shoddy craftsmanship but poor engineering design. Having no key on the crank only enables this to happen. They could have made the threads on the crank bolt as well as the clockwise turning crank be counter clockwise where it would keep it tightened if the balancer tried to move. I have tried to fix the problem and thought I had done so only to find the same thing happened the other day. I asked two dealerships about this problem, Purifoy and Tyrell Doyle and both claimed no knowledge. I find this hard to believe with all the postings of this very problem. My C6 does fall into the early C6 serial numbers that are mentioned in the TSB. I don't care what excuse Chevy may make, there is no excuse for such dangerous and poorly designed part of their flagship performance car. I plan on going to one of the dealerships here in the Illinois side of the St Louis area and see about having them repair it...at Chevy's expense.

king off the hill

mine two early 2005 centre bolt loose . Got lucky no charge and no waranty.

king off the hill

Ok this is my third harmonic balancer 30.000 mi not stock no way.it was whobbling like a whell ready to fall off.now oh man what a diff.no vibration at hi speed smooth like a new car it is 2005 low vin. No

out4uv8

Alright, read through all of this but not sure. My car is an 06 and falls out of the VIN range, but I have the chirping going on and from the passenger side looking at the crankshaft pulley it has considerable movement. So I think I'll go get it checked out and see anyways.

king off the hill

If so get a power bond balancer you will notice a big diff. no vibration runs true. this is my third one.thanks no collateral damage i am so lucky caught it early.

gwyliecoyote

Yes, get the ARP bolt - it's ready and better than the OEM bolt.

JDMvette7

What is everyone’s thought on this. I bought my '05 at the end of last year. When I did, I had a 3 month warranty on it from the used car dealer.

Took the car to the local dealer to have it checked over and paid $100 to have corvette tech make sure the car was solid. They didn't find anything. I put the car away for the winter shortly thereafter and about 1000 miles or so later, the car had a squeaky belt that has since gone away, but the balancer looks wobbly. Shouldn't the tech's have looked at this when I brought it in the first time since it was a TSB and I was paying them to look things over. Now the car is out of warranty and I don't feel like I should have to pay for this since they should have caught it. Thoughts?

Billyac

I am having the exact same problem I changed alternators boats and tensioners and still no luck Today I finally put my hand on the bolt on the balancer And twisted And it opened like a bottle of soda I'm not sure I am thinking that maybe it could just be the bolt And maybe replacing it could be Easier way I am going to try this on Monday. But if anyone thinks that it won't work Please save me the time and tell me

Billyac

What is TSB??

rich5962

You will not be able to replace the bolt unless you remove the steering rack, and right cat, and starter, acquire the tool to lock the flywheel ring gear, etc, etc as outlined in the TSB. If you follow the TSB procedure, it's 6-8 hours. If you feel you can do this job and have the tools necessary to properly install and "torque" the NEW Stretch Bolt, I hope it works for you. I restore older C1, C2, C3 Corvettes, and do all of my own repairs on my C6 and friend's C5's. But I personally am not equipped nor feel the desire to do the HB task. I send them to outside shops.

edit...What year? If '05 see the note below at the end about the recall.

Technical Service Bulletin

Hmmm, that's a tough one........
If they were knowledgeable of the "wobbly" HB problem, which BTW has been on every LS Corvette engine since 1997 when the C5's arrived, then yes they should have noticed it.......If of course, the problem was observable then. Who knows, maybe it aged a bit more over the winter and now went bad. IMHO....You really can't prove it, so it'd be a tough one to call them on it. You could try, but I doubt they'll agree to a $1k+ mistake.

Either way, it needs to be corrected or it could get worse.

But....I just thought of something. What's your vin#. There was a GM Recall on early LS2's because the bolt was improperly torqued. If you check in the FAQ section there's a thread about this with the VIn # range. If the bolt is loose, and your car is in the range, you may get it under the Recall notice.

Rich

Billyac

I wasn't even considering changing the center bolt myself It's just when I tried twisting it and it came loose I was so surprised that it came loose So I'm thinking maybe the balancer is fine and it is just the bolt???

rich5962

Billy, The bolt is no longer usable. Once it's installed, then loosened it cannot be re-used. It's a a special fastener, a Stretch bolt. Instead of typically just torquing a bolt to a specific lbs/ft torque, it's that and more. It has to be installed, tightened in stages, marked location, then tightened more in stages to a specific distance. It's outlined in the TSB earlier in the thread. You need a new bolt. You will not be able to get a socket wrench in there to tighten it anyways, as the steering rack is in the way. You just can't "tighten" it up. If you try, and it loosens under speed, you could destroy your engine, car, self, etc.

What is your year and vin #. Did you check the FAQ section for the vin# range with the Recall for the loose bolt issue?
I'm in the middle of a tedious task on a '61 restoration and can't check right now. If you can search there see if your car is in the range, if it's a '05.

Rich

Billyac

Yes I understand that the bolt cannot be reused I am going to try and buy a bolt from the dealership... And take it to my mechanic And have him swap it out Do you think that would be the right thing to do Or since I'm all up in there should I just change the balancer as well as the bolt....?....

Billyac

And yes it is 05 and I believe the vin# numbers were 50113
Does anyone one know the cut off of the Vin number

SUB VETTE

If you are going to replace the bolt then replace the balancer. The steering rack has to be out of the way to do the bolt, so the labor involved is pretty much the same to just pull off the balancer too. And spend the money for an ATI balancer so you don't have to do this job again. The stock balancer is a poor design.

Billyac

Hey guys thanks for all the advice where do I get ATI BALANCER???