mikeyc6

I posted this in the Tech forum but thought many might miss it over there...

I've been hesitant to call this a recall because no cars have actually been recalled yet, but it looks like they are getting closer to sending out the recall notices. Fortunately, as I thought might be the case, it appears that the recall will only affect a relatively small percentage of C6's currently on the road: something like 10% limited it appears to early VIN's. Here's my source:

If you look at the latest documentation, you'll see some interesting facts. The parts I find interesting are these points:

On August 12, 2004 a Product Investigations Investigator was assigned to investigate reports of brake line leaks in 2004 Cadillac XLR model vehicles. Inspection of a random sample of Cadillac XLR and Corvette vehicles revealed that the brake line clip near the left exhaust manifold was out of position or unseated on 50% of the inspected vehicles. Based on the results of a GM Service Operations inspection of 109 XLR vehicles, 93% of XLR vehicles are projected to have at least one rear brake line either contacting the rear exhaust or with less than the design specification of 40mm clearance to the rear exhaust. In a random sample of 2004 Cadillac XLR and 2005 Chevrolet Corvette vehicles, most of the vehicles inspected had wear or witness marks on the right rear brake line indicating contact with the differential housing.

GM is aware of six Cadillac XLR vehicles that had brake line contact and wear-through at the left rear exhaust pipe. There was one report of a 2005 Corvette in the GM Captured Test Fleet with brake line contact and wear-through at the left engine exhaust manifold.

<skip paragraph about plant inspection>

Dealers are to: (1) Left Engine Exhaust Manifold - Inspect the clip for proper alignment and placement on the body-mounted stud. If incorrect, reposition the clip on the brake lines and reinstall the clip on the stud (2) Left Exhaust Pipe - Verify that both rear brake lines have 40mm of clearance to the exhaust pipe. Reposition lines by bending as necessary; (3) Rear Differential Housing - Remove the machining tab from the rear differential housing. Also, dealers are to inspect brake lines for wear in these related areas and repair or replace if there is any sign of wear-through on the nylon overcoating.

There is then a table that is very difficult to read (the total number of Vettes involved is the worst to read) but here are my guesses at what the numbers say:

3861 2004 Cadillac XLR's manufactured from 01/2003 through 06/2004 are affected.

499 2005 Cadillac XLR's manufactured from 04/2004 through 08/2004 are affected.

865 2005 Corvettes manufactured from 04/2004 through 08/2004 are affected.

Again, I extrapolated the 865 from the other numbers as the number involved in the Corvette row is smudged but we know the total is 5,225. I'm also not sure if the "to" date on the Vette is 08/2004 or 06/2004 but since my VIN is 339 and mine was manufactured in 06/2004, I believe they could have made 865 by August... not June.

Mike

TRAIL BOSS

Thanks Mike for the update. My C6 was built on 9/1/04, so hopefully dodged the bullet. When we watch our car being built, it seemed that the cars were getting alot of visual inspection by a wandering group of inspectors .

mikeyc6

According to another document, I believe the actual cutoff date was 8/20/2004, so you should be OK. The great news here is that the fix looks like a 30 minute minor job that no longer involves major work like new exhaust manifolds, exhaust pipes, etc. It looks like a couple of quick inspections and manual adjustments of the lines followed by hack-sawing off a machining tab on the rear diff. This is all stuff that most of us can do ourselves if we choose, although I haven't looked to see how hard it is to get to that machining tab and whether there's enough room to get a hacksaw in there. The worst case would be the ones (probably only a few) that need a new brake line due to rubbing on the diff. Still a far cry from the major work we heard about in a prior post!

Mike

S22C6

Excellent post

Thanks

wachuko

Does it makes sense to cover the lines near this area with heat resistant material (similar to what it is used to cover the turbos or headers) as a preventive measure?

<just making a list of things to do once I buy mine...>

Another Yellow

Let's hope Mr. Goodwrench doesn't hack-saw the brake line.

Thanks for the great info, Mike. Looks like I'm OK with my Sept.16 build date.

Frank

Hoyt Clagwell

No chance of that - they'll use a sawzall

mikeyc6

Just performed my own brake line "recall" here this afternoon. Took about 40 minutes total to inspect and repair. Note that the only place I didn't follow the recall procedure was the cutting of the machining tab on the diff housing; I didn't see it necessary and chose my own solution. In a nutshell, I found five "points of interest" to check. Interestingly, I had a failing mark on 3 of the 5! I'm not advocating doing your own "recall work" so take this post for what it's worth and take the info/procedures at your own risk. For me personally, it beats waiting for Mr. Goodwrench to get his greasy hands under there. My car is VIN 339 so I didn't want to wait as it is an early production model that should be affected according to the recall documentation. I'm not sure if the info here applies to all VIN's or not since mine is an early one. Again, read/use at your own risk.

Here are the general areas I found that are worth looking at:

(1) FAIL. Two brake lines with foil tape running from the brake fluid reservoir toward the front of the car. Mine failed here as the bottom line was less than 40 mm from the exhaust manifold. Some easy bending put the bottom line flush with the side wall and well over 40mm. Fixed. Note that I didn't find any clip in this vacinity to hold back the lines, but the bending worked fine.

(2) FAIL. There is a single foil taped line running under the steering post that goes right by the <> shaped exhaust flange at the bottom of the manifold. That line was almost touching the flange on mine! Some slight downforce on the brake line with a piece of wooden trim at the exhaust flange moved it down and away, giving more than enough clearance for the 40mm requirement. Fixed.

(3) PASS. There are lines running moderately close to the exhaust pipe going from the manifold down under the car. Look down there where the pipe disappears under the body of the car and you'll see the exhaust pipe and lines. My brake lines had more than 40mm of clearance there.

(4) PASS. There is a point where both rear brake lines run along the bottom of the car and at one point just forward of the diff, they can get close to the exhaust pipe. Here, I had one of the two lines that was just barely over 40mm, so I gave it an easy bend and wound up with more than 2 inches clearance (over 50mm).

(5) FAIL. Sure enough, if you look at the diff cover on the passenger side, the left rear brake line goes up over the cover there and on mine was touching the diff cover (the machining tab). There is a thick rubber "wear guard" type wrap at that point on the brake line that makes it look like it was designed to withstand rubbing at that point and at least on my car, all I saw was a little discoloration: no wear through but you could tell it had been contacting the tab on the diff cover. I decided, however, to put an extra piece of rubber on the line and foil wrap it to give extra protection. I didn't see any need to cut off the machining tab (and I can't be 100% certain that this is the tab they were talking about in the recall docs anyway) but obviously you can't cut the tab completely off! You could cut off the outer edge or file it down but that just seems ludicrous to me and I don't think it is necessary given that the brake line is already protected there and cutting/filing the tab won't necessarily stop all rubbing anyway.

So there you have it. There are about 9,000 C6 Vettes out there now and 865 are affected by the recall as of the latest documentation at NHTSA. Even though this recall apparently only affects less than 10% of C6's on the road now, mine happens to be one of them just because it is an early VIN. I'm posting this info here because I suspect that 90% of us won't ever get a recall notice but some of us would like to know what to look for just for peace of mind. Hopfully this post will help. Basically, based on the latest recall docs, you just have to make sure you have at least 40mm clearance between the lines and hot exhaust parts and also check for rubbing of the lines anywhere near the rear diff. Here are some photos. The numbers in the photos align with the points of interest mentioned above.



Happy trails.

Mike

Another Yellow

Mike, those instructions are better than anything GM could come up with. Perfectly clear to me. If my car was on the recall list I would bring them to the dealer.

Thanks for taking the time to make the post.

JoesC5

Mike, even though you have performed the "recall" work,if you recieve a "recall" notice from either GM or your dealer, you should take it in for them to do the recall. If they inspect your car and OK it, then a recall completed sticker will be put on your car and GM's and the NHSTB records will also show the recall has been done. This is for your own protection, in case something does happen on down the road. Also, when you go to sell the car, all recalls should be completed on the car. Could be the difference between a sale or not.

shopman1

Mike,
Thanks for your work, very well documented and pictures as well. There is nothing like picture!

BlaznZ06

How can I find out the manufactering date of my car so I'll know if I should expect a recall or not to woory at all.

Foosh

Mike,

Nice job, I inspected mine too, and it appears OK. Looks like I missed the cutoff by 11 days (8/31/04).

mikeyc6

Good advice and that's what I plan to do. This was just to get something done sooner rather than later so I know I don't have to worry about it. Once the recall comes out, I plan to take the car along with the recall procedures to my local podunk Chevy dealer and show them what I did. I don't have a lot of confidence that my local dealer knows its way around Vettes so I figure if I show them, they'll probably inspect it and pass it if I go out and show them while it's on the lift. At least that way they won't have to mess with it. I took my 99 in to them once and they acted like they were "scared" to work on it.

Mike

LS WON

Wasn't there also a recall on XLR"S and 04 Corvettes on something to do with the steering falling out?

mikeyc6

Not that I know of. I checked yesterday and my steering is still there.

Mike

JoesC5

There was a recall on '04 XLR's and '04 C5's with defective washers installed on the suspension. That recall does not pertain to '05 C6's.

VITIS

Mike

Super info! Thanks. I'm VIN 489, so I'm heading out to get car up on lift to take a look and fix what needs to be fixed. Seems like in our part of the world the actual dealer recall notices follow the CF by about 6 months.

IllinoisCorvette

It is a RECALL and always has been. NHTSA has had it on there web site for over a month now.

mikeyc6

And your point is what? That it's a month old recall that still has not been issued?



Mike