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2002-04 Z06 issues

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Old Oct 12, 2010 | 08:14 AM
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Default 2002-04 Z06 issues

I'm seriously considering getting a 2002-2004 Z06 and just wanted to know about things to look for when shopping around for one. thanks
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Old Oct 12, 2010 | 02:29 PM
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I would call this advice, not issues.

There are a lot of threads about this. There was one last week too:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/corvette-...orvette-s.html

Just a little search will go a long way.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 07:08 PM
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I cant remember and didnt see if we covered this in SCM Crash's post. Besides things mentioned in that thread, somthing else to watch out for with 02-04 models, are the valve springs. There seems to be an increase in valve spring failures in these years. Some guys never have problems and some get them with very low mileage. Its just somthing to consider. BTW alot of these cars are stock that break.
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 09:55 PM
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Originally Posted by SStheBest
I cant remember and didnt see if we covered this in SCM Crash's post. Besides things mentioned in that thread, somthing else to watch out for with 02-04 models, are the valve springs. There seems to be an increase in valve spring failures in these years. Some guys never have problems and some get them with very low mileage. Its just somthing to consider. BTW alot of these cars are stock that break.
It's not 04 models at all.

The problem was reported as a bad batch of wire in the late 02 builds and early 03 builds. On the Corvette forums, it's been found that around 30K miles they've been known to go bad if they indeed got the springs from that bad batch. However, it's not that high of an occurrence as many make it out to be. Ironically, one of my friends did an LS swap on his Blazer and used 02 Z springs because he thought that'd be the safe choice. I told him about that problem and a month later he had a spring failure.

But the occurrence of spring failures wasn't high at all... maybe 5% of the cars got a spring from the bad batch of wire. If you're really worried about it, buy a $60 set of new yellow springs. If you have someone do it, it'll cost about $120+parts. Some people put in 918s (which coincidentally at the time was having the same problem. LOL)

My 02 Z didn't have this issue. It was an early 02 Z made 10/01. My 03 Z also won't have that problem as it's a later model 03.
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