LS6427

iTrader: (2)

My girlfriend has a 2011 GS. Two issues. One with handling....one with an annoying sound that shouldn't be there.

I drove it for the first time about 1 month ago. Now I drive it frequently.

When I do....its all over the road. It wanders left and right. It easily follows grooves in the road or dips, low spots and uneven parts of the road. Its actually a pain to drive because you have to be right on it and watch it. If you change lanes it wanders in the direction your going more than you want it to......you have to pull it back to stop it from over-reacting to the inputs.

My friends beat up 2002 Vette (just a regular Vette)......It's solid as a rock and handles MUCH better all around and its got the original 2002 stock parts. Same roads, same highways. His Vette...you can take your hands off the wheel and its solid. Her Vette, no way can you take your hands off.

Her GS Vette was a Dealer Demo and had 1,000 miles on it when she bought it.

4 new tires. Front end was aligned once.....it did all this stuff. Took it to an exotic car guy, had him check the alignment....its perfect. He took all 4 tires off and rebalanced them too.

SO....what can be wrong to make it do this? Bent front end parts is my guess, but which ones.

I want to take it to the dealership on Tuesday to tell them to fix it....but what do I say might be the problem?

Also........when the brakes are applied there's a loud squeaking/crunching/squeezing sound own by the brake pedal. Its annoying and its on every application of the brakes.

Thanks for any help......

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juicdta

iTrader: (4)

get it road forced balanced, if something is wrong with tires a simply traditional balancing may not pick it up. assuming nothing is damaged on the suspension.

BadgeZ28

iTrader: (28)

It is still on warranty. Take it to a Chevy dealer and tell them what it is doing wrong. Let them figure it out.

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

True. Yes, full warranty. 6050 miles on the car. But she's a chick and I don;'t want them to send her on her way. If I can tell them a bent "this" or "that" causes this issue....maybe they'll actually fix it.

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LS6427

iTrader: (2)

What exactly is that? How is it done?

Will any alignment place know what that is and they can all do it?

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BadgeZ28

iTrader: (28)

I suggest you post the same thing at the Corvette Forum. I have read about
a special alignment specification there. You will get lots of info. and suggestons

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zeromain

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Cool, thanks.

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02SCVette

iTrader: (3)

Since it's already been aligned, new tires and balanced, it would be good to know what the specs were that they set it to. GM has a VERY generous tolerance for the alignment settings. It sounds like there could be some toe out in the front end alignment. That'll cause it to dart around with cracks in the road. For street driving it should be set to 0 or just a slight toe in and it'll make a big difference. You may also want them to set it up towards the negative side of the spec for camber. That'll help with the handling a lot.

Have them check the front sway bar, bushings and end links. Maybe it took a big hit somehow and it's bent or a bushing or 2 is bad. Dealer demo cars can see a lot of abuse so who knows the history. Request a new replacement if there is any sign of damage.

Good luck!

02SCVette

iTrader: (3)

As for the strange noises with the brakes, you may just need to bleed the brakes. That first 1000 miles may have been on the track at times and the fluid could have boiled and now air is in the lines.

Kurt D

iTrader: (2)

It's partly your tires and there's NOTHING wrong with them. Wider low pro tires tend to do this, your buddy's vette probably has narrower tires, or less aggressive compound and they don't follow "ruts" as badly. I have this same issue all the time in my SS vs. my Z71.

Second: a more aggressive suspension will do that too. When I change my suspension out on my SS (lowered, bilsteins and upgraded hardware) the "rut following" got a little more noticeable. Bets are your buddies "beatup" C5 is just that, worn out and it probably had a softer suspension setup to begin with anyway.

The a C6 GS was probably the wrong choice and she should have gotten a standard non-z51 C6. A test drive between the two would have revieled this. Basically as far as road manners are concerned there's nothing that can be done beside changing out rims and tires for thinner non-performance ones.

Brakes, let the dealer fix the noise.

ThumperNC24

iTrader: (1)

^ you are making it sound bad, but I wonder if it isn't just tramlining from high performance wide tires. This is a known 'downside' of them. How is it on a smooth highway?

I would take it to the dealer, perhaps see if you could drive another GS and see how it does compared to the one you drive.

V-seriesTech

iTrader: (5)

Big wheels-track the grooves in the road.


How is the tire wear? Inside worn? Alignment specs, before and after should always be requested. Always. Otherwise, unless the job was done under warranty(which requires specs to be turned in for warranty administration)..cause if no specs, it's all hear-say(aka BS). So,..if I were you, try it on a known good road, a flat road. I drive by an airport with a wind sock, so when I am testing vehicles that "pull"-"track"-"drift" to a direction,..I know weather or not the wind is going to affect THAT test. It does matter.

So, if I were you,...go into the dealership, with your girl. It's important. She SHOULDN'T need you there if it's a professional place and they respect her but,..if they are a bunch of douchebags,.....just go with her. Explain the situation to the advisor, clearly,...make sure he/she understands the concern, and let them do there job. Enjoy the warranty, while you still have it.


As far as a sound, maybe I missed it, what kind of sound? Specifics are key when describing it the the advisor,...so he/she can properly relay that to the technician that is about to go and figure out the cars concern(s). Explicit detail, is important, even if you look like a dork tryning to explain a noise to a dude that sounds like an owl. Better off spending the time to get the details, then having to do it again later,...or worse off,..the tech, looking for the wrong concern that maybe might be the wrong complaint.

Anyways,..take it to the dealership, if you feel you have a real concern. If you can duplicate the problem,...you can even take the advisor on a test drive,...and if the dealership can duplicate the problem, they'll fix the car.

Happy hunting.

raptorblackBird

I'm figuring somebody test drove the demo, curbed it good enough to push one whole wheel and assembly back 1/2" and not the other. I remember one time I was out test-driving a nice Grand Sport and hit a....uh nevermind



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MasterTomos

iTrader: (15)

I bet it's just the wide-*** tires. When I switched over to 275's and 315's on my formula, it was a much more noticable pull around on the road because it grips and followings everything. The tires on that vette are even wider, and the car is lighter too.