Z06 Lawsuit – GM In Hot Seat Over Corvette Cooling

C7 Z06

We see a bad moon a risin’…

Our beloved Corvette, specifically the Z06, is advertised as being “track ready” and, when it debuted, it was dubbed the “most capable track-Corvette” ever built. Often, buyers dish out upwards of six figures to simply get their hands on one.

Widely covered on the interwebs, there have been stories of Z06s running hot, with owners exiting the action at their local track day in ‘limp mode.”

Some attorneys were brought into the picture and they found a pattern. Again, this isn’t recent news. GM knows this is going on and in 2016, reported they would be fixing cooling issues for the 2017 model year Z.

They replaced the hood with one sporting more vents and swapped out the supercharger cover but importantly, didn’t help those with previous model years. The company covered it by warning that automatic transmissions have a greater chance of overheating.

Motor Trend completely eliminated the car from their 2015  “Best Driver’s Car” testing after going into limp mode on the track. GM covered claimed  it was due to a “servicing oversight.”

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Now, a group of buyers with aforementioned lawyers have filed a lawsuit against General Motors regarding the ongoing issue, claiming a cooling system defect can put the 2015-2017 Z06 on the sidelines.

The case was filed in Florida–natch–by Hagens Berman, who says the Z06 can also go into limp mode on public roads as well– not to mention the excessive heat’s effect on vital engine components.

It’s stated directly in the document that GM was “knowingly selling allegedly defective” cars and, ultimately, marketing them as track-ready.”

Maybe so, but let’s look at the flip side.

Tadge Juechter, Corvette Chief Engineer has been reported saying that heat sink complaints come from less than five percent of all Z06 owners. What this might be, is a few owners ran their cars hard and they got hot. Racing conditions can add a tremendous amount of stress to the car. We also understand that if you bought a Z06 for track days, heat soak issues could be quite a disappointing issue.

Hagens Berman is a known pitbull law firm that has a history of automotive lawsuits under it’s belt and because of some tweaks GM made to the 2017 Z06, they probably smell blood in the water.

It is estimated that over 30,000 Z06s are affected by this issue. The lawsuit claims that GM should retrofit the cars with new components and fix any issues brought on as a result of overheating.

We say, c’mon guys! Can all parties agree to meet in the middle? We get both sides of the story,but this is a real bummer. This could be a PR nightmare for GM as well, so a speedy compromise is probably the best way out of this.

Then we can all get back to show-n-shines, cruisin’ around and haulin’ ass…

About the author

Jenna Schiebe

Jenna’s addiction to all things automotive began soon after she was introduced to the car scene at age 16. She has a special interest in imports but, at the end of the day, is a enthusiast that loves anything that goes fast.
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