2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: Coolant Leak Fixed

$600????? on a pushrod V8 that is supposedly cheaper and easier to repair than more complicated engines? OK so $500 without the oil change is still a lot.

Replacement water pumps run from about $82 (generic reman) all the way to $223 (AC Delco). This pump was used basically on all LS1s (Camaro, GTO, Corvette) and this LS6. My CTS-V incidently uses a different pump (and it's on the OEM at 102k), or at least the pulley is different.

The time to replace isn't bad at all, so if the labor charges are excessive, or if the price they were charged for the pump was excessive, that's not the fault of the car.

@bodyblue

Expensive yes but still probably cheaper than the dealership.

i dunno, given the time involved in diagnosing the problem, $600 doesn't seem terribly outrageous to me.

That's interesting. I haven't heard of water pumps being an issue on LS1/6s. My '00 LS1 camaro has ~78k miles on it and no water pump leaks (actually no issues at all since I bought it w/ 22k miles on it).

Have you guys (or previous owner) tapped into the cooling system for any other reason? Or is the coolant still original? I believe the coolant change interval is 5yr/150k miles. The water pump shaft seal generally spins on a film of coolant, so if air is introduced into the system and makes its way to the pump seal, this interface gets very hot and would lead to premature failure.

The water pump on the LS3 in my G8 GXP crapped out at just 19,000 miles. The shaft seal failed, causing it to look through the weep hole. I guess the water pump is one of those parts of the LS-series engines that isn't perfect.

To LEAK. Not look.

Diagnosis is probably the bulk of it. Sounds reasonable to me, actually.

I used to replace water pumps on my 1986 SAAB every 30-40k miles. It was very easy to do and was good preventive maintenance. A new German made pump was only $25-30. If I had a Corvette, I would probably do the same.

At first I thought the $600 was pretty hefty, but then I broke it down:

Standard shop rate for synthetic oil = $70
Water pump w/ shop mark-up = $250
Coolant and oil filter = $30

So ~$350 for parts, and another $250 for diagnosing a tough-to-find coolant leak (involving 1-2 phone calls to the customer to help track it down), installation of water pump, coolant flush, and oil change.

Under that light, not so bad.

++ Joefrompa

I'd also like to remind everyone this is SoCal, so it's not going to be the same pricing as say, here in the midwest.

Especially given the effort they took to replicate the problem, I think this is a valid (if not cheap) price for the fix

Sounds like a fair price for excellent work, IMO. If the job was sub-par or the customer service was lacking, then it'd be a different issue. Could they have beat Bothwell down on pricing? Sure, but where would they find good honest service when Bothwell goes belly up because their customers wanted a free lunch?

There is no free lunch, folks.

Would have been close to a grand at a Chevy dealership. Hourly labor rate of $110/hr!

Pretty much. FYI the service bill went like this:

Pump- $268
Coolant- $40
Oil & filter- $65
Labor- $187
Tax- $37

I remember when the best thing about owning a Chevy was parts were cheap and they were easy to work on.

I don't remember the exact price but I'm sure it cost much less then $50 and took less then an hour to change the water pump on the small block in my 81 Malibu in my driveway.

If that was my vette I' would have them flush all that dexcool out and put a different type in. Dexcool likes to turn into thick sludge >.>

One of my own biggest temptations to own a CTS-V (or, heaven let it be done, a chevy-branded 4-door with a corvette engine and a 6-speed manual in a lithe wheelbase), is because those engines are so damn easy to work on (so I've heard; no personal experience) and the cost of ownership so easy going for a pretty decent DIYer.

I swear to God, no joke, that I'm taking my 2006 Civic Si in to get my valves adjusted....not because I wouldn't take the time to learn, but because for $160 (includes valve cover gaskets and a few other things), Honda will do it for me. And ya know what, I'll spend $160 to NOT have to buy valve adjustment feelers, a valve cover gasket, and 4 hours of my life teaching myself how to do it for ONE car every 105k miles in an age where I'll probably never have to do it again (knock on wood).

I'm even doing everything else on the 105k list. I just don't want to do that :)

The car being an 02 with only 57,xxx miles on it could contribute too. Both cars I've owned were at or close to 100k before cooling components needed replacement. And likewise, I haven't heard of this issue from folks with hard driven small blocks...I guess Corvettes get less than average miles put on them annually, which could contribute to that problem.

Here I figured GM would have fixed that by now...the LT1 water pump had the same life expectancy...of course, what do they care? By 60K, it's well out of warranty...

"I'm taking my 2006 Civic Si in to get my valves adjusted....not because I wouldn't take the time to learn, but because for $160 (includes valve cover gaskets and a few other things), Honda will do it for me."

That's exactly the way I feel about changing the ATF and transfer case fluid on my wife's X3. My BMW dealer only charges $210 to do the job. On the other hand, the valve adjustment procedure on my 2002 is so easy that I'd be embarrassed to pay to have it done.

$600 aint so bad. If you owned a Audi or VW 1.8T equipped car, you would be changing your timing belt/water pump every 60k and paying over 1500 to do so. If the belt were to fail, you can bet the damage would be a lot worse than what happened here. I don't actually hear of too many waterpumps failing on LS motors but I haven't exactly been looking out for it either. All in all, if the shop was charging for diagnostics the actual labor cost isn't that high either. Bleeding coolant is kind of a PITA and takes a good hour or two.

wow that's quite expensive. Just about every GM vehicle I've ever owned has had the waterpump replaced between 50k-75k miles. Usually around $300-400. At the dealer.

Luckily this was only the waterpump... couldve been the classic gm intake manifold gasket (not as common on LS engines, but not unheard of) or the radiator leaking.

Glad to hear the car is back in service. I'm also glad that while it is costing a bit of money here and there, it isn't quite like the Ferrari from a while ago, not that I expected it to be either given the difference in age and machinery.

@ phewop118: You wrote: "Luckily this was only the waterpump... couldve been the classic gm intake manifold gasket (not as common on LS engines, but not unheard of) or the radiator leaking."

Just FYI.. LS engines do not have coolant passages in the intake manifold, so it's not possible for them to have a coolant leak there.

"the LT1 water pump had the same life expectancy...of course, what do they care? By 60K, it's well out of warranty..."

My LT1 Caddy Fleetwood developed a leaky WP at around 92k. I noticed only because one morning my power steering was intermittent. A quick look under the hood and it was obvious what was going on. The WP cost $150 at Napa. The irony is, GM went to a fancy shaft driven pump design on the 1992 Corvette LT1 (a design which all LT1s inherited). It has the thermostat housing built in, as well as both heater hose nipples. Quite the overall part. The made it shaft driven through the timing cover off the cam gear due to the extended RPMs of the 300hp LT1 for the 92 Vette, figuring the conventional side-loaded belt pulley would put too much stress on the bearing over time.

Well, that old school pump design is in my 93 Caprice with 350 and the original pump, on a car that was used as a North Carolina State Cruiser, lasted until 185k, and cost me $37 at Advance Auto. It is still in the car at 263k today. Interesting improvement, eh?

It sounds like the shop that Edmunds has found is a good one. If you pay a little more to not get jerked around or lied to or heaven forbid, have a lug nut fall off whats the downside to that?

I think that my money is better spent with professionals that will gain more of your business through quality work and customer service, not just making a fast buck

65 dollars for an oil change? I guess that seems ridiculous since the most I spend is 26 dollars for Mobil 1 and a NAPA gold filter.

Synthetic oil is realistically going to cost no less than $5/qt and could be as high as $8/qt even for normal brands like M1. Sure you might find a 5 quart container for a good price and you might even have a coupon but I don't see why you'd compare THAT price to a shop price. Besides, at $5 to $8/qt 6.5 quarts will cost $32.50 to $52 and another $13 for an M1 filter. Take the high end, $7.99/qt (at my local Autozone, for example, I checked) times 6.5 quarts and $13 for an M1 filter and we come to: $64.94. Actually, I am shocked at that price if they did use M1 (not my choice but whatever).

Ok but $268 for a waterpump for a small block Chevy???? Like Kevm14 said not much of an improvement. So GM messed up simple.....how GM of them.

The price isn't bad for a shop, although this is a very easy DIY project. The waterpump on these cars is extremely easy to change and get at. Almost couldn't be any easier. I know I certainly would have done it myself for about half the cost, and maybe an hour or two of my time. Water pumps at a parts store run about $150 for this engine.

FWIW, the waterpump on my '02 Z06 with 55k is still working fine, and my '99 Suburban with almost 200k on it is still on it's original waterpump (different design, I know, but goes to show the life span of a waterpump can vary considerably).

Browsing the Corvetteforum, I see waterpump failures like this (leaking) are not uncommon for the type, although it's not like a plague either. Many owners experienced zero waterpump issues with well over 100k on their Z06's.

BTW, the LS6 holds 8 quarts of oil, not 5 or 6.

A 6 pack of Mobil 1 is 33 bucks and change at Costco now. That stuff ain't cheap.