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Overheating on a Mountain Road - 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited September 2014 in Chevrolet
imageOverheating on a Mountain Road - 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds experienced some overheating issues with its long-term 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray during a recent mountain road workout on a hot California day.

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Comments

  • jeepsrtjeepsrt Member Posts: 88

    While I don't think it should overheat I wouldn't run the A/C while driving fast up a mountain road trying to have fun.

  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788

    @jeepsrt said:
    While I don't think it should overheat I wouldn't run the A/C while driving fast up a mountain road trying to have fun.

    93° - 100° outside, and not run the AC? Surely you're kidding?

  • jeepsrtjeepsrt Member Posts: 88
    edited September 2014

    @rsholland said:
    93° - 100° outside, and not run the AC? Surely you're kidding?

    Not at all, whenever I go out for a fun drive I never use the A/C in our M3 or Corvette. It rob's the power and takes a lot of the fun out of it, especially at altitude.

  • jusnick987jusnick987 Member Posts: 2

    That should have happened at all on a almost one year old car.

  • yellowbalyellowbal Member Posts: 234

    Water pump or thermostat issue?

  • f15driverf15driver Member Posts: 2

    hopefully something is wrong because i live in phoenix and was planning on buying a stingray, but if I have to park it during our six month long summer its not worth it.

  • brenrobrenro Member Posts: 38

    Remove the front license plate to drive it hard. Install rotor cooling rings for track days and then remove them to prevent corrosion but suffer brake fade anyway. Now this. Combined with the on again, off again nav display and peeling hood emblem I hope this was an early production car.

  • nuievenuieve Member Posts: 43

    No modern car should overheat anywhere on Earth regardless of how it is driven. That's what testing is for. It's either something is broken or damn poor engineering.

  • s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486

    not acceptable.

  • cjasiscjasis Member Posts: 274

    I feel weird in typing this but... I hope it's becasue there's a problem with the car. I'm not a Corvette guy but the C7 appears to be one hell of a sports car for the dollar and I'd be very disappointed if this were "normal" for the car. True, world class sports cars should be hot and cold weather tested adequately to ensure that they hold up. And a sports car, like this, should be expected to handle these conditions with no sweat (no pun intended).

  • willy69willy69 Member Posts: 4

    Thanks for pushing the car to it's limit. It will be interesting to see what the explanation turns out to be.

  • quickster7quickster7 Member Posts: 4

    Another quality issues with a GM product. If you were driving a Nissan GTR would it overheat like the Corvette (cheap 7)

  • benson2175benson2175 Member Posts: 68

    I can't remember but did the 308 overheat ever? Because if a 70's Ferrari didn't overheat and this did, something is very wrong with the world.

  • duck87duck87 Member Posts: 649

    This isn't normal because this should be something that is caught in the battery of tests. 2nd gear WOT runs at low speeds does mean less air to the rad, but the fact that this is happening when you're hitting sweepers is rather odd. You guys checked coolant level, yes, but I have to wonder if there are still trapped air pockets in the engine that are difficult to get out (i.e. cylinder head or heater core circuit). What about rad fans, rad cap, thermostat, water pump?

  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 17,312

    I would hope it is a component failure; no car should overheat under those conditions- never mind a high performance sports car.

    Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive

  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,685
    edited September 2014

    This can't be right. In an age of Death Valley car testing, no modern car should overheat under these conditions. I'd be talking to the Corvette engineers about this (well, I wouldn't, but Edmunds must have some contacts in the right places).

  • bankerdannybankerdanny Member Posts: 1,021

    @jeepsrt said:
    Not at all, whenever I go out for a fun drive I never use the A/C in our M3 or Corvette. It rob's the power and takes a lot of the fun out of it, especially at altitude.

    Bah, with an engine this powerful the loss of HP from AC is nominal.

    In a modern sports car there is simply no excuse for overheating like this. I expect that my new state of the art $60k sports car to charge canyons all day without overheating. Running past normal, fine, but pegging the temp gauge and setting off the dash warning? That is an inexcusable failure.

  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 17,312

    @bankerdanny said:
    In a modern sports car there is simply no excuse for overheating like this. I expect that my new state of the art $60k sports car to charge canyons all day without overheating. Running past normal, fine, but pegging the temp gauge and setting off the dash warning? That is an inexcusable failure.

    I don't recall overheating being a chronic issue on the Corvette since the C5 at least. I have never had one of my BMWs or my Mazdaspeed 3 overheat on the track- never mind on the road. One reason I recently passed on a nice CPO 370Z Sport was the fact that I would have to add an oil cooler in order to track it- otherwise it goes into "limp mode".

    Some "Sport"

    Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive

  • evodadevodad Member Posts: 135
    edited September 2014

    @quickster7 said:
    Another quality issues with a GM product. If you were driving a Nissan GTR would it overheat like the Corvette (cheap 7)

    Let's see 1st year C7 - overheats and requires a little cool down time before driving hard again vs.
    1st year GTR - Grenades it's transmission when using the launch control feature built into the car, a problem so extensive it eventually led to a class action lawsuit.

    http://jalopnik.com/5565919/this-is-nissans-gt-r-launch-control-warranty-settlement/

  • evodadevodad Member Posts: 135
    edited September 2014

    ^with that said, I still wouldn't be happy if my 1 year old $60K sports car had overheating issues when driven hard

  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,685

    I think there's something wrong with this example. Bad thermostat, air in the system, electric fans not turning on correctly, something. I had overheating in my '83 GTI, turned out to be excess flashing on a casting obstructing coolant flow. Remove the flashing, problem solved. While it should have been caught during manufacturing, it wasn't an inherent GTI defect.

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481

    Based only on C6 experience, I still don't have confidence in stock Vette engines to take a lot of stress (that is, beyond how most normal people drive).

  • tatermctatumstatermctatums Member Posts: 107

    When I would take my C5 Z06 for spirited trips up and down a local twisty mountain road(2nd & 3rd gear high revs), I never had any issues with the coolant temp pegging the gauge on me. Ambient temps were in the 80s and I wasn't running A/C. On my fourth trip up and down the engine oil temp exceeded 240°F and I decided to back off a bit but never got any complaints from the car about it. Coolant temp never went north of 230°F (for reference the cooling fans wouldn't even kick on until 225°F, normal running temp was 190°F).

  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,685

    While it may be hard to duplicate the temperature, I'd ask Chevy for a twin 2014 Corvette and see if it overheated doing the same thing.

  • fordson1fordson1 Unconfirmed Posts: 1,512

    Everyone is saying it's inexcusable - they're right; it is. But what's really inexcusable is this happened to you people BEFORE and you did nothing about it. WTF?

    It was 93 degrees on the mountain? Big deal - this probably had almost nothing to do with how hot it was out. You have actual automotive engineers on your staff - please tell me one of them is able to figure out this is due to a malfunction.

    The fact that "the guys" there gave you flack about not whipping out your iPhone 5S and getting a shot of the IP warning (which can be confirmed simply by pulling the OBD codes), but nobody gave your fleet manager any flack about not flagging this obvious malfunction and having it analyzed when it first happened is not encouraging.

  • pureclassicpureclassic Member Posts: 12

    Unfortunately American cars are engineered for American driving habits - when I was a yound USAF troop in 1980s Europe, guys who brought Corvettes over to run the Autobahn, many found them spewing steam like a tea kettle, while VW Rabbits ran 90+mph all day.

  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,685

    1980s Corvettes have nothing to do with the C7. If this is a C7 design flaw, I'll be VERY surprised, and disappointed in Chevy.

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481

    Hmmm...i wonder if the Edmunds car has the optional transmission and differential cooling?

  • sharpendsharpend Member Posts: 177

    I wonder if they're going to say you need to take off the license plate on a Z06/Z07 too. If so, FAIL.

  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878

    The editors are car guys and girls but really don't know much about the oily bits. There has to be some type of malfunction causing it to overheat. He never said he got out and looked under the hood to see how much coolant was in the tank or see if the cooling fan was running at high speed. He didn't say that he checked to make sure road debris was blocking the grill.

  • roadburnerroadburner Member Posts: 17,312

    At least Edmunds is having better luck than Car and Driver; their long-term Z51 blew its engine.

    Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive

  • brd1brd1 Member Posts: 1
    Proud owner 2014 C7. I have the same problem, no hard driving, at 2600 miles overheated in traffic jam. Computer turned off ac, got moving quickly and it cooled down. Took to dealer, they found nothing. Last Friday same thing, in traffic. Now dealer says GM recommends replacing both cylinder heads. Problem is they are on back order and cannot give any eta. Spent $65,000 on my dream car and now what??
  • tienou1tienou1 Member Posts: 2
    Same problem with my c7 after 3 or 4 hard laps on track during a very hot day, A/C on. I think the front plate is a probem , hidding most of the radiator. On the internet you can see some plates placed upper allowing air to get below directly to the radiator. I ll try to do the same
  • tienou1tienou1 Member Posts: 2
    hi guys, i found a solution for the track : a removable front licence plate, i'm going to buy to be able to remove the plate on track and have a better cooling air coming to the radiator. If you're interested
    here the links :
    video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppKc71V253U
    to buy it http://www.zip-corvette.com/2014-c7/14-removable-front-license-plate-mount.html
  • chuckstingraychuckstingray Member Posts: 1
    I have a Torch Red with black convertible top and black leather interior and it has been nothing but a dream. I've had no issues anywhere. I have never had any overheating issues yet and knock on wood hopefully I never will. Maybe it was something they figured out and fixed or just a problem some of them have. It is the most comfortable driving one I have ever owned and I have owned alot of them. I would recommend this vehicle to anyone who loves Vettes. I fell in love with Vettes when I was young. In early 80's my father bought and redone a beautiful 64 Stingray with 327 and factory air. It was built in early July 64 and it is factory AC black with red interior and only has 67,000 original miles on it. My mother passed away in April of 2012 but we still own the car. When the Stingray was being built again I was fascinated. So I went to the local dealer and they had 5 of them but only 1 Convertible and I loved it's look with the top down. So I started doing my inspection and stuff and asked what it's build date was they looked it up and it was July 2014 and I was shocked it was almost 50 years to the date that my Mom's Stingray and this Stingray were built. I thought that was a sign so I bought it that day and have loved it ever since. I wish I could put a picture of them both side by side cause we park them like that at car shows.
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