[RobZL1]

It sucks for all of you that have had issues with the oil pump, no doubt. But sh!t happens. Manufacturers (of anything) never have perfect quality. They can't just go replace all the oil pumps or it would break them. Again, it's a damn shame it happens. But if it happens to me, I'm not worried about it. I'll fix it and move on. If it bothers you all that much, sell the car and get something else.

[gblaue]

My car car is going to Janetty Racing, the week of April 10th, to have a Katech pump preemptively installed before bad things happen.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by gblaue

My car car is going to Janetty Racing, the week of April 10th, to have a Katech pump preemptively installed before bad things happen.

Out of curiosity, what else are you getting for your ZL1? The +125 rwhp package, or...?

[gblaue]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Out of curiosity, what else are you getting for your ZL1? The +125 rwhp package, or...?

Nothing. Leaving it stock. We suspect the car may be a unicorn, hence the preemptive strike on the oil pump. Taking out the risk of needing a short block.

[george]

Originally Posted by gblaue

Nothing. Leaving it stock. We suspect the car may be a unicorn, hence the preemptive strike on the oil pump. Taking out the risk of needing a short block.

Why do you think it's a unicorn?

[gblaue]

Originally Posted by george

Why do you think it's a unicorn?

I had a special push for an allocation and build through my contacts at work. It was the only car allocated and built for the northeast in the first run cars. The northeast got screwed till spring. The car was built 11/16/16. I was there in the factory when the car was built. I have the photos to document it, but apparently they are not allowed to be posted here. The car had a vibration when deceleration in 6th gear. There is a service bulletin where GM was replacing the transmissions. We were contacted by GM to tell us that they wanted to kit the parts and have the dealer fix the transmission, because they believed the car was one of one when they were trying to figure out what vin #s were exposed to this issue. They were trying to keep my car numbers matching. They eventually had my dealer overnight my transmission back to Tremec. Tremec completed the updates, and sent it back. This was in April of 2017.

We believe what makes it a unicorn is that it’s a Bright Yellow with the black stripe, 6 speed, hardtop, and no sunroof. The black stripe is not the popular option, because it forces the painted hood scoop. Almost everybody took the exposed carbon fiber weave.

I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer from the GM Heritage Center, but if it’s not 1 of 1, it 1 of only a few. It’s possible that more were built in the same configuration, but who knows. There was only 2 months more of production in 2017, and they were mostly A10s and convertibles. GM didn’t build any A10s or Convertibles until the late winter/early spring of 2017.

[george]

Originally Posted by gblaue

I had a special push for an allocation and build through my contacts at work. It was the only car allocated and built for the northeast in the first run cars. The northeast got screwed till spring. The car was built 11/16/16. I was there in the factory when the car was built. I have the photos to document it, but apparently they are not allowed to be posted here. The car had a vibration when deceleration in 6th gear. There is a service bulletin where GM was replacing the transmissions. We were contacted by GM to tell us that they wanted to kit the parts and have the dealer fix the transmission, because they believed the car was one of one when they were trying to figure out what vin #s were exposed to this issue. They were trying to keep my car numbers matching. They eventually had my dealer overnight my transmission back to Tremec. Tremec completed the updates, and sent it back. This was in April of 2017.

We believe what makes it a unicorn is that it’s a Bright Yellow with the black stripe, 6 speed, hardtop, and no sunroof. The black stripe is not the popular option, because it forces the painted hood scoop. Almost everybody took the exposed carbon fiber weave.

I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer from the GM Heritage Center, but if it’s not 1 of 1, it 1 of only a few. It’s possible that more were built in the same configuration, but who knows. There was only 2 months more of production in 2017, and they were mostly A10s and convertibles. GM didn’t build any A10s or Convertibles until the late winter/early spring of 2017.

Yeah, that’s a keeper. Especially now with the end of run. Additionally, yours is a Fifty anniversary.

[SammYyYyY]

Mine just failed. Details:

2018 ZL1 1LE
Approx. 7900 Miles
01/18 Build Date
Replaced under warranty 2 days before expiration by my Chevy dealer (amazing service on their part)

[adamgrimm]

Mine just failed. Details:

2018 ZL1 1LE
Approx. 7900 Miles
01/18 Build Date
Replaced under warranty 2 days before expiration by my Chevy dealer (amazing service on their part)


Sammy, did you run into any back orders or delays when getting the pump replaced?

[SammYyYyY]

Originally Posted by adamgrimm

Mine just failed. Details:

2018 ZL1 1LE
Approx. 7900 Miles
01/18 Build Date
Replaced under warranty 2 days before expiration by my Chevy dealer (amazing service on their part)


Sammy, did you run into any back orders or delays when getting the pump replaced?

Nope, just happened. I dropped the car off on Monday at my dealer expecting to be waiting a while (they were booked out appointment wise until early next week), I picked up my car Friday evening ready to go for cars and coffee the next morning. Excellent dealership service for me.

[george]

Originally Posted by SammYyYyY

Nope, just happened. I dropped the car off on Monday at my dealer expecting to be waiting a while (they were booked out appointment wise until early next week), I picked up my car Friday evening ready to go for cars and coffee the next morning. Excellent dealership service for me.

Did the dealer say if the oil pump was damaged?

[Tyrolblue67]

Just my observation from reading thru the poll numbers and posts.
Obviously, it seems that the problem occurs "mainly" within a certain build date within the 2017 and 2018 model years.
2019 model year and up have very few occurrences. In fact I couldn't actually find the posts describing the failure circumstances on the 2019 and up failures.
That being said, I'm currently on the fence whether or not I should replace my pump with the much more robust Katech version. This particular small sample size poll seems to indicate that whatever improvements GM made to the original design seems to have addressed the issue "somewhat".
We still don't really know what the root cause of the problem is.
I am sure the Katech oil pump is a much stronger assembly.
The question is.....
Do I want to spend upwards of $5,000 to have a Katech unit installed in my 2019 ZL1 with the limited amount of information that I'm seeing.
I have one more year remaining on my GM warranty so I have time to try to gather more information and think about it.
Hopefully the reason(s) why these pumps failed will become known to everyone....Although, I doubt it.
If I had a 2017 or 2018, I would not hesitate to replace the pump with a Katech unit and continue driving and enjoying my ZL1.
Tyrolblue67

[gblaue]

One thing that I think gets lost in the weeds is that in 2019, GM changed the oil requirement from 5w30 to 0w40. How does that affect this issue? I change my 2017 over to 0w40. I haven’t had any issue, yet. I am having my pump changed out next week, but maybe GM may have made this change because of this.

[Tyrolblue67]

Originally Posted by gblaue

One thing that I think gets lost in the weeds is that in 2019, GM changed the oil requirement from 5w30 to 0w40. How does that affect this issue? I change my 2017 over to 0w40. I haven’t had any issue, yet. I am having my pump changed out next week, but maybe GM may have made this change because of this.

That's a very interesting point that you bring up.
Tyrolblue67