The American Dream - 1998 Corvette C5
Discussion
Long time lurker, first time account maker and poster on here. Always like these readers car threads and possibly what contributed to wanting a weekend car.
Always liked Corvettes and anything US based anyway - a recent work trip to the states and seeing C5's out and about got my interest re-fired. It was onto the search when I got back to the UK...
I'd decided I wanted a 'vert (it's a weekend car), I'm not too bothered by speed (got a bike for that) so decided to opt for the standard 5.7 rather than the pricier Z06. I had set a budget of about 12k although looking around it seemed decent ones were 15k+. What I had noticed that a lot of these were garage queens, low mileage, not a blemish on them etc which was starting to put me off. I don't have a garage, nor did I intend to buy a car and look at it on my drive, so i didn't want to buy a minter and be scared of using it. I would rather it have a few battle scars and personality.
Enter this 1998 i found on the bay of E. I saw it on a classified ad, fired the sender a message, i didn't get a reply and the classified ad remained and I thought that was it. Until I got an email later with the sellers contact number. A bit of messaging and questions and I was on my way to Newcastle Under Lyme to see it! (Which was a relief as I am in Manchester and up until this point I thought it was in the other Newcastle).
I was dubious as the price was lower than 15k i'd seen them at, it has a few niggles and things that need putting right which reflected the price, namely MOT was due in 2 weeks which made me suspicious (why sell just before an MOT, almost like you know its going to fail?) Anyway, as soon as a met the seller and we went for a drive I was sold. The seller was genuine, it has been his baby and I got a load of receipts of all sorts he has spent on it. He was selling to fund a new home purchase. He'd even prepared a sheet of 'do's and don'ts as its a fairly unusual car.
After the drive and learning all about the car and the seller, i was back to manchester with the mrs following in my now daily driver car. Drove home with the roof down obviously, got plenty of honks and nods of approval, coupled with the smiles per gallon i was getting (was choosing to ignore to MPG even though its not actually too bad but it is compared to my daily 320d). Never driven anything near the amount of power this thing has and certainly nothing with a V8.
Not for the purists, It's a respray, (was silver), has 2k worth of decent alloys on it and a cracking sounding exhaust, very very loud which I thought I would hate but I actually rather like it. It's done just shy of 77k miles (although MOT has been recorded in KMs and Miles!) Things that need putting right -
(MOT - next tuesday)
New rear tyres (wrong ratio causing traction control alert to ping and they're almost bald)
ABS sensor light is on
Drivers leather seat bolster torn
vert roof slightly torn
Passenger window doesn't work (really helpful in a left hand drive car)
Big scrape on the back end which happened the week before i came to see it, seller knocked off the price of repair)
Few others little scratches
seems to be a slight whistling on the drive home - research suggests this may be the air conditioning belt or something.
My plans for it are the fix the above over winter and get it prepped for sunnier, roof down times! It's not my only car so is insured quite cheaply on a classic policy considering my age and the fact I live in the car crime capital that is Manchester.
Always liked Corvettes and anything US based anyway - a recent work trip to the states and seeing C5's out and about got my interest re-fired. It was onto the search when I got back to the UK...
I'd decided I wanted a 'vert (it's a weekend car), I'm not too bothered by speed (got a bike for that) so decided to opt for the standard 5.7 rather than the pricier Z06. I had set a budget of about 12k although looking around it seemed decent ones were 15k+. What I had noticed that a lot of these were garage queens, low mileage, not a blemish on them etc which was starting to put me off. I don't have a garage, nor did I intend to buy a car and look at it on my drive, so i didn't want to buy a minter and be scared of using it. I would rather it have a few battle scars and personality.
Enter this 1998 i found on the bay of E. I saw it on a classified ad, fired the sender a message, i didn't get a reply and the classified ad remained and I thought that was it. Until I got an email later with the sellers contact number. A bit of messaging and questions and I was on my way to Newcastle Under Lyme to see it! (Which was a relief as I am in Manchester and up until this point I thought it was in the other Newcastle).
I was dubious as the price was lower than 15k i'd seen them at, it has a few niggles and things that need putting right which reflected the price, namely MOT was due in 2 weeks which made me suspicious (why sell just before an MOT, almost like you know its going to fail?) Anyway, as soon as a met the seller and we went for a drive I was sold. The seller was genuine, it has been his baby and I got a load of receipts of all sorts he has spent on it. He was selling to fund a new home purchase. He'd even prepared a sheet of 'do's and don'ts as its a fairly unusual car.
After the drive and learning all about the car and the seller, i was back to manchester with the mrs following in my now daily driver car. Drove home with the roof down obviously, got plenty of honks and nods of approval, coupled with the smiles per gallon i was getting (was choosing to ignore to MPG even though its not actually too bad but it is compared to my daily 320d). Never driven anything near the amount of power this thing has and certainly nothing with a V8.
Not for the purists, It's a respray, (was silver), has 2k worth of decent alloys on it and a cracking sounding exhaust, very very loud which I thought I would hate but I actually rather like it. It's done just shy of 77k miles (although MOT has been recorded in KMs and Miles!) Things that need putting right -
(MOT - next tuesday)
New rear tyres (wrong ratio causing traction control alert to ping and they're almost bald)
ABS sensor light is on
Drivers leather seat bolster torn
vert roof slightly torn
Passenger window doesn't work (really helpful in a left hand drive car)
Big scrape on the back end which happened the week before i came to see it, seller knocked off the price of repair)
Few others little scratches
seems to be a slight whistling on the drive home - research suggests this may be the air conditioning belt or something.
My plans for it are the fix the above over winter and get it prepped for sunnier, roof down times! It's not my only car so is insured quite cheaply on a classic policy considering my age and the fact I live in the car crime capital that is Manchester.
You can pull the codes from the dashboard to see what errors they are. Google will show you how. And hope that the abs isn't the code of death with the abs unit as they cannot be fixed on pre 2002 model.
Other than that enjoy the car, still quick in a straight line by today's standards but be careful of the gear change mid corner if pushing on. Mine was harsh and unsettled the car.
Other than that enjoy the car, still quick in a straight line by today's standards but be careful of the gear change mid corner if pushing on. Mine was harsh and unsettled the car.
sparks_190e said:
Looks great! I love this era of American cars.
If they appeal, then the Camaro z28 and Firebird Trans Am are ones to keep an eye on (1998 thru 2002). Same engine and gearboxes as the C5 Corvette and almost identical performance. But can be had for quite a bit less money.
Keeping an update on this thread mainly for my own journey, don't know how many people on here are interested in a ropey old 'vette haha.
Anyway, so it failed its MOT (which i was expecting) on most of the issues which i knew about and some standard stuff (wipers, lights etc). The warning lights on the dash turned out to be nothing more than rotten old wiring which was sending all sorts of messages to the car, garage sorted or that and I'm now warning light free. It's like a different car to drive now, now the traction control knows whether its supposed to on or off (its blisteringly violent without it on!!! had some great fun driving it back from Crewe) The ABS was not the dreaded issue which someone above warned. So that was a £500 bill which luckily I had estimated it would be that. My man maths means that's ok as I had estimated spending 15k on a minter. One thing that does now need sorting is a squealing which is coming from one of the belts under load, the garage told me it is the lower idle pulley which is next on the list to be sorted.
Picture below of it after getting home with a fresh MOT.
This morning I took it in the have the nasty scrape sorted on the back, Dave at chips away was great and a real perfectionist. Now the paintjob isn't the best and i already knew that. Dave was worried that he could not mix the exact paint as its a non standard colour and it would be obvious, but once he saw it in the light, he realised that it really won't make a different. He fancy bit of kit identified the colour as subaru blue which is what its being sprayed in as we speak.
Next job is the fix the squealing but probably won't be done anytime soon as christmas looms and costs need to be accounted for.
Anyway, so it failed its MOT (which i was expecting) on most of the issues which i knew about and some standard stuff (wipers, lights etc). The warning lights on the dash turned out to be nothing more than rotten old wiring which was sending all sorts of messages to the car, garage sorted or that and I'm now warning light free. It's like a different car to drive now, now the traction control knows whether its supposed to on or off (its blisteringly violent without it on!!! had some great fun driving it back from Crewe) The ABS was not the dreaded issue which someone above warned. So that was a £500 bill which luckily I had estimated it would be that. My man maths means that's ok as I had estimated spending 15k on a minter. One thing that does now need sorting is a squealing which is coming from one of the belts under load, the garage told me it is the lower idle pulley which is next on the list to be sorted.
Picture below of it after getting home with a fresh MOT.
This morning I took it in the have the nasty scrape sorted on the back, Dave at chips away was great and a real perfectionist. Now the paintjob isn't the best and i already knew that. Dave was worried that he could not mix the exact paint as its a non standard colour and it would be obvious, but once he saw it in the light, he realised that it really won't make a different. He fancy bit of kit identified the colour as subaru blue which is what its being sprayed in as we speak.
Next job is the fix the squealing but probably won't be done anytime soon as christmas looms and costs need to be accounted for.
OP - well done sir! Looks lovely
300bhp/ton said:
If they appeal, then the Camaro z28 and Firebird Trans Am are ones to keep an eye on (1998 thru 2002). Same engine and gearboxes as the C5 Corvette and almost identical performance. But can be had for quite a bit less money.
you're sort of right - but you won't be soon. WS6 TransAms are going up in value (in fact they may already be over the levels of a ropey C5, not that the OP has that), the Camaro a little less so given the catfish look it acquired looks very nice, congrats and have a look at the CCCUK website for more info on Vettes and club events in the UK where you will meet quite a few knowledgable owners.
The Vette is a good reliable, simple and cheap to service car. I had issues with codes on the ABS at one stage which turned out to be a sensor. It didn’t help in diagnostics that the manual was wrong, when I searched for two specific codes it associated one code with the wrong wheel which confused me for a while having two different codes I would expect on one wheel to be split across the axle! Didn’t find out until I had switched the loom across sides and all sorts of other diagnostic nonsense, and then when reading through the manual line by line rather than searching electronically, I spotted the sequence error. About £100 delivered and import taxed for an O/S/F hub sensor fixed that compared to 000’s the dealer suggested to replace the main unit when he hooked it up to his computer to read the more detailed codes than I could get from the DIC on the car. Yes, the connections at the sensors and back in the loom under the car are a known weak point (the pins rot) so your spanner guy did well to find that before replacing sensors.
Two thoughts on the idler pulley issue.
1) if the car has been laid up for any prolonged time, it can arise. To test for it, start the car and spray a liberal quantity of wd40 directly onto the pulley from both sides. Yes it is a bit difficult to get to and will fly everywhere, but it will change the note or completely quieten at least temporarily if that is the issue.
2) when fitting a new pulley, do not over tighten it. This distorts the metal and you will have the issue again pretty much straight away.
Mine had the issue if I left it laid up for a while. With lubrication and regular use it went away without needing to fit a new one.
With age, electrics became more unreliable. Main issue was at the 13 (I think from memory) earthing points around the car. Clean ups and protection from the elements helped but it was certainly a weak point on mine, and some are buggers to get to - like up behind the rear bumper section!
When looking for parts, look across the pond to compare pricing to the UK. I got most of mine from places like Zip Corvettes. Typically cheaper than UK prices even taking shipping and import duty into consideration. I replaced both my window regulators and motors quote cheaply with OEM parts from them, simple DIY job to do using youtube and similar sources as a mentor.
Keith Beschi at Eurovettes also ships a regular container to the UK, although I always went independent for my parts I couldn’t get from Zip having a guy on the inside at a GM parts centre in Florida and normally got them home in a couple of days with a monster discount.
Enjoy the car, they are a real hoot for very little money and running cost. Certainly not a car for shrinking violets given the attention they attract
The Vette is a good reliable, simple and cheap to service car. I had issues with codes on the ABS at one stage which turned out to be a sensor. It didn’t help in diagnostics that the manual was wrong, when I searched for two specific codes it associated one code with the wrong wheel which confused me for a while having two different codes I would expect on one wheel to be split across the axle! Didn’t find out until I had switched the loom across sides and all sorts of other diagnostic nonsense, and then when reading through the manual line by line rather than searching electronically, I spotted the sequence error. About £100 delivered and import taxed for an O/S/F hub sensor fixed that compared to 000’s the dealer suggested to replace the main unit when he hooked it up to his computer to read the more detailed codes than I could get from the DIC on the car. Yes, the connections at the sensors and back in the loom under the car are a known weak point (the pins rot) so your spanner guy did well to find that before replacing sensors.
Two thoughts on the idler pulley issue.
1) if the car has been laid up for any prolonged time, it can arise. To test for it, start the car and spray a liberal quantity of wd40 directly onto the pulley from both sides. Yes it is a bit difficult to get to and will fly everywhere, but it will change the note or completely quieten at least temporarily if that is the issue.
2) when fitting a new pulley, do not over tighten it. This distorts the metal and you will have the issue again pretty much straight away.
Mine had the issue if I left it laid up for a while. With lubrication and regular use it went away without needing to fit a new one.
With age, electrics became more unreliable. Main issue was at the 13 (I think from memory) earthing points around the car. Clean ups and protection from the elements helped but it was certainly a weak point on mine, and some are buggers to get to - like up behind the rear bumper section!
When looking for parts, look across the pond to compare pricing to the UK. I got most of mine from places like Zip Corvettes. Typically cheaper than UK prices even taking shipping and import duty into consideration. I replaced both my window regulators and motors quote cheaply with OEM parts from them, simple DIY job to do using youtube and similar sources as a mentor.
Keith Beschi at Eurovettes also ships a regular container to the UK, although I always went independent for my parts I couldn’t get from Zip having a guy on the inside at a GM parts centre in Florida and normally got them home in a couple of days with a monster discount.
Enjoy the car, they are a real hoot for very little money and running cost. Certainly not a car for shrinking violets given the attention they attract
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff