Any C7 Corvette owners here?
 

My next-door neighbor has a 2014 C7 Corvette and he’s been smelling gas lately. He took it to the dealer and they said he needs a new gas tank. He’s not mechanically inclined, and I’ve asked him for more details. From what I’ve read and seen on YouTube, there are two gas tanks on the Corvette that year.

That said, the dealer wants $6000 to replace the gas tank. By the book, you have to remove the back half of the car/rear, suspension, etc. Watching YouTube videos, none of that has to be removed.

If he was a close friend, I would be inclined to help him out, but I’m not so sure in this case. Right now, I’m looking for places in Charleston, that work on C7 Corvettes. Anybody know of a place besides the dealer?

Reading up on it, Chevy extended the warranty on the gas tanks to 10 years and 120k miles. He’s way under the miles, but over the years by one! I wonder if Chevy would help in any way…?

He's looking for "goodwill," and might be successful. Hopefully his local dealer will help him. He needs to be polite and nice about it, and request help. If he's serviced his car at the dealer, that's a huge point in his favor. If he's been a repeat Chevrolet customer, that helps, too. I don't know what Chevrolet's goodwill is like, it could depend on the service rep they have for his dealer, but it's well worth the ask. Being well under the miles and barely over the time is in his favor. He should just say very politely that he loves the car and he's done some checking online and he's aware it's a KNOWN problem and would appreciate any help they can give him, probably the service manager will plead his case with the factory rep. Sometimes the dealers have some goodwill discretion and can dip into that account.

If they don't help him, he should search online for a dealer that discounts parts heavily online and get a tank to an Indy who can replace it without removing the back of the car.

Good idea. A new gas tank and fuel pump is about $1000 on line, so not too bad. ~ $787 for the gas tank itself.

An independent shop will probably do it for a lot less. Local dealers charge $200/hour labor. I have a good shop near me that is $135/hour.

I’ve been looking for a local shop, the one that everybody recommends, doesn’t work on any cars past the C6. I told my neighbor, we may need to look at Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah.

I did talk to a smaller Chevy dealer on the way to Bluffton this morning, and talked to the Corvette tech there. He said it took a minimum of 15 hours and you had to take off the rear bumper, mufflers, rear, suspension, etc.. Sounds like he’s going by the book on how to do it. I’m going to watch a few more videos and see if there’s any shortcuts that can be done.

If Chevy will step up, all of that is moot.

I wonder if a letter was sent on his car before the 10 years was up. If so, where did it go? Is the car registered in his name with Chevrolet?

Try the Corvette Forum (corvetteforum.com), similar to Pelican. You can peruse the C7 section. You may find a local Indy mechanic in your friend’s area.

They are trying the Chevy route, but are working on plan B with my help, since they know nothing about cars.

I don’t know when they bought the car, but they are the second owner, and they said they did not get a letter.

I just created an account at the Corvette Forum, to search, post questions, and look for a Indy mechanic.

Looking online for C7 gas tank replacement, I found one video. The rest of the videos, are how to fix your gas tank door! There are several videos for the C6 gas tank.