looking to purchase 2004 corvette with only 2440 miles on it

by Rowland Hannon
(Crystal River, FL)

What age related things should I be most concerned about, i.e. tires, timing belt, fuel system, etc?

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May 07, 2017
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2004 Corvette With Low miles!
by: Chris

Rowland,

Your interest in a 2004 Corvette and the age related items should be as follows:

1. First no timing belt to worry about
2. Inspect serpentine belt for cracks
3. Tires are recommended to be replaced every 5-10 years regardless of tread depth. But if your intention is to preserve the car and not drive it keep the original tires. If you decide to start driving it replace them.
4. Heads up display projector tilt mechanisms fail. Check the tilt functions via the IPC and make sure the image moves up and down on the windshield as selected.
5. Check the HVAC control system. The displays can go bad with the faults that were produced with them.
6. Drive the car around and check you don't see any DIC messages or indicator lights.
7. Batteries can go dead in tire pressure sensors. Make sure all tires indicate pressure on the IPC DIC.

If you see codes or warning lights perform the following and bring the codes back to us.
Interrogating the DIC perform the following:
1) Turn on the ignition but don't start the engine.
2) Press the "reset" button to turn off any warning messages
3) Press and hold "options" and
4) While holding "options", press "fuel" four times within a 10-Second period.
Scroll through all the modules and write down or take picture of the codes. The most troubling of codes can be active handling and ABS. Some ABS modules are obsolete and faulty batches are still present in the cars still active. This issue is caused by cold solder joints in the modules mentioned.

8. Inspect all window seals and rubber parts. They should be ok if its been kept inside.
9. Lastly batteries are notoriously short lived in C5 Corvettes. This is due to the lack of driving of most Corvettes in general and the larger than normal parasitic current draw of on board computer modules. Make sure you purchase a good battery tender to maintain the battery. This is a must.
10. Check all door and window switches. Sitting can cause them to build up corrosion with inactivity. They may come back to life though with some persistent use.
11. Radiator hoses are worth a look but we still have the originals on our 97 C5 with 105K and they still look good.

The C5 Corvette is a solid car and you should not be overly concerned with the items I have listed. If I were looking at another C5 these would be the items I would be looking at.

Please come back a share your results with us. We would love to provide you any feedback with your results. Also we just love Corvettes and a low mile C5 is a treasure to behold!

Thank you for using our service and welcome to the Corvette world!

Regards,

Chris Trautman
Corvette Brainiac

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