discontinued items

[eddie20875]

what i can't understand is how they can discontinue parts for cars that are still on the road and needed to run the car.

i am trying to get the egr solenoid for my 90 L98. gm discontinued it and can not get one anywhere. plus no one knows if there is a substitue that you can use.

one auto parts store said that his supplier told him there was a national back order and is some cases because of a problem they found with the original and they might be trying to redesign it but they have no idea how long it will take.

what are people supposed to do in the mean time?

 

[Robertwav1]

what i can't understand is how they can discontinue parts for cars that are still on the road and needed to run the car.

i am trying to get the egr solenoid for my 90 L98. gm discontinued it and can not get one anywhere. plus no one knows if there is a substitue that you can use.

one auto parts store said that his supplier told him there was a national back order and is some cases because of a problem they found with the original and they might be trying to redesign it but they have no idea how long it will take.

what are people supposed to do in the mean time?

Try this link,

http://www.car-stuff.com/store/?N=4294966576+1588++4294966713&catq=true

or this,
http://www.car-stuff.com/store/?Ne=39&N=4294966576+1588+4294966713+4294963109

 

[John Robinson]

what i can't understand is how they can discontinue parts for cars that are still on the road and needed to run the car.

The answer to your question about having parts for your car is that the manufacture under federal law must maintain service parts for 10 years. After that time the manufacture may sell his tooling to an outside company who will continue to provide parts if there is a need for them. Can you imagine the cost of maintaining parts for every make and model a manufacture has during a 10 year period. Add to that the yearly engineering changes that create even more of the same part that is not usable in prior model year cars.

As for your needing an EGR you might ask the dealer or parts house for an EGR for a Camaro or Trans Am or any model that had the L98 in it. Look at it and you might find that it is the same as what you have. Many of the parts like this were used across the board so that the volume would be high enough to keep the cost down.

 

[AdvancedAutoCC]

what i can't understand is how they can discontinue parts for cars that are still on the road and needed to run the car.

i am trying to get the egr solenoid for my 90 L98. gm discontinued it and can not get one anywhere. plus no one knows if there is a substitue that you can use.

one auto parts store said that his supplier told him there was a national back order and is some cases because of a problem they found with the original and they might be trying to redesign it but they have no idea how long it will take.

what are people supposed to do in the mean time?

This is only going to get worse for the C4 platform. GM only keeps parts available for about 10 years and once all old stock is used up, that's it. If no aftermarket alternative exists.... you'll have to find a good used piece.

The bigger problem for the C4 owners is that now NCRS is judging '84 - '91 models (with '92 - '96 right around the corner), and the restoration market is beginning to take off. Add to this the C4 uses vastly more parts than do the C5 and C6 models, and a lot of these parts are never going to be reproduced. This will drive the pricing of used pieces up, and new-old-stock pieces through the roof.

The sad byproduct will be more C4s that at "Bubba-fied" by owners who can no longer afford to own them. The upside is that low mileage clean C4s will begin to appreciate in value.

 

[scotch1]

Hi Eddie20875.
Are you talking about the EGR on top of the manifold activated with vacuum?
If so, I replaced my EGR about 2 years ago, and purchased it from Pinebelt Chevy in Lakewood.
Hope that helps.
Tom

 

[eddie20875]

scotch already have the egr vale need the solenoid for it. thats on the intake, drivers side right behind the throttle body. vacuum lines enter and pass thru it to egr.there is a connector that comes from the ecm to control the egr valve. thanks for the info

 

[johnpesar]

what i can't understand is how they can discontinue parts for cars that are still on the road and needed to run the car.

The answer to your question about having parts for your car is that the manufacture under federal law must maintain service parts for 10 years. After that time the manufacture may sell his tooling to an outside company who will continue to provide parts if there is a need for them. Can you imagine the cost of maintaining parts for every make and model a manufacture has during a 10 year period. Add to that the yearly engineering changes that create even more of the same part that is not usable in prior model year cars.

As for your needing an EGR you might ask the dealer or parts house for an EGR for a Camaro or Trans Am or any model that had the L98 in it. Look at it and you might find that it is the same as what you have. Many of the parts like this were used across the board so that the volume would be high enough to keep the cost down.

This 10 year Federal Law has come up in the past on the ZR1 Net and, as I recall, it's has been debunked as an urban myth. Several "violations" of this 10 year law come to mind: ZR1 windshields are different from standard C4 windshields, and many from 1990 to 1995, including mine, and even including the last ZR1 produced in 1995 and now residing at the NCM, suffered a delamination problem that caused the outer periphery to turn a cloudy brownish color. GM replaced them under warranty but there was no guaranty that the replacement would be any better than the original. By 98/99, three to four years after the last ZR1, the windshields were virtually non-existent. If you found one it was NOS, likely had a problem, and cost between $1200 and $2000. GM conveniently looked the other way and did nothing to help ZR1 owners resolve the problem. A second more recent example concerns the Chevy SSR built between 2003 and 2006. Do a search on some of the SSR websites any you'll find numerous cases of owners complaining that parts are not available, some of which affect the ability to drive the cars. SSR owners are angry and I suspect this is going to cost GM a lot of money before it's over.

 

[mrm1149]

Boils down to planned obsolescence..........

 

[John Robinson]

This 10 year Federal Law has come up in the past on the ZR1 Net and, as I recall, it's has been debunked as an urban myth. Several "violations" of this 10 year law come to mind: ZR1 windshields are different from standard C4 windshields, and many from 1990 to 1995, including mine, and even including the last ZR1 produced in 1995 and now residing at the NCM, suffered a delamination problem that caused the outer periphery to turn a cloudy brownish color. GM replaced them under warranty but there was no guaranty that the replacement would be any better than the original. By 98/99, three to four years after the last ZR1, the windshields were virtually non-existent. If you found one it was NOS, likely had a problem, and cost between $1200 and $2000. GM conveniently looked the other way and did nothing to help ZR1 owners resolve the problem. A second more recent example concerns the Chevy SSR built between 2003 and 2006. Do a search on some of the SSR websites any you'll find numerous cases of owners complaining that parts are not available, some of which affect the ability to drive the cars. SSR owners are angry and I suspect this is going to cost GM a lot of money before it's over.

Urban myth or not when I worked for the General I was responsible for past model service parts that the location I worked at had to supply to GM parts. We were governed by the 10 year federal requirement to maintain the tooling and to be able to supply parts from that tooling. AS you have stated there were certain parts that because of the low volume of cars that had a specialty item like the windshield you refer too the parts were not instantly available . This was because if the tooling was reset for just a handful of parts the cost to the customer would be very high. Also in the case of the ZR1 I suspect that engineering was not able to get a revised windshield to pass all the test required to put an updated part on the market before production stopped on that model.

 

[grumpyvette]

I have not recieved the parts yet, (understandable since I ordered today)
but they seemed very friendly and willing to help and the prices were extremely reasonable on the parts ordered


I got tired of looking at a couple cracked pannels on my 1996 corvettes dash assembly, chevy dealers no longer stock the parts and a quick search, led me there1 Ill post when I get the parts but so far they seem to be a decent source for salvaged vette parts


Address: Vette2Vette Corvette Salvage
1109 N. Bloomington St.
Streator, IL. 61364
Telephone: 1-815-673-6200

Contact Email: parts@vette2vette.net

 

[JonM]

rockauto.com

1990 CHEVROLET CORVETTE 5.7L 350cid V8 MFI (8) : Emission : EGR Vacuum Solenoid

ItemPriceCoreTotal

STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Part # VS35

{EGR VACUUM SOLENOID VALVE}
Egr Vacuum Solenoid* Non-stock item--shipping delayed up to 21 business days *

$38.79$0.00$38.79

 

[catbert]

Could be worse. If you were driving most foreign iron, you'd overpay for parts for the first ten years, and soon after be completely out of luck. My neighbor and I are trying to keep a beautiful older Nissan going, but it's a lost cause because of the parts situation.

 

[eddie20875]

jonm thanks for the link..went there and orderedit and got email order was cancelled as there is an indefinate backorder and don't know when and if they are available plus they have no ther parts to evn substitute.

 

[jrzvette]

Part of the problem is that we (Corvette owners and potential owners as a group) hold onto our cars for so long. No other American made car is treated this way. Consider the Corvette is entering its 55th year of production. Do you really expect GM to continue making parts available for all models? The upside is eventually the aftermarket parts makers will start producing the parts we need if the demand is there. I say this only half jokingly but I would think with the repro parts currently available one could build a C1, C2 or C3 that GM never knew existed.

 

[SoLow]

Try here as they buy and sale OEM discontinued items from the factory and suppliers

http://www.vintageparts.org/

Good luck

 

[silver 80]

have you looked into trying the 92-96 egr solenoid?
tom

 

[Key West Jack]

I thought about the same thing and have been asking around. They appear similar but look like they mount a little differently. If I get an answer, I will let you know. If it comes down to it I will just eliminate it. Jack

 

[Hib Halverson]

Urban myth or not when I worked for the General I was responsible for past model service parts that the location I worked at had to supply to GM parts. We were governed by the 10 year federal requirement to maintain the tooling and to be able to supply parts from that tooling. AS you have stated there were certain parts that because of the low volume of cars that had a specialty item like the windshield you refer too the parts were not instantly available . This was because if the tooling was reset for just a handful of parts the cost to the customer would be very high. Also in the case of the ZR1 I suspect that engineering was not able to get a revised windshield to pass all the test required to put an updated part on the market before production stopped on that model.

Mr. Robinson...
When did you work for GM and in what part of the Corporation did you work?

Also, please cite the Federal law that requires a car company to maintain tooling and supply parts from that tooling.

 

[Key West Jack]

Is that really necessary?

 

[silver 80]

I'm going to try the newer style on my project, I just ordered it.
tom
nessary? well that's just Hib:bash