holacola345

Hi all,
I know this is a long post and I would really appreciate everyone taking the time to read this, as it concerns everyone in the corvette community.

I have waited awhile to post this as I thought no one would care. However, I keep seeing more and more threads about electrical issues and the breaking point was when I saw a thread with someone else having the same issue as I(car shuts off while driving). I own a 2005 corvette that has had numerous issues with the infamous "service active handling" problem. Well one day driving home the car shut off on me, luckily I was not going very fast. I did not think much of it until it happened again on my way back from the airport. At this point I went through the process of taking it to G.M . I wrote a letter and sent it to the chief executive officer and the executive office. Also, I sent over all of the tickets I have had from dealerships fixing my car with the "service active handling" issue(which there were alot of) detailing my story and spent a good portion of time dealing with them and at the end of it they told me they were not concerned about the safety of the car.
I share the same passion for corvettes as many of you ,however, this is something that I deemed necessary for everyone to know.
Anyhow here is the letter,

Case #71-955272157
Dear General Motors Executive, June 9, 2011
My name is Stephen Coe, my father Eric Coe is the owner of the Corvette I have been driving for the past 5 years. I write this letter with the best intention and a sincere desire for resolution. I have comprised the most factual set of data my memory can recall based on varying situations over the past 5 years. Thank you for taking the time to hear my story and I sincerely hope we can help find a way to renew my faith in GM. I have tickets and documents for each of the scenarios described below and can provide them upon request. I am extremely passionate about Corvettes, actively involved in forums and groups on a daily basis. My overall opinion of the Corvettes is positive, even though my personal experience you are about to hear has been quite challenging to say the least.
The first time I encountered problems with my 2005 Corvette was when I went off to college at the University of North Florida sometime around the later part of 2006. I was on my way to school when I noticed the vehicle generated an error message. The message center on the speedometer was flashing a warning light with error message “service active handling.” I took the car to the dealer in Jacksonville the next day, being 18 at the time I was not of age to receive a rental car and had to find other means of transportation to school. The car took some time to get fixed and was soon given back to me.
Some time after the car was fixed in Jacksonville, I was picking up my friend and en route the car delivered the same error message, which I would soon find out would become routine for me. The messages on the speedometer blared “Service active handling” and this time a new one “Shocks inoperative”. I noticed that the cars throttle was insensitive to my input and there seemed to be a complete loss of power. I pulled over and turned the car off. Since the car has multiple computer systems embedded, I figured I could restart the car and everything would go away, I really did not want to take the car back to the shop and lose my means of transportation. I started up the car again and all of the messages appeared to be gone. A few days went by and then the same messages started up again, the same ones as before and the car felt like it was losing power, almost like it threw itself into its highest gear and was stuck there. I repeated what I did before when I had this occur, turned off the car and tried starting it again. The car did not start, but I did hear a clicking noise. I waited a few minutes and tried again. The car started this time and off to the dealership I went again.
The car was returned to me again after the dealer spent time attempting to fix the vehicle. I do remember this problem occurring at least one more time while I was in Jacksonville but it was very similar to what happened before. I would bring the car in to get fixed, wait a week or so and then get the car back. I will say that the dealership in Jacksonville had the best customer service and I do believe that the staff there worked their hardest to help fix my problem. I do remember asking about if my car was a “lemon” and whether they could fix the car, as this was getting to be a little frustrating especially considering the fact I was not of age to receive a rental car.
The next incident I remember was when I was residing at my parents house in Leesburg, FL. The car started up the error message again at me, displaying the usual “Service active handling!” “Service vehicle soon”, “shocks inactive”, “service ABS”. I abruptly took the car to Cecil Clark Chevrolet. The car was taken in and fixed, a bad EBCM was blamed for my problem and was replaced. I was told, as usual, that the car was fixed and that I shouldn’t have any more problems. I asked if this was a common problem on corvettes and was told no, mine seemed to be the exception.
This occurred on at least 6 additional occasions in Leesburg, FL and I started to understand a few more things about the car and this problem. Sometimes when starting the car and applying pressure to the brake pedal, the pedal would have a slight pop to it(I informed the dealership of this several times, I believe they fixed something in the brake pedal), every time it did that the car would light up with the usual service vehicle prompts and have reduced power. I grew weary of driving the car and thought about how much fun the car has been and figured I would continue with it and maybe it would eventually get fixed.
One day, while in Leesburg, the vehicle would not start at all. It required me to have it towed to the dealership. My father was getting tired of having to pay for the car to be repaired, since at this point I believe the warranty was up and the car was only getting worse. He made a trip to the dealership to talk to the corvette tech in person. The technician explained to him how the computers in the car work and how he thought the car was fixable, but he would have to order some expensive parts.
One of the worst experiences I have had with the car was when I took the car to Tallahasee to visit my girlfriend for the weekend. On the way over on I-75 the car started generating the same error messages and my power was reduced again. I pulled over to a rest stop and turned the car off, started it, and the problem went away. The car was fine for a day or two and then while I was on my way to the gym, the problems started again. This time reducing the power to the point where taking off from a light I would have a large number of cars behind me honking their horns for me to go faster. 0-35 must have taken 40 seconds to achieve. I drove the car over to the dealership in Tallahassee, dropping it off and hoping for a fix before Monday came, at which time I needed to drive back to school in Orlando(I switched colleges from UNF in Jacksonville to UCF in Orlando). On Monday, they shared the unfortunate news they had to order a part and the car would not be ready in time for my departure. My girlfriend was nice enough to lend me her car for the duration of the time it would take to be fixed.
The Tallahassee Chevrolet dealer fixed my car soon after and my girlfriend went and picked up the car. She called me right after and asked why my rear view mirror was messed up. I had no idea what she was talking about, I guess during the time spend at the dealership in Tallahassee my mirror was broken by them. I told my father about it, and he called the dealership complaining about the problem. The dealership denied this claim and did nothing to help with the problem.
The car was in my girlfriends possession for a few days and she drove it home to Tampa where she lived. She was going to drive it over to my house in Leesburg(an hour away) and switch cars. The day she was going to drive over, the car did not start and was stuck in her driveway, were it stayed for a week or so until I came over to check it out. I tried my luck with starting the car, after a few rounds the car started. I remember on the way home I had to get gas, which required turning the car off, the thought of having the car stuck sitting a gas station was not appealing. My mom, who drove me over to retrieve the car in Tampa, would not let me put gas in the car without turning it off for fear of something bad happening. I did as she wished and prayed the car would start, it did and on my way home I went.
The worst and most scary problem I have had with the car happened when I was coming home and riding on my driveway which is a ¼ mile long. The car just shut off, I could not believe it, the only way I noticed was when I pressed down the gas nothing happened. I looked at the rpm gauge and noticed the car was completely shut off. I thought maybe my knee hit the power button and turned the car off. Not making much of the situation. A little while after I was coming home on U.S. 27 near my house, after picking up my uncle from the airport. The car shut off again, in the same manner as before, luckily I was only going 30 miles per hour and the steering also went. I knew at this point there was something wrong with the car and if I was driving around a turn at any rate of speed and this occurred it would be a real problem. I came home and told my dad about the problem, also letting him know that no one should be driving the car considering the hazardous potential of what could occur.
I knew the car could not be driven safely anymore and was hazardous to anyone in it, so I decided to try and it get it fixed. I did not want to take the car to a dealer, considering my past experiences with them. Instead, I took the car to a well know corvette tuner. A guy named Geoff who runs the shop called “Next Level Performance”. I got his number and booked a appointment for the next day. I dropped the car off, explained the problems I have had with it before and the new one with it shutting off. He took some time and ran the codes on the car, he told me he has never seen so many codes pop up before and could not make sense of any of it. He asked me to bring over tickets from all of the dealerships I took the car to previously, this way he could make sure he didn’t try and fix the same thing that they did. I did as he asked and rounded up the papers from all of the dealers. He called me a few days after and said he didn’t have the equipment to deal with the problem and that his friend Keith, the corvette tech at Courtesy Chevrolet would be better suited at fixing the problem. I gave him the go ahead.
The car sat at the Courtesy Chevrolet dealership for about 9 weeks getting fixed. During the time I called repeatedly and was not called back. The only way I could get their attention was to have my father call them. He did and they told him they didn’t know the car had to be fixed in such a hurry(nine weeks is a long time!)but they would get onto it right away. The problem was thought to be a frayed wire near the battery, so a new one was ordered and put on. A few days later the car was ready to be picked up and I drove over with my girlfriend, elated that the Corvette would finally be safe to drive. The mechanics did a convincing job of explaining to me that the car was completely fixed, that they replaced electrical wires and took the car for two long test drives, with everything working perfectly. So with high hopes, I paid the dealership and left with my Corvette.
I drove over to pick up the Corvette in a manual transmission car which left my girlfriend having to drive the automatic Corvette back to my house, about 40 miles away. After we left the dealership we stopped to get gas and she mentioned to me that she had a hard time starting the car at the dealership. I took a look at it and it also took me a few tries to start up the car, but I didn’t think much of it, trusting that if there had been any real problems, the mechanics would have fixed them.
Then about ten miles into the drive, I got a call from my girlfriend who said the Corvette was beeping at her and saying “service charging system”. It was at this moment that I concluded the mechanics at Courtesy Chevrolet did not in fact fix anything about my car, and it would still be unsafe to drive. At this point I was keen on making it home to figure out why my car was still malfunctioning after so many trips to the dealerships to be fixed.
I reassured my girlfriend that she should be ok for the rest of the drive home, but to be very cautious and to call me if anything else went wrong. Sure enough, I got about six more calls on the remaining 30 mile drive where she explained to me the multitude of issues the car was having. The radio completely shut off, as well as the antilock brake system and traction control. About five miles from my house the car slowly began to die, displaying the phrases “battery voltage low”, “maximum speed 80mph” and “service vehicle immediately.” The lights completely shut off, the car started shaking and the display of the speedometer, rpm’s, gas, etc completely shut off. I knew the next step was the car shutting off, but we luckily made it back before this happened. But after emerging from the corvette, my girlfriend was extremely shaky and explained to me how scared she was driving the car, fearing that something serious would stop working, such as the brakes. She couldn’t even unlock the doors normally when she was getting out, but had to use the manual option.
This last event leads us to June, 2011 and the car sits in my driveway today. I am at a loss as to what to do and would sincerely appreciate it if someone with seniority within GM can contact my father to determine a solution. Please contact my father, Eric Coe at ---------- as soon as possible. We have a strong desire to work with someone inside of GM who can help us resolve this as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Kind Regards,
Stephen Coe and Eric H Coe, M.D.

Thanks for taking the time to read guys

C-INRED

I think one of your problems in getting a response may be that your letter is somewhat less than succinct. Yes, you need to describe the problem(s) but maybe a better way to approach it may be to summarize the major issue(s) in your letter and attach a chronological list of events without all the wordiness.

I must admit, I didn't read through the whole thing - it just looks too daunting.

I know it may be too late to change your approach but if you do have the opportunity I would definitely try to summarize and get to the point rather than expounding quite so much.

AORoads

I fully agree with teh above assessment. However, with the receipt of this letter, someone with a "degree in reading", i.e., a lawyer, would have been assigned this letter. They read lots of daunting, wordy documents. The fact that nothing has happened of a substantial nature to date indicates something is amiss and it could be on either end of the letter.

If you feel it's necessary and worth the trouble, I'd hire an attorney to shepherd this forward.

WAwatchnut

Sorry to hear about your problems. I really hope you're able to come to some resolution. Based on the experiences of the vast majority of owners, it looks like you got stuck with a lemon. I don't know that I could have had that much patience with all of the repairs.

One note of constructive criticism if I may? When writing a letter like this, it's best to leave out all commentary not specific to the issue you're trying to resolve. The fact that something happened in you GFs driveway, only detracts from the message you're trying to send. I'm sure many readers won't even get to the part where the car started shutting itself off. Great prose for painting a picture, not as great for getting action done.

Good luck!

HyperX

Wasnt there an issue in the steering wheel that caused some of these issues? Some loose connector there? I remember seeing this on here.

topper7788

First off the letter is not well written as mentioned before and quite frankly I just scanned it for the reasons mentioned by previous posters..

First off it doesn't give a logical chronological history. I didn't even see at what miles his problems occurred and how many miles the car currently has. I am also assuming this car is way out of warranty. Nor could I get any impression as to how many issues this vehicle has had that are related to the current problem.

my first suggestion is, go to the consumerist blog and search how to right a letter.. Unfortunately this one isn't going to get you any help.. (By the way I'm a former Car dealer and know a little about this stuff).

Just posting here may get you some sympathy, but the above letter probably isn't going to get you any help at all. Good luck...

ITSGRAND

I don't wanna know that you're 18 and driving a corvette to school in Florida.

I want to know what the problem is and why you think we should fix it since you are out of warranty

JoesC5

If you feel the problem is a safety issue, then you should also report the problem to the NHTSA. https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

holacola345

I agree with all of your statements regarding the length of the letter. I also appreciate all of the responses no matter how critical they were of my writing capability. However, that is not the point of me posting this thread. its not like I just sent out the letter and did not talk to the G.M. executives at all over the phone. My father and I both spent time talking specifically about the problem of the car shutting off and they said "we dont care about the safety of the car". I just wanted to let you guys know what I went through and if others have the same issue to contact me.
Again thanks for taking the time to read through this

blackmagicZ

I had a similar issue that I reported to the NHTSA. Unless there are 100's of such incidents causing a death, they do nothing.

My engine would shut off while I was driving, leaving me stuck in traffic. I thought that it was a major safety issue, but it didn't seem to matter to GM. It was an ongoing problem with the steering column lock that GM never resolved to the point of not putting it in the Corvette's any longer. I think the 2005 was the last year for that anti theft system.

topper7788

I mean no disrespect by posting this, but your car is obviously way out of warranty... Why is this GM's problem or issue? Your letter does not make any case, nor does the above post?

As I am sure GM said they are sorry you are having problems, but how is this their problem?

Cars have specific limited warranties, did you purchase a 7 Yr warranty? If you had this would probably be covered...

You decided not to make that investment and now want GM to pay? Not the way it works unless you can demonstrate a reason for GM to handle.. Your letter and the above does not..

Sorry, but your not making any let alone a good case that GM should assist you.

IDSRVIT

Besides everyone else's comments here are some additional comments

1) Just sending a letter to a "GM Executive" and thinking it will get read by a GM Executive is wishful thinking at best. This letter at best went to a customer support rep who may have took it to his manager but it most likely stopped there before it was filed (in the circular trash).

2) The better course of action may have been to escalated this with the dealership who could have worked with GM (who has GM contacts) verses sending a letter directly to GM. The dealership has the history in their computer system.

3) The letter should have been sent by the owner (your Father) or a hired attorney. He is the legal holder of the title and the only person GM would work with if they did at all.

4) Letters like this (which I'd advise against) need to be a 3/4 page maximum with plenty of white space verses text. Nobody wants to read a novel. The format should be simple ...... Greeting, Issue, Facts, Thank You.

With the era of electronic mail, when I have to summarize an escalation for my CEO I have 5 bullet-points to do it in.

I also need to make sure it is BlackBerry or Smart Phone friendly. One gets pretty good at only providing the key info and help needed when attention is limited.

Sorry about your issue, but sometimes sending a letter may make the sender feel better but unfortunately it does nothing to solve your issue. It's also has nothing to do about GM not caring, it's more about the letter probably died on step 1 of a 10 step internal ladder to get to the right person who could do anything about it.

C6ToGo

Wow, by trying to read that I can imagine why you are not getting satisfaction. Try to write it with things like:

1) Bullet points like this
2) Less personal info
3) Chronology
4) Paragraphs with line spacing in between

My uncle had a Nissan, I believe, that would just die while driving down the road. So bad he just let it sit in the garage. Think it took 4 or 5 years to get only partial restitution.

Good luck young man.

Bill Dearborn

As in the old Paul Newman movie; Cool Hand Luke; "What we've got here is failure to communicate."

There are several things wrong with this letter. The first thing is it isn't addressed to anybody so it doesn't get sorted well in the mail room. The people in the mail room don't have a clue where to send this letter. These are not executive level people they are low level people trying their best to get through a pile of mail each day and your letter probably went into the junk mail round file. Follow the suggestions of the people above and rewrite the letter but address it to a specific person at a specific address. I have written a couple of letters like this to GM before and have had excellent results from them.

Address the letter to the President of GM at the building where he works. This information is readily available to you. When the letter hits that building's mail room they will know where to send the letter. The President of GM will not work this issue himself. He will assign it to somebody as an action item and will expect to hear the results of the assignment.

In the letter provide a short summary of the issues then describe what you did and what the dealerships did along with the time line. Provide copies (not originals) of all invoices and maybe index them to the points you make in your letter so the person can figure out what you have done or failed to do. On top of that you need to tell the person reading this letter what will make you happy. If it's money you have to tell them the dollar figure you want. No matter what it is you need to be specific. This makes it a lot easier for the person reading the letter to know how to respond.

Before sending the letter have somebody else with excellent communication skills critique it. Remember Communication is an Unnatural Act for Humans.

Bill

Seadawg

Read this posting and it should give you some ideas. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-t...er-action.html

GM did buy mine back for a similar issue, but I did as the others suggested above - kept all discussions about the problem focused and to the point, and worked with them to make the best of a bad situation.

CSixDude

In just glancing through your post, it sounds to me like you have either a bad battery or a charging issue problem, or possibly a battery drain problem when the vehicle is parked. When the battery voltage drops too low, you will start to see all kinds of problems and the fact that it only "clicked" one time when you tried to start it seems to indicate a battery problem. You also noted you got a low battery voltage message at one point, which is another clue.

Loose or bad grounds can also cause all sorts of problems, so I'd probably suggest going through the vehicle and testing/checking/tightening all the gound points.

ALD_Z06

Without reading the whole thing (too difficult), it doesn't appear that the mileage now is close to when the documented problems occured.

I have seen a 2006 Coupe with 6000 miles get a tranny covered by GM very recently.

That being said, if your dad bought it new and had an opportunity to buy a GMPP and didn't, I don't think GM should be on the hook at all. In fact, the dealer probably had you sign a waiver because you DECLINED the extended coverage for this exact reason.

Now they (and GM) can say, I told you so.

JCtx

No way I was going to read that dissertation either , but in the few seconds I took to scan it, saw '5 years' somewhere, meaning car is WAY out of warranty indeed. But there're a lot more considerations even for the NHTSA to consider it a valid complaint:
- Has car been modified in any way during its life? If OP is not the original owner, he might not be able to answer that.
- Does car have an aftermarket alarm? Most include an ignition/fuel cutoff, and could be malfunctioning.
- Does car have all campaings/recalls done, and was it maintained according to manufacturer's recommendations?

Bottom line is unless problem is a MANUFACTURING DEFECT, and it's a safety issue, it'd never turn into a recall. I'd try reading all the complaints logged in the NHTSA website and see how many other people complained about the same issue. If you don't see several dozens at the very least, you can forget about the NHTSA launching an investigation.

And if car was bought used, I'd thoroughly check it for evidence of tampering with the electrical system for alarms, sound system, auxiliary lighting, previous engine modifications that require adding electrical items like sensors, etc. Many folks put the car back to stock before selling, and most owners would never know what was done to the car before. All it takes is ONE freaking wire spliced wrong to wreak all kinds of havoc. Good luck.

bbudman

First, I am sorry you are having problems with your vehicle and hope you will have the issues resolved.

Second, I agree with everyone here that your letter needs some work. Way too much information here and most people would not bother to read it.

Third, I realize you are in school away from home but this vehicle should have been taken to ONE dealership for repair and when it had issues again you should have returned it back to them and let them know they did not fix it the first time. At least by doing so the service manager at the dealership would be aware of the problem and maybe been able to pull a few strings for you. I've actually had one of my GM vehicles repaired for free out of warranty and all it took was three repeated trips to the dealer with the same problem and me keeping my cool and just being nice!

holacola345

To answer a few questions,
-The car has a borla exhaust and k&n air filters. That is it, no tune
-The car was bought new
-I did not just write a letter to GM. My father and I worked our way up the totem pole and were in contact with an executive, whom both my father and I told the specific problem of the car shutting off to. This was done numerous times. I guarantee she understood what the specific problem was.
- The executive told us that GM was not concerned about the safety of the car.
-I understand the car is out of warranty. However, the car is still being produced isn't it? Could this not be a massive problem for GM if it happened to one that is under warranty and ends up killing someone?
-all of the TSB's and recalls have been performed.
-The point of me posting this is I wanted everyone to be aware that this problem could potentially occur and it seems GM could care less.
Again I appreciate all the responses and insight