redc6z06

Hi folks,

Over the past 15 months I've owned my car (2008 z06), I was getting random intermittent warnings and behaviors, very similar to what godzilladude dude described in thread [1] below. The history of my issues includes 1) fan going crazy during normal driving and for a few minutes after engine shut down (happened for a few months after buying the car), 2) speedo needle jumping randomly (happened once), 3) TPMS reporting flat tire when tires are ok (happened once), 4) service AHS/TCS warnings (more and more over time), 5) driver's airbag warning (happened once), and 6) key fob not found error when starting or shutting off car (happened more and more towards the end). So a few things Some of them are quite concerning, like the AHS/TCS warnings (check out some threads on the forum, say [2] below).

Based on the threads [1], [2], and a few others that discussed the individual warnings I was seeing, it seemed that some common causes among others were a bad battery, a bad alternator, and dirty or corroded connections to the battery hookups. There were a few more potential candidates. I would encourage you to read through the below threads, in particular [1] and comments by ErnieN85.

For me, it turned out to be the battery (at least so far). I went to Autozone and had my battery checked out. It reported that it was good but that it needed a charge. The alternator checked out, so I become suspicious of the battery charge warning. I was particularly worried about that because I bought the car used after it was on the lot for almost 8 months through a pretty cold winter in the Pacific Northwest last year. So as a first attempt at debugging the warnings, I had a new Duralast Gold battery installed. And I have not seen a single warning in the two weeks since then!

I wouldn't have guessed it was a battery, and had it not been for this forum, I would have went to a dealer with vague descriptions of intermittent problems (read: the dealer probably would have done a ton of unnecessary work and it would have cost a lot of unnecessary $$$). The battery in the car was a DieHard Gold from June 2012, so not that old. However, it was installed before the car sat on the lot until I bought it.

So once again, thanks to the folks that post on this forum for helping me figure out the problem. I hope this post can be of help to others trying to figure out some of the warnings I was seeing.

Thanks!


[1] Multiple sensors randomly going wacky - lots of useful information here as godzilladude was debugging the problem
[2] Service Active Handling - Consumer Action - the entire thread is great, although here I am referencing post #40 by sneezabit

psp6158

These things do so.e crazy stuff when the battery loses some juice... Now make sure you put a tender on that new battery if it sits more than two days!

redc6z06

No kidding about the craziness! I didn't realize a few days in the garage (ok, sometimes a week or two) would need a battery tender in fairly temperate weather - it does not get crazy cold here in Seattle, at least not for long, and the car is always in the garage. Any advice on brand or model? Saw , which seems like a reasonable solution.

psp6158

That will do the trick, lots of different ways of hooking it up. The easiest by far (in my opinion) is to plug it into the cigarette lighter, run it across the drivers seat to the bottom of the door and close the door. You can put a cover on with no issues and you will never forget its plugged in and drive off...

redc6z06

Sounds like a good way to do it! Thanks for the advice!

talon95

Yea this is nothing new. I went through this with my C5Z. Battery wasn't even bad, just insufficient. It has to maintain 12.5v or more to insure the electronics initialize correctly. At least it does for the C5. Sounds like the C6 may not be much different. There are a lot of threads on the subject floating around.