Mr Guns

Been on a trip for the last couple of days and was coming back tonight through the mountains, when I ran into a very fast turbo VW GTI. I pull out and pass a few cars, and he stays right on my bumper. We continued down the curvy mountain road, pushing it hard through the turns and straightaways, when all of a sudden, I hit the throttle and something wasn't right. I look down and the check engine light is on. I slow down and notice the car is misfiring. There was also another message that said "service stabilitrack". I pull over and the other driver did as well. I attempted to contact onstar, but there was no signal. The other driver lived nearby, so we went to his house where there was cell signal and I was able to have onstar connect and run diags. They confirmed that there was a misfire, and said that if it were drivable, to drive it to the nearest dealership, avoiding any hard acceleration. In regard to the "service stabilitrack" message, they said it was a communication problem and to service at your earliest convenience.

I drove the car 30-40 miles or so to a dealership in a town where I have some friends and family, but the dealership was closed by then. At this point it was dark, and under further inspection, noticed electrical arching noise and saw sparking near one of the plug wires. I'm guessing it came off when pushing it hard through one of the corners. Does anyone know if this would cause the "service stabilitrack" error? BTW, my car is an early build, has 3500 miles on it, and the only performance mod is B&B bullets.

Crossed Flags Fan

If memory serves me correctly, as strange as it sounds, I believe others with the spark plug wire issue also got the stabilitrack message .

Mr Guns

Interesting. Hopefully that's the case.


I think the car is mad at me. Prior to the last couple of days, the car has never been driven in the rain, never been driven at night (bugs), never slept outside, and never been to the grocery store. In the last couple of days, I broke all those rules. Just before the spark plug wire incident happened, I was telling my wife how happy I was that we brought the Corvette because it was such a pleasure to drive. Even in lieu of what happened, I don't regret taking it.

Greg MFn Z

So is the spark wire simply not connected to spark plug correctly?

Mr Guns

Honesty, I'm not sure. It was dark out at that point and all I had was my cell phone light. I'm guessing it came loose in some way and is making a bad connection, causing it to arch. Will know more in the morning.

KayJay

Definitely loose or fried spark plug wires. Has happened to my C6 a couple of times with the exact same warning messages. If loose wires, push them back on and you'll be good to go.

Mr Guns

Two wires were completely off. Dealer is replacing the wires today and should be back on the road by lunch. If this is a common thing, I guess I need to keep some tools in the car and some extra plug wires. Anyone know if the aftermarket plug wires are any better?

cmicasa

before U start her up for a few weeks maybe U should just go around and check your wires. I checked mine after reading your post and found them snug as hell. Took a little strength to even pull one off the plug.

Question.. is your B&B a cat back

BSE1956

I'm guessing it was the end at the coil? This happened to me last summer, and a frequent problem on C6's and I guess, C7's as well.
Throws all kind of crazy codes out there.
The dealer replaced the wires? Nice of him, but only had to pinch the connectors a bit to increase the friction on the plug connector.

Mr Guns

Good idea. I'll be keeping an eye on them for a while. Yep, the exhaust is a cat back. I like it. Pretty aggressive sounding but still fairly quiet at highway speeds.




Yes, it was on the coil end. I had heard about it happening on C6s, but I had an '05 that I put 50k miles on and never had that problem.
Maybe the dealer gets a better reimbursement if they say they had to replace the wires?

mksz51

The dealer actually has the plug wires in stock? I find that somewhat amazing on a new engine in a fairly limited production vehicle. How do you know he is really replacing the wires? Yeah - I've seen dealers say they did something, bill for it, and then not do it.............great way to ID that is ask to see the old parts when you go to pick up the vehicle.

Mr Guns

Already picked it up, so too late for that. They didn't have them in stock. I gave it to them at 7:30 this morning, and they said it would be done around 12 as they had the wires coming from two different locations. They actually finished it around 3PM, and they said there was a hold up on one of their deliveries.

I'm guessing the wires would've been fine without replacing, and if I hadn't of been out of town and without tools, I would've just popped them back on, but I couldn't access the coil packs without removing the cover that sits above it.

southerncarparts

I wish you well sir...