Michael A Riley

So a couple of weeks or so ago i drove our 2015 Z06 to see a client. The route was full of winding roads, through the hills, etc. On the way back i opted to turn on the pdr and do some spirited driving. To my surprise, the pdr screen was black.

To make a long story short, i took the car in to the dealer two days later. Dealer tried to do a software update on the pdr, but said it wouldn't take. This was after a few hours of trying, and me sitting, waiting. They eventually just said the screen was bad.

Took the car home, and the following Monday dropped the car off for screen replacement (it took a couple of days to get a new screen to the dealer). This was supposed to only be about a 4 hour job, so we scheduled my appointment for first thing in the morning, and i sat and waited. finally around lunch time someone came out and told me the screen was in, but they couldn't update the software.

At this point they had already been talking with gm engineers about my car. The new plan (per gm engineers) was for the engineers to write a new software update for my car's pdr system, send it to the dealer, and then that new software would supposedly go in and update accordingly.

At this point i figured what the heck, leave the car at the dealer...I've got a truck i usually drive for work, and i have three other corvettes and my wife's suv sitting at home, so no big deal.

A couple of days later the dealer calls and they have the new software update from gm, supposedly specifically written for my car's pdr system, BUT, they needed a new sd card to do the update. Mind you, i had already pointed out that i had a blank, formatted, 32 gb sdhc card in the cup holder for them to use, to update through the globe box (by this time i had started looking here on the forum to atleast try to help). They insisted my card was the wrong kind, and that the engineers said to use a different kind.

By this time my car had been in and out of the shop about three times, and probably close to a week of "fidgeting" with it by the dealer. I felt pretty silly to put them through so much for just a pdr screen going blank, but heck, i have started tracking the car and the pdr feature is amazing and the feedback it gives between track sessions is very useful. Plus, at nearly a $2k add, i wasn't about to give up on it, especially since it's still under warranty.

Wife and i had a trip to vegas planned, and i had already told the dealer i wanted the car back in my stables before we left for vegas.

While waiting at the airport both to and from vegas, I had plenty of time to research more, on my phone. Came across articles about screen updates, software updates, etc. Finally broadened my search to general screen failures and discovered general screen flickers or blanking out are way more common than just pdr screen failures. Common one seemed to be bad connection or loose wire.

Proceeded to search youtube videos to see how to get to the sometimes loose wires. Found a couple of vids showing how to remove console and dash trim, and this morning tried it myself. All i had to remove was the long trim along the side of the console, on the driver's side, and one little triangluar piece at the side/base of the radio. Reached in and felt the wires. Turned the pdr on, pushed the button, still nothing. Moved the wires with my finger, and YES! it worked. So then i lowered the screen, and it quite again. Moved the wires, and it worked again.

Did this several times to make sure that was "really" the problem, and even went for a long drive and used the pdr the whole time. It's hard to believe that something so simple had the techs and the gm engineers stumped.

Haven't decided if i am going to remove the dash and try to fix the wire myself, or take to the dealer again and just show them what the problem is. It's crazy, i'm just baffled at how something so simple had people on both ends of the team baffled. Not complaining at all here, just bewildered by the time and money (new screen i received) that was thrown at this for something so simple, and thought i'd post my experience so if anyone else has a screen go blank, whether radio, pdr, or anything, you might just check for a loose wire first and save yourself some heartache!

X25

You should definitely let them know, so they learn about their error, and hopefully pass it on to the GM techs, too.

SpeedyD

I have had something similar to this happen in the past where among the internet it was obvious but the dealer had zero clue. Always best to let them know so it may help someone else in the future
Dan

Patches

Heard this story so many times about how the simple fix was online but the dealer had no clue. You'd think by now the dealers would bring in one of their net-savvy kids to man the computers to find answers to issues that baffle the techs - they would look like heroes to the customers.

QKSLVRZ

It's not so much that a fix was to be found on line, it's the dealer's techs don't really understand how to troubleshoot, GM gets a bit of a pass, they aren't there to make sure the easy* problems get checked first.

* Failure rates strongly relate to interconnect failures. The worst are connectors, from consumer, Auto, Military Worse to best, then connections to wires and such, wires, circuit solder joints, IC connections external, IC connections internal, finally the tiny circuit interconnects.

Bad, connections.