'06 C6 & TPMS (and my day at Thunderhill)
11-17-2007, 01:31 PM
#1
Safety Car
Thread Starter
'06 C6 & TPMS (and my day at Thunderhill)
Short version:
If you have a tire pressure sensor fail and start sending 0psi or if the computer sees the signal but interprets it as 0psi, you're completely screwed.
Long version:
Well, yesterday was one of those days. Drove up to Thunderhill Thursday night and missed early check-in for the track day. Woke up yesterday morning to drive to the track and the DIC starts telling me the LF tire is flat and I'm in "Maximum 55mph / Reduced Handling"... stop, look at the tire, check the air pressure (26psi). I have to check-in at the track before I figure out what's going on.
That done. It's time to dig out the Bartec and see if we can excite this sensor in to working for me. Rummage through the tool kit and don't find the tool. Guess I left it at home since I only brought the one set of wheels up. Try dropping the pressure 5psi, adding 15psi, any sort of dance. Nothing. Time to head off to a tire shop back in town and see if somebody has a tool to try to fix this.
Back to town. First shop. No luck. But he gave me a number of a tire shop about 20 minutes away and they said they had the tool. Jump in the car and start heading down the highway... maybe 2 miles down the highway and the LF starts reading 30psi. Celebration! Turn around at the first exit and head back to the track.
*Footnote 1
Run through the final prep as what should have been my first session ends. Pull the helmet out of the bag and... oh, look... the Bartec tool. *sigh* No idea what made me put it in there. I'm pretty open with my tools at the track so hopefully somebody else did that, but who knows. Turns out another fellow with a C6 had forgotten to reprogram his wheels when he put his track stuff on so at least somebody got good use of it yesterday.
Out for a session and have a good time. Car feels good. Best it's felt for me on track!
*Footnote 2
Anyway, two sessions later I'm working my way around the track and see a friend I keep wanting to play with a couple of cars ahead. So I push a bit harder to get up with him. Thankfully that meant putting a bit of distance on the RS4 that had previously been between him and I... I say that because as I crested T9 the DIC started screaming about a flat LF tire again and the 55mph reduce handling. I peek down and I'm doing 95mph and accelerating so what the hell, let's just drive on. Brake hard for T10, off the brakes, turn-in, and all hell brakes loose. The car has decided to slam on the brakes. I finally get it straight and I'm frantically waving out the window because I'm now doing about 40mph where I'm usually doing much more and I have an Audi RS4 closing fast thinking I'm going to be doing my usual speed...
Crawl around the last 3 turns and in to the paddock. Yup. Sensor is sending 0psi again. But at least I know where my Bartec is... maybe. The Bartec won't talk to the LF sensor. Whether the car is in learn mode or not. I fumble around the car trying to program two of the remaining three good wheels twice in to the computer with absolutely no luck at all there. And I keep trying. And trying. In learn mode, out of learn mode. Call some folks for ideas and magically, while on the phone with John@CCW, the sensor starts talking to the tool -- but the car refuses to accept it.
I'm pretty dejected at this point. Get in the car and start it to see if I can find some magic combination of buttons to push... I turn the car on and immediately hold down the AH/TC button and I notice the DIC now says "Service Tire Monitor" followed by [paraphrase] "Nannies disabled." Woohoo! Happy dance!
Test it again... but I forget to hold the button down immediately after starting (while it flashes up the Corvette logo on the DIC)... try to hit the button once I see the "Service Tire Monitor" message and it'll just cycle TC-On/Off. No woohoo. But finally realize what I'd done different and doing the press & hold with the logo up works again... (doing this did NOT work when it thought I had a flat LF).
Head out for session five (my fourth now) and have a great time. The car is working well for me today... then the Ding-Ding from the DIC and my heart sinks. I look down to see... "Low Fuel". Well, bonehead, you forgot to put gas in since you were so busy with the TPM issue. I turned two more laps and decided not to push my luck and came in early for gas.
Last session was only 15 minutes (rather than 25) and I ended up out on track first in group. I had a blast. Wish I had some lap times from yesterday. Like I said, the car felt great...
Now if we could just get GM to send out an update to make the TPM advisory rather than having it actually try to causing something to happen (or not). If that Audi had been on my bumper going in to T10 I'm sure I would have collected him...
All that said, my many thanks to a tonne of folks who I bothered on the phone multiple times looking for ideas:
Gary Hoffman @ HardbarUSA
John, Chip, and a kind lady whose name I forget @ CCW
Mark @ MSI
David Bonar @ Northstar Corvettes
Danny Popp @ RAFT Motorsports
Without a community like we have I would have given up in the morning and had an awful day. Gary and John has endless ideas and patience. Mark called me back without knowing me from a hole in the ground (all I've bought from them is jacking pucks!). David dug through the C6 technical manuals and called me back with ideas-- I'd called him before I found the Bartec tool in the morning.
Obligatory picture gallery:
http://gotbluemilk.com/web071116/4glen/index.html
Car is a Z51 plus:
KONI 3013Sports (Testing for Bruce@Performance Shock Inc)
Hardbar Camber Plates & Stud Kit
CCW C14 Corsairs 18x11 F/R
Toyo R888 295/30r18 305/35r18
Hardbar Shift ****
DRM SS Brake Lines
PFC 01 Front / Wilwood H Rear grabbing Base model rotors
Base model rear sway bar
*Footnote 1: A few minutes after returning to the track I noticed the noise stopped... session was red flagged and I noticed a friend's friend was likely out in this session. A quick thought that it may be him and I wandered to the port-a-potty. As I'm walking back to our paddock location I see him getting out of the ambulance. He was perfectly fine; a bruised elbow and later in the day a sore wrist. But his VW was looking like a write-off when they brought it in on the hook. He'd rolled it going in to T10; I guess he had a RF lock way before the LF and he hooked straight off into the burm and over (a few times).
*Footnote 2: My buddy that I finally convinced to bring his well prepare 3rd gen RX7 out had water puking out of his car when he went to go out for his third session. Had to pull the RF fender liner off and rummage around. Turned out the fitting on the coolant overflow was loose. Since they'd put a bunch of water in when it first said Add Coolant it spent the rest of the day dumping small amounts of water out the overflow each session but was otherwise okay.
If you have a tire pressure sensor fail and start sending 0psi or if the computer sees the signal but interprets it as 0psi, you're completely screwed.
Long version:
Well, yesterday was one of those days. Drove up to Thunderhill Thursday night and missed early check-in for the track day. Woke up yesterday morning to drive to the track and the DIC starts telling me the LF tire is flat and I'm in "Maximum 55mph / Reduced Handling"... stop, look at the tire, check the air pressure (26psi). I have to check-in at the track before I figure out what's going on.
That done. It's time to dig out the Bartec and see if we can excite this sensor in to working for me. Rummage through the tool kit and don't find the tool. Guess I left it at home since I only brought the one set of wheels up. Try dropping the pressure 5psi, adding 15psi, any sort of dance. Nothing. Time to head off to a tire shop back in town and see if somebody has a tool to try to fix this.
Back to town. First shop. No luck. But he gave me a number of a tire shop about 20 minutes away and they said they had the tool. Jump in the car and start heading down the highway... maybe 2 miles down the highway and the LF starts reading 30psi. Celebration! Turn around at the first exit and head back to the track.
*Footnote 1
Run through the final prep as what should have been my first session ends. Pull the helmet out of the bag and... oh, look... the Bartec tool. *sigh* No idea what made me put it in there. I'm pretty open with my tools at the track so hopefully somebody else did that, but who knows. Turns out another fellow with a C6 had forgotten to reprogram his wheels when he put his track stuff on so at least somebody got good use of it yesterday.
Out for a session and have a good time. Car feels good. Best it's felt for me on track!
*Footnote 2
Anyway, two sessions later I'm working my way around the track and see a friend I keep wanting to play with a couple of cars ahead. So I push a bit harder to get up with him. Thankfully that meant putting a bit of distance on the RS4 that had previously been between him and I... I say that because as I crested T9 the DIC started screaming about a flat LF tire again and the 55mph reduce handling. I peek down and I'm doing 95mph and accelerating so what the hell, let's just drive on. Brake hard for T10, off the brakes, turn-in, and all hell brakes loose. The car has decided to slam on the brakes. I finally get it straight and I'm frantically waving out the window because I'm now doing about 40mph where I'm usually doing much more and I have an Audi RS4 closing fast thinking I'm going to be doing my usual speed...
Crawl around the last 3 turns and in to the paddock. Yup. Sensor is sending 0psi again. But at least I know where my Bartec is... maybe. The Bartec won't talk to the LF sensor. Whether the car is in learn mode or not. I fumble around the car trying to program two of the remaining three good wheels twice in to the computer with absolutely no luck at all there. And I keep trying. And trying. In learn mode, out of learn mode. Call some folks for ideas and magically, while on the phone with John@CCW, the sensor starts talking to the tool -- but the car refuses to accept it.
I'm pretty dejected at this point. Get in the car and start it to see if I can find some magic combination of buttons to push... I turn the car on and immediately hold down the AH/TC button and I notice the DIC now says "Service Tire Monitor" followed by [paraphrase] "Nannies disabled." Woohoo! Happy dance!
Test it again... but I forget to hold the button down immediately after starting (while it flashes up the Corvette logo on the DIC)... try to hit the button once I see the "Service Tire Monitor" message and it'll just cycle TC-On/Off. No woohoo. But finally realize what I'd done different and doing the press & hold with the logo up works again... (doing this did NOT work when it thought I had a flat LF).
Head out for session five (my fourth now) and have a great time. The car is working well for me today... then the Ding-Ding from the DIC and my heart sinks. I look down to see... "Low Fuel". Well, bonehead, you forgot to put gas in since you were so busy with the TPM issue. I turned two more laps and decided not to push my luck and came in early for gas.
Last session was only 15 minutes (rather than 25) and I ended up out on track first in group. I had a blast. Wish I had some lap times from yesterday. Like I said, the car felt great...
Now if we could just get GM to send out an update to make the TPM advisory rather than having it actually try to causing something to happen (or not). If that Audi had been on my bumper going in to T10 I'm sure I would have collected him...
All that said, my many thanks to a tonne of folks who I bothered on the phone multiple times looking for ideas:
Gary Hoffman @ HardbarUSA
John, Chip, and a kind lady whose name I forget @ CCW
Mark @ MSI
David Bonar @ Northstar Corvettes
Danny Popp @ RAFT Motorsports
Without a community like we have I would have given up in the morning and had an awful day. Gary and John has endless ideas and patience. Mark called me back without knowing me from a hole in the ground (all I've bought from them is jacking pucks!). David dug through the C6 technical manuals and called me back with ideas-- I'd called him before I found the Bartec tool in the morning.
Obligatory picture gallery:
http://gotbluemilk.com/web071116/4glen/index.html
Car is a Z51 plus:
KONI 3013Sports (Testing for Bruce@Performance Shock Inc)
Hardbar Camber Plates & Stud Kit
CCW C14 Corsairs 18x11 F/R
Toyo R888 295/30r18 305/35r18
Hardbar Shift ****
DRM SS Brake Lines
PFC 01 Front / Wilwood H Rear grabbing Base model rotors
Base model rear sway bar
*Footnote 1: A few minutes after returning to the track I noticed the noise stopped... session was red flagged and I noticed a friend's friend was likely out in this session. A quick thought that it may be him and I wandered to the port-a-potty. As I'm walking back to our paddock location I see him getting out of the ambulance. He was perfectly fine; a bruised elbow and later in the day a sore wrist. But his VW was looking like a write-off when they brought it in on the hook. He'd rolled it going in to T10; I guess he had a RF lock way before the LF and he hooked straight off into the burm and over (a few times).
*Footnote 2: My buddy that I finally convinced to bring his well prepare 3rd gen RX7 out had water puking out of his car when he went to go out for his third session. Had to pull the RF fender liner off and rummage around. Turned out the fitting on the coolant overflow was loose. Since they'd put a bunch of water in when it first said Add Coolant it spent the rest of the day dumping small amounts of water out the overflow each session but was otherwise okay.
11-17-2007, 06:16 PM
#3
Safety Car
Thread Starter
I assume that'd be the same as the gentleman that came to borrow my Bartec tool. He'd put on different wheels to come to the track. His complaint was that the car wouldn't let him enable Competitive Driving mode... and that's a step before turning everything off! Better than the "Reduced Handling" I suffered, though.
