Hey guys,

So I just bought a new-to-me EB 2002 Z06 (you might remember the for-sale thread by Z06 KOS), and I had a pretty hellish time getting the car home. I thought some of you might find this interesting, so I decided to share. It is really long, but somewhat entertaining. Enjoy!

I flew out to meet Steve on Friday night of last week (5-23). Flew into Reagan Airport in D.C., hopped on the Metro and walked the short distance to where the car was kept. Steve wasn't home from work yet, but I was able to get the keys and play around with the car until I he arrived. I have always been a little suspicious of online transactions, so I took the liberty of getting the car inspected by an independent third party dealer prior to purchasing. Everything turned out exactly as expected- the car was in great shape and there were no issues whatsoever (other than a rough idle, which I chalk up to a cold engine with a big cam). Steve got home a little over an hour later, and we took the car out for a short jaunt around the town. The car ran great, and there seemed to be relatively no issues- the brakes were a little warped, but no biggie. Steve was a great guy, and was a pleasure to do business with- big thanks to him. To sum it up, the car definitely met my expectations and then some. I was happy.

I had never been in D.C. before, so the gf and I decided to make a short weekend trip out of this. We stayed downtown at the Hilton Garden Inn, and we did all of the touristy crap that is expected of people visiting the nation's capital. Honestly, it was super fun and just about the coolest thing I had ever seen- to be so close to documents that this country was built upon and to see such amazing historical pieces (planes, dinosaurs, etc...) was really special. That Monday (Memorial Day) was the day that we designated to make the long drive back to Chicago. On our way out of town, we stopped at the second Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles airport. If you have a chance to go there, DO IT!!! It was freaking unreal- they have the Enola Gay, a Concorde Jet, the space shuttle Enterprise, and an SR-71 Blackbird (my personal favorite) for you to see.

At about 3 pm, we finished at the museum and dauntingly set out on our drive home. Prior to leaving the parking lot, I used painters tape to tape up the front end of the car- the front end of the car had extremely clean paint, and I didn't want to get any rock chips on it to mess it up. It ended up being a waste of time (you will find out later why). Dulles turned out to be probably the worst place to start this trip to Chicago, because there were no highways close that took us in the direction we wanted to go. We ended up driving along some two lane back roads for an hour to get to Highway 70; slow drivers prevented me from really opening the car up too much (not that I really speed, but I do have fun sometimes ). About another hour on Highway 70 passed by, and I had to stop to get gas. This is where all the fun started.

The town was Breezewood PA. At the Exxon station right off the highway, I filled up the tank and began to drive away. The car dies. I start the car up again, and I am getting the wonderful "Service Column Lock" display on the DIC. Researching the car prior to buying it, I knew that this was the kiss of death for me. I refused to believe this was happening, and so I started it up again, tried to drive to one of the nearby parking spots, and the 2 mph fuel cut off stalls the car again. I'm thinking "Great. What a time/place to have this happen". We were in the middle of nowhere on a holiday weekend. I pulled up the sticky for the column lock issue on this forum, and tried all the tricks outlined to no avail. So I was forced to call the GM Roadside Assistance line. I was pretty upset at this time, and I wanted to get the address of the gas station that I was at- I asked the lady working the counter what the address was, and she didn't know. How unbelievable is that? She didn't know the address of where she worked. I had to then walk outside to read the street names at the intersection, which ended up being sufficient.

The guy I talked to on the GM line was really nice, and I kind of got the sense that he was used to being crapped on by people on the other end of the phone, so he had some overly nice connotation to his voice. But whatever... he called a tow truck to take me to the nearest Chevy dealership, which came in about an hour and a half. I was pretty much expecting a standard tow truck, but some super cool guy game with a flatbed to tow my car. I did learn that most people in the area were extremely nice to me, despite me being pretty upset.

He towed the car about 40 miles to Thomas Chevrolet in Bedford PA. We left the car there overnight and stayed down the street at a Hampton Inn (the closest hotel to the dealership). Again, the people at the hotel were super nice and forgiving to our situation.

In the morning (Tuesday), I got up early to go to the dealership to give them the keys and tell them what is going on. I am pretty sure that they had never worked on a corvette before there, which was pretty unnerving. I had to basically explain what the problem was on the car. They did a VIN check, and found out that the recall work for the column lock had already been performed. Their diagnosis was that the column lock mechanism (and the sensor) was bad, and that it needed to be fixed. It would NOT be covered under warranty or recall, and I would be paying for everything out-of-pocket. They had me by the ***** here, seeing I was in some unknown region and just wanted to get home. So I authorized them to do the work. The problem was they had no parts at the dealership, and would have to order them; they would have them there the following morning. I was flipping out at this point- there was no way that I wanted to spend another night in this town. I called each of the three Uhaul places in town regarding getting a truck and trailer to tow the car home, but no one had any equipment. "But we could get the truck and trailer from 100 miles away and have it here in 3 hours if you pay $800 for it". Yea right. I told the dealership to order the lock mechanism, and also order a new BCM just in case that was the problem. I agreed to pay the 10% restocking fee if I didn't need the BCM- I just wanted them to have one on hand as insurance. So at 2 pm, we left the dealership for a night on the town in Bedford.

That night, we walked about 3 miles to the main street in Bedford along a 2 lane country highway. We ended up drinking beer at probably the crappiest bar I have ever been in, and saw Indiana Jones at their 1-screen, 1-showing-per-night movie theatre. At 10 pm, we walked the 3 miles back to the hotel in the rain. Good times.

The next morning (Wednesday), I went to the dealership early again to get the status on the car. This was the critical day; my gf (who by the way took everything in stride- she is a total keeper) whose birthday is coming up had plans that evening. Her friends organized an outing to go to the Cubs game for her birthday. As long as we left at about 11 local time, we would get back in time for her to go. If not, there would be some pretty big disappointment.

I was surprised to already see the technician working on the car, as they had already gotten shipment of the lock. I didn't want to bug him, so I gave him a few hours to work before checking the status again. At 11 am, my car was still in the garage, but the entire interior was put back together. I got a little giddy thinking the problem was resolved and we could be on our way. I saw the tech walking back to his desk, and I asked how things were going. His response was "Not good". I felt immediate anger. Before exploding, I let him tell me what the problem was. It seems that the ignition switch had trouble recognizing when the key was in and out, causing the BCM to think that the column was locked. I asked him if they had the part, and his response was no. But they had a runner going to get it- it would take an hour to get it, and another couple hours to put it in. This was my lowest point thus far- I basically blew up. Not only would I have to stay in this town longer, but the gf was going to miss her bday party. After some choice words, I took a nice long walk to cool down. The gf started bawling.

3 hours later, the car was fixed. I searched for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. That was because the tech took it out for a drive to make sure everything was proper. He came back, and told me "That car runs like ****". I had visions of him overwriting the custom tune on the car, and reverting back to the stock one. After asking him numerous times, he told me that he didn't mess with anything on the PCM. I believed him. He also told me that by trying the relay jump to override the column lock (as explained in the sticky), that the column lock sensor failed and that it was a good thing he replaced it. I knew that he was just covering his *** so that they could still charge me for the column lock mechanism swap, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get the f out of that town. $850 dollars later, we were on the road.

About a half hour of driving later, the fuel gauge stopped working. It just went to zero with the "Check Gauges" light blowing up in my face, even though there was 3/4 of a tank remaining. I later found out that the float is stuck- pretty common, but at the time I was thinking "what next???". I had to rely on the trip odometer for fill-ups for the rest of the trip.

The drive was uneventful until I got to Indiana. Just outside of South Bend was where the fun REALLY started. It was just getting to dusk, we were listening to the cubs game on the radio, and doing about 80 on the highway. There was forest to the right of the road, and a guardrail separating the two. I was approaching a 20 foot gap in the guardrail when an adult deer literally sprinted out onto the road. BANG!!!! There was no warning, no avoidance. Within about 0.3 seconds, we went from driving along normally to airbags exploding in our faces. I hit the deer square with the front of the car, and I have no idea what happened after that- the airbag blocked my entire visibility. After smooshing the bag down so I could see where I was going, I pulled off to the side of the road as quickly as I could. The first thing I did was to make sure that both the gf and I were ok (we were). I expected to have a smashed windshield/hood, but I didn't see either. It was incredibly surreal- throughout the entire ordeal, I never lost my cool or lost a sense of what was happening. I have no idea how I remained so calm.

As soon as I pulled off, I had to get out of the car. If you have never experienced it, airbags smell horrific and leave this dust all over everything- not very pleasant. I honestly got to say, the most frustrating part of the whole thing was that there was about 10 cars directly behind me with a front row seat to the incident, and not a single one stopped to see if we were ok. Everyone flew by like nothing happened; that was completely unbelievable to me. I got out to survey the damage, and snapped this shot with my phone:


After pulling off the loose plastic with my hands, I decided to get off the highway and fix the rest. I was sick of semi trucks buzzing my head as I lay under the front of the car. It was 10 miles to the next stop (which was some deserted farm road), and the whole time the corner of the front air dam was dragging. I payed the toll and pulled into the employee parking lot. Using a pair of scissors from the tollbooth guy, I cut the rest of the plastic off. I started the car to pull away, and the motor died at 2 mph. "Pull key, wait 10 secs" was what the DIC said. This was the lowest point of the trip.

Luckily, after 10 seconds of disbelief, I started the car again and drove off without a problem. I drove the remaining 1.5 hours just waiting for something else to happen, but nothing did. I started the drive at 3 pm Monday, and finally walked in my front door at 10:30 Wednesday. I did learn a few things though:
- The gf and I have never been closer. I think that it is the stressful times that define a relationship, and because we both have the mindset of "make the best out of any situation", we actually had a few good times stuck in the middle of nowhere.
- Either corvettes are built ridiculously tough, or I got ridiculously lucky. In any case, to hit a fully grown deer at 80 and only have the damage shown in the pic is pretty amazing.
- Corvettes are more fun to drive than I could ever imagine. That is, when they actually work and aren't busted.
- GET THE DAMN CAR SHIPPED IF YOU MAKE AN OUT OF STATE PURCHASE

I plan on getting the car fixed at D&M Corvettes in Downers Grove. I have heard nothing but great things about them from locals, and I would much rather have corvette experts fix the car than some Joe Schmoe at a collision shop. I have State Farm insurance, and my only out-of-pocket expense is the $500 comprehensive deductible, so that isn't bad at all, considering.

If you have read until here... I hope you enjoyed it. This site has been invaluable to me so far, so I figured I would try to contribute with a post of my own.

Thoughts?

 

You and GF are troopers for sure.


I would have over nighted a CLB from one of the vendors and installed it myself.

 

wow....that's an amazing, crazy, sickening, scary, fun, wacky story! Glad you and your g/f are ok!

 

That sucks bro. Glad youre ok though. Where at in Chicago are you?

 

Wow...that was a rough trip. Hope your Vette ownership is smoother from here on out.

PS: I'd get that CLB installed before it leaves the body shop.

 

That is just...wow, glad that you both made it through this situation. You seem to have handled it well.

 

This is what I have been saying all along:

"Their diagnosis was that the column lock mechanism (and the sensor) was bad, and that it needed to be fixed. It would NOT be covered under warranty or recall, and I would be paying for everything out-of-pocket. They had me by the ***** here,....."

GM has left us high and dry on the column lock issue. CLB, CLB. CLB!!!

You have had one hell of an ordeal. I hope the rest of your experience with the car is better from here on in. You already have taken all the bad from it that you deserve. Give the GF a hug and a kiss from all of us. Both of you are "troopers"!

 

Can I say .... wow...

Glad you and g/f are ok, hitting that deer could have turned out completely different.

Someone was looking out for you that day.

Maybe all the bad luck offset all the good luck you were going to need to walk away from hitting a deer at 80 in a plastic car.

Best of luck on getting her back to new.

 

I'm so sorry that you buying experience with the new Vette was so horrible. I know there are good things to take from this, but man, you pretty much had a lot of the joy of buying a Vette taken out from under you.

I read this story twice, once to myself, and once out loud to my wife. The whole time reading it, your GF reminded me of my wife, with many bad situations/outings that we've been through. Don't let go of that one! I've been with a lot of girls, and a girl that'll stand by you through a situation like that is definately a keeper!!!!

I wish you the best and post pics of the car in repaired form.

Best wishes my friend!

 

Wow what a story and glad you finally made it home safe and good luck with the fix

 

That's one trip the two of you will never forget.
Congrats on the Z06.

 

Wow! You had more bad luck in a couple of days with your new Vette then most of us have had ever . I can't imagine anything more happening ever again.

Anyway, good luck with it in the future and happy belated birthday to your GF. She's a keeper .

Dave

 

Damn, that was like the trip from hell. Sure glad you and your girlfriend were not injured. Best of luck getting the car repaired and hope that is the end of your problems for a long, long time.

 

Didn't enjoy reading your story instead I felt really bad for you and your GF. Thanks God you guys made it home safe. You owe that woman alot take good care of her.....

 

What a story!

Hopefully insurance will cover the deer incident?

I have owned quite a few Corvettes over the past 35 years and driven over half a million miles in Corvettes with only one accident - that was in my 1985 red coupe - I hit a new Cadillac in the left front wheel as he pulled out in front of me at an intersection where I was going 45mph. I saw him stopped at the sign and even looked him in the eye - then all of a sudden he lunged out in front of me. I knew I could not miss him, so I aimed at his left front wheel. When I hit him, I slid down in the seat (no airbags back then), and all I remember was seeing his hood flying off the car and his left front wheel snap. Bottom line is that his new Cadillac was declared totaled and all I sustained was $200 worth of cosmetic damage to the front bumper - I actually started my car (after it died in the impact) and backed up so they could tow the pieces of his car away. My insurance paid me $1800 for damages, but it only took me $200 to fix it myself - I may have lost the ability to take another frontal hit since I did not replace the egg-crate underneath the bumper. But "yes" Corvettes can be tough!

 

WOW, I read the whole thing. I feel for you two, I wish you all the luck in the future that all goes well from now on.
Bill

 

Damn, my sympathies, that is one of the most horrific stories I've heard on here. Hope some good corvette karma comes your way.

 

You never did say, did they mess with the tune?

 

Wow...that's a story for the grandkids. I'm glad everything worked out ok for you and the gf.

 

WOW!!! Seems like these cars don't like new owners. My buddy had a battery die and a "service column lock" on his drive home from picking his up recently. I though he was just unlucky, but man you win!!!!

Congrats on the car though