So I just bought a MINT 04 C5 with a Bose system, I believe it's all stock.

Anyway, car's fine except today I noticed the stereo went into "muffled" mode. That's about the only way I know to describe it.

So normally you hear bass, mid and treble. And all of a sudden it was like the treble disappeared and a lot of the mid range went away too so all you're left with is some strange bass with a few mids thrown in for sound.

It seems to come back after 5-10 minutes. I dunno it's just weird and has me a little shaky since it's a new car.

It's only got 8000 miles on it so I suspect it's been sitting in some garage for a while.

Any known issues with these Bose systems I should know about? Any recommendations on where and how to even begin to fix this?

(This is my first Vette so forgive me if I'm asking a n00b question please)

 

Hi, welcome and congrats on the new Vette. You might want to post this question in the Audio/Electronics section under Forums, at top of page, then down to General Corvette. You may get some more input over there if you can't get what your looking for under the General section. Lots of people here with tons of info on Corvette Forum so i'm sure you will get it worked out.

Good luck,

Darion

 

Hi Darion,

Thanks for the heads up on this. Will re-post in the correct section.

 

Did you have this issue when running the system at high volume for a period of time or did this happen when at normal volume level?

Darion

 

I got it yesterday and everything was fine. Drove it about 60 miles to a relative's house today, so far so good.

As I'm leaving his place about 5 minutes on the road and it did it. Came back to normal after a few minutes.

It's fine until I'm almost home. Does it for 5-10 minutes again and comes back right before I pull in my driveway.

Normal volume, CD and radio, didn't matter which one was being used. Tried turning it off, back on, etc.

 

Ok, so the first thing I would do is pull the radio surround and check the connection. The car has low miles but you never know if an aftermarket radio was installed without looking, as I have done in my car.

You will have to take off the armrest, about four screws and then remove about four more screws from the radio surround, then pull the surround off, it uses clips to hold in place. Next a few screws holding the radio in place then slid the radio out and inspect. I'm not certain on the number of screws but its not all that hard or that many, I'll look for a how-to.

Corvette radio systems have a amp for the bass in the doors that is remotely located, I don't know where, and a amp in the H/U for mids and highs. So once you find out if all is stork and you have good connections this would be the next place I would look too.

Good luck,

Darion

 

Around here, exactly what you are describing happens, but it is the local radio station problem and not our vehicles.

If you fill out your profile, people might be able to help a little more knowing where you are from and such.

 

I thought it could be that too but I switched to the CD player and the problem persisted.

When it comes back to normal sound both CD and radio sound fine.

 

Saw you posted up in the Audio section and I will move there with more info.

Darion

 

I have this same thing. I thought it was my ears because I noticed it after swimming, but this description is spot on. I could not describe it better, except to say, if I turn it way up to hear better, the sound goes rough.

Any tips would be a help. I have a replacement Bose, that I bought here on the forum, just because of other wear and coffee damage I did to the buttons. But I don't want to be rushed to install that, if the muffled sound is just blown speakers.

Thanks

 

Same same - drives me nuts.

 

A good low mile used factory head unit usually runs $100-150. Just a guess, but Id bet its something in the head unit.

 

Sorry to prolong this thread. Now this morning I am getting the dreaded "Pull key, wait 10 secs" message.

This is all just too coincidental. I get long tube headers installed, drive a week, get the radio muffled, and now the "pull key" message. Could I have a bad fuse or electrical connection?

I work next door to a retail parts store, so I can get those on lunch break if needed.

 

This car (the C5) is particularly sensitive to the state of your battery and grounds in the car. Its often said (only half in jest) that if you hear an exhaust rattle . . .check the battery (and we're not kidding).

It is possible that during the work on the car the battery could have been drained down. The "Pull key and wait . . ." message is related to the Column Lock problem (a well known and common problem in the C5).

Wile there are several issues with the design that fail, the Column Lock problem is also effected by the state of the battery. Unfortunately, you cant see that accurately by switching to the volts display on the DIC (that shows the volts read through the system when the car is off and what the car is calling for from the alternator when its running). You need to check it with a meter across the terminals with the battery disconnected. If you are next door to an auto parts place, have them check it. Low voltage from the battery will cause the column lock to malfunction and not release.

I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but search for posts by this guy 8vette7, he often explains the column lock issues here.

Bottom line is:

Its a known problem.

There are three GM fixes that may or may not have been done to your car.

It doesn't matter which were done (even if all were done) the problem can reoccur and will leave you stranded on the side of the road.

There is an aftermarket part that you can install yourself (or have installed) that does fix the problem permanently.

Search for Column Lock Bypass

A couple of links to get you started

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-question.html

http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=24

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...ck-bypass.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ould-have.html


And, although we never got to it your altered radio soundscape may be related to the same type of issue (sorry, not a sound guy).

But one thing is pretty well established, in this car make sure your battery is at the right voltage all by itself and that the ground points in the car aren't corroded, before you go looking for anything else, because so many systems depend on uninterrupted power at the right level to work and talk to each other.

Good luck

 

Hey, thanks for the column-lock refresher. This is my second C5, and maybe I do the bypass this time. On the last car, I let the dealer fix it.. twice. That car never recovered. It ended up with the hazard switch thing , and the dealer never actually cured that. I sold the car at a deep loss with a disclaimer "this car sometimes does not start". This new one is a 2004Z and the consensus, as I know it to be, is that some of these bugs are gone, or atleast less prevalent.

But this morning, I go to check the fuses in the floor board to figure out if maybe that is what the radio wants, and find ... water! What the heck. I go from being bored with the car and adding headers, to now I have a bad radio and a clogged A/C drain. I think I need a long nap.

 

I use a battery tender (Deltran) on my car anytime it sits for more than 24hrs, it may be helping to keep down electrical gremlins, can't hurt. I noticed my stereo occassionally switching on & off the preset bias eq. When this happens it will display (in the stereo dash) jazz, rock, classical and sometimes no word display at all, however when it does happen it will change the speakers sound. An empty display seems to reduce output until I compensate with added treble and base along with a slight bump in volume. There also is a speed compensation on your volume control which is a small lever behind the volume **** itself.

 

Houston . . .we have a new problem . . .

First, about the Hazard signal thing, thats easily solved by another aftermarket product, the Flasher bypass. It plugs right into the stock wiring under the dash by the driver and you can install it with one screwdriver in ten minutes with a beer in the other hand. The instructions are on the vendors sight. Once installed, both your turn signal and hazard flasher are run through it (instead of the switch in the dash). Guys put them in when they switch to led bulbs because the led's take so little power that the circuit thinks the bulb is burned out and switches to the faster flash (hyperflash). But you can add it to your car even with the oem bulbs and not worry about the unit in the dash.

Second, the water you are seeing in the passenger footwell.....is bad juju. Fortunately, it is very often easy to stop. There is an AC drain that runs through the fire wall on the right side of the car that has a narrowed tip that gets clogged (hence the condensation builds up and back flows into the compartment......right onto your BCM [that silver box]), btw your amp for the stereo is also on that side, against the torque tunnel, but I don't know if its in a position to get wet. At any rate, there will be no joy in Mudville if your getting water in there.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ak-checks.html

Post three has the drain your looking for.

You can reach in from the pass side under the hood, pull it off, cut the end off and put it back. You may want to take a look at the udders (yes, we have udders, its a long story and we try not to talk about it in mixed company but I figured you'd want to know) before you get water in any other area.

Good luck

 

Car is at the dealer now. Thanks for the tip about the Hyper Flash. I may get that done some day soon. As I recall from my last Vette which never seemed to heal from hazard switch failure, the car would just not start sometimes.

I am going the dealer route because this car is a daily driver, and I need it fixed fast. Also, I remember the "Harness K" fixed my last vette for the column lock, so I recommended the dealer do that to this one, under warranty. They will do whatever they feel like doing, but it felt nice to have something to say at the dropoff point

There was a rubber elbow thing coming out the firewall. I was able to squeeze it but not remove it by reaching back there. I now have a big bruise on one arm. I used a coat hanger to rip the thing out. It looked like it was already trimmed and hacked. Only had a spout about 1/8 inch long pointing down.

The tow truck driver and I stared at the car for a long time trying to figure out where to put straps to pull it from behind. My driveway forced him to have to load it backwards. Then, he just got in the car and drove it up on the flat bed.

 

Cool cool, well review the thread linked above and take a look at the udders, the water has got to be comming from somewhere and Im assuming its there even when its not raining so . . .

You may still want to condiser doing that CLB in the future as its the only solution that seems to work definitively. Just read up on it and decide, btw you also need to have the fuel shutoff programmed out of the PCM either way (not much good being able to turn the wheel if the car is programmed not to exceed 2mph when the problem happens), but hopefully, with keeping the battery up to par you wont be in that situation.

Good luck


And about the tow . . . . . . .welcome to the world of "damn this car is a pain to get up on a flatbed" (in less than optimal conditions)

 

Just wrapping this one up, now. I think. The dealer said I can pick up in a couple hours and that all was needed was a new Column Lock Bypass (or something that sounded like that). They said mine was wet. Understood... the A/C line got dirt in it which forced water into the passenger compartment.
So I asked "are you sure I don't need a recall or Harness 'K' install?". He said this year/model was not included in that.