God where do i start...? Ok nice day today decided to go to a Show this morning. Car ran great.... On the way home i hit a pot hole... Nothing major next thing I know i get service active handling etc soon. I've see this before but not very often. Turn off the car it goes back to normal I was told it could be a loose wire maybe. Today I was getting all kinds of crazy warning... car said it was running on reduced power (never seen that before) but it wasn't. It said the "Shocks were not working" but they seemed to be fine. the temp needle pinned itself but it wasn't over heating at all. The gas needle dropped to nothing ( but they all do that) it kept ringing some warning chime. Then all of a sudden after about 15mins of this everything was fine. The car never ran poorly at all during this either.
At this point i know something is up but it seems like everything has settled down. I knew I was going to have to look into this on Monday but at the moment it was like nothing ever happened. I had two stops I had to make before I went in. Made the first one came out...everything was fine. Decide ok. let me drop this stuff off and I'll take it in. Came out..BANG it's the steering lock thing...turn the key..nothing. Everything inside the car is working and normal but it wouldn't do a thing, not a sound. Now before you yell at me I had the by pass put on it last year when it wouldn't start like this and was told that would fix that problem and the car hasn't ever acted to till today.

So...has anyone else seen or heard of anything like this?
Should I get another by pass for it?
Was it the bump in the pot hold that knocked something goofy?
I ended out leaving it at a friends and took the train home. Just didn't trust it.

 

That is NOT a symptom of the column lock problem. However, it is a symptom of the security lockout. ie the resistence of the key does not match that stored in the PCM so the security system shuts off the electrical path to the starter as well as the path to the fuel pump. Problem also occurs when the system cannot communicate over the serial data buss to the BCM.

Further, all the symptoms you are describing match to a T those of the serial buss wire, in the door rubber accordian tube between the door and body, shorting to ground. Read the following (with pictures):

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...n-long-32.html

Then go to post #640.

Easy repair. get yourself some liquid electrical tape. Available at most parts stores.

 

Check your PM's, I live in Warrington Bill

 

Keith, check your codes and see if you get LDCM and RDCM codes. I know you'll have HVAC and remote codes. They all go along with what we talked about

 

Start Simple...

How old is the battery? Could it be going? What does the DIC read for the battery voltage? S/B between ~13.3v to ~14.2v (when running). Could the jolt from hitting the pot hole caused one of the battery cables to loosen?

Good Luck! These kind of problems can be very frustrating...

 

Bummer, my experiences with electrical gremlins in previous C5s:

1. Check the connections in the accordian covers inside the door hinge. Very common for one of the wires in the back of the connection to lose its plastic cover. Causes all sorts of weird gremlins including traction control/ABS.

2. Check the wiring harness under the battery. Bought a car that must have had a previous leaking battery (had new one at purchase). Cuased many electrical gremlins including reduced engine power and I eventually developed an occasional engine misfire whenever it rained.

3. Have heard of issues with the grounds.

Good luck. You can also shoot Bill Curlee a PM or check his posts. The man is an electrical genious when it comes to the C5. Nice guy too.