I just had a very unpleasant experience with my 98. 30k and almost never in the rain. Always hand washed. I rented a place in Sun City West for Jan and Feb for golf and day trips. We took the 98 to a hight pressure touchless car wash. About 3 weeks later, coming back from Sedona the headlights would not raise. I manually raised them. Then about 4 days later I went out to the garage and the headlights were on with a smell of burning electrical. Smoke was coming out around the passenger headlight. I took off the headlight cover and the connector to the Headlight Control Module. The connector had a LOT of water in it. Took it to the Chevy dealer and the module was bad. The service guy said it was probably the high pressure wash spraying at all angles that caused it. Just FYI

 

Not that I'm a fan of the toughless pressure car washes, but I would attribute the issue to solely being the car wash.

Sucks that you had a problem though.

 

Let's see here.

How many cars go through a touchless car wash a day? And this issue is the cause of the car wash?

I doubt it. GM said oil use issues on the Northstar were normal, they said oil use issues on a few of the LS1's were normal. They said the clear coat protection on cars peeling wasn't a defect.

yeah they say a lot of ****

 

I only know what I know. This car has only seen rain about twice and I have always hand washed in the past. I could see a LOT of water in the connector going to the HCM. I just thought it was worth putting this out. Not planning to get a lawyer, not planning to raise hell with the car wash, just planning not to power wash again.

 

I agree with the others that this probably isn't an issue with the car wash. However, if it is then that wouldn't say much about the build quality of our cars.

 

Thanks for the heads up.....

 

I don't think the car wash should have caused your problem, these cars are designed to be driven outside, in all kinds of weather. Then again, I don't ever use water on mine, or drive it in the rain.

 

One reason why I don't go through those!

 

Okay, most people say that they don't go through car washes because they can cause all kind of problems, even if they are the touch less ones, due to the high pressure of the water..........................

Now this OP puts up his story about going through a car wash, the resulting problem and people say it's not the wash, but must have been an underlining problem...............

So what gives???

 

I can believe it. Same same if you put high pressure wash to your house windows. It can break the seal and windows fog up in between panes. Ask me how I know.

 

OldBill, thanks for sharing. Even if it turned out not to be the car wash, giving us all a heads up does no harm.

That being said, I took the vert thru a touchless wash once. That won't happen again any time soon. I couldn't have told you if anything was on fire because I couldn't see past all the water coming thru around the window seals

 

Happened to me also. never again.

 

I never would take my car to any kind of commercial car wash. They / it arn't/ isn't going to wash it like I do by my hands. As far as I'm concerned, leave it dirty till you get the time to wash it yourself.

 

When traveling take a bottle of Optimum No Rinse with you. All you need is one bucket of water and best part no issues or repairs needed on car components.

www.autogeek.net

 

OK it was the car wash, is it ok if I contiinue to use car washes?

Hell at 52 years old and after using them my whole life I did not know a car wash could do this to a car.

SOB

 

I've had 3 C5s and 99% of the time I've taken the cars to a self serve high pressure car wash. While I don't raise the headlights to wash the car (I clean them later when wiping down the car), I've never had any problems with the headlights malfunctioning. Not saying it couldn't happen to yours, but it just hasn't been my experience.

 

I pressure wash my car AND pop the hood to rinse the entire engine compartment.....no problems, I just dry up what I can before I crank it and drive off.

 

Let's look at the facts, shall we?

The OP stated that he never takes his C5 out in the rain and always hand-washes his car.

The electrical shorts were caused by water getting into electrical connectors, even though before the high-pressure wash, this had never happened.

Based upon these two crucial facts, how could anyone not surmise that the high-pressure wash was the culprit? The only other explaination would be if he parked over sprinkler heads that popped up during the middle of the night and soaked the underside of his car!

While we like to believe that GM tested prototype C5s under every possible condition and for the equivalent of 15 years of use, this just is not the case. How many "udders" get filled up with debris until they overflow? How many ground connections become corroded and fail after many miles of driving in the rain? How many door wire connectors work their way loose from the connector body and short, causing weird electrical issues after the driver's door is repeatedly swung wide open, hundreds of times? None of these things should happen, but they do. The fact remains that if you want to avoid many of these issues, you really can't treat your car as if it is a taxicab.
After owning Corvettes for a total of 32 years, that's the conclusion I have arrived at.

 

I would never go through a touchless car wash with the vette. The pressures and angles that the jets are positioned at can cause problems especially with the popup light system. No matter how much testing a manufacturer does, they cannot possibly account for all extreme situations such as having a high pressure water jet pointing directly at an electrical component for a certain amount of time. I just don't risk it with the vette. However, I do use a touchless car wash in the winter on my DD 2010 Mustang. No problems so far. But, it's a completely different design of car.......alot simpler with less things to go wrong.

 

The spray must have just hit it at the right angle to get in there because the water didn't grow in there!

I've taken mine through the touchless many times with no problems other than the wife getting wet.

I recently bought a new top and have adjusted some on it and made quite a bit of progress. Hardly any water gets in now.

Also, I blow a turn signal bulb about 1/2 the time. I finally siliconed the crack shut on top of the housing and that's all better now.