Hey everyone. I am brand new here and to my corvette. I purchased a 1999 C5 Corvette a couple days ago and it has a few quirks that need attention. Let me know what you guys think and what I could do to fix the issue.

#1.
In reverse, you have to hold the shifter extremely hard in reverse or else the transmission slips and grinds. Sometimes on a slight incline it will grind all the time, but no matter what, I have to hold the stick in reverse with a lot of strength. Also, on occassion when I'm shifting through the gears while driving, it will grind going into 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear. It never grinds in all 3 gears consecutively, but it will hit 1 of the three gears every once and a while, usually at higher RPMs.

Possible Fix:
Should I just go ahead and have the transmission rebuilt? Or could this be a clutch problem?

Questions:
When you have the transmission rebuilt, does this include the clutch? Or would the clutch be another $1000 fix on top of the transmission cost?

If I do have the transmission rebuilt, should I take it to a shop and pay for parts/labor or should I purchase a remanufactured transmission online or through an auto shop and that installed?

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Right now this is my biggest concern. The ABS Light and Active Handling Guage come on almost everytime I drive, but I believe this is an ABS Sensor issue because the ABS still works when I slam on the brakes hard.

Please let me know your thoughts, I would really love to have this car fixed asap so I can enjoy it's power.

Thank you!

 

Cant help with the shifting but the AH light can be a bunch of things.

First thing you need to do is take a look at your battery. Make sure its charged and load tested. Trust me, a weak battery (even if it starts the car fine) in this car can cause a lot of problems that will have you all over the place looking for why lights dont work, car refuses to start, wheel wont unlock, just start there.

Also, after you're sure the battery is good to go, take a look at the codes in the on board diagnostic system.

Look at post 9 here for instructions, and remember the name of the member in post 9, because you will be searching for posts by Bill Curlee if you have to track down what is going on with most electrical problems you might have

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...-my-vette.html

If you say the AH light is on "most of the time" it may be the case that nothing is actually broke, could be the battery as I said or possibly a bad ground (also covered in Bills posts), or a bad wheel speed sensor or steering wheel position sensor, EBCM, goes on and on.

Dont get nutz , start with the battery, then look at what codes the car is throwing, post them here and you'll eventually get to the bottom of it.

Good luck

 

Talk to RPM transmissions. I had the same problem, grinds into 2,3,4. Problem was the shift forks were bent from previous owner banging out the gears and the plastic pads were broke. To my understanding, stock forks came aluminum. I did the work myself which is intensive, but do able. What I was going to say though, is after I took my tranny out, I took it to a 'trusted' local shop and they wanted $3000 for a rebuild with stock parts. RPM hooked my up with a Level 4 and added the bronze shift pads for $2200

 

Here are the links I used, hope this helps:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...sion-swap.html

 

I wouldn't put a rebuilt transmission back in this car without a visual inspection/replacement of the clutch. I agree with a previous comment about shifting abuse and the clutch will have suffered because of it.

Also, after a THOROUGH test of the battery and cable connections I would check the codes and be prepared to disassemble, clean and reassemble the engine compartment ground connections.

Good luck and welcome aboard.

OBD

 

Thanks for the information.

I am going to have a garage take a look at the transmission and quote me a price for the repair. I'm willing to drop $1500 into it, but I have a feeling it will probably cost me a bit more than that.

Also, I am now getting the apparantly dreaded, "Service Column Lock" code popping up on my dash and making the car un-usable. I have contacted a dealership and they informed me that the recall was VOID on my car because it was over 80,000 miles. I am currently contacting Chevrolet direct to see if I can get my issue sorted through them and get the part replaced under recall rather than out of my pocket.

A mechanic today told me that if I put the key in the ignition, and turn it to the "On" position and leave it there for 45 minutes, then the entire system will reset itself and it should fix my problem. I don't know if this is true or not, but I just tried it so I guess I'll find out if it works.

 

You may want to consider two things:

One, the Column lock problem is very often related to the battery issues I spoke on before. Without the correct voltage, the colum wont unlock.

Two, if its not, and you do get GM to do any of the three recalls for you, you would still be at risk of the problem coming up again (cars with all three recalls done still have the problem at times). 8vette7 may pass by here and give you the accurate info for your specific case, but the only way Ive read of killing the problem for good is to have a column lock bypass (an after market part) installed, and having the 2 mph fuel cutoff programmed out of the PCM.

Common problem with thousands of posts, use advanced search and read up if you're inclined (the member I mentioned above usually explains the system well if you want to search for his posts).

Good luck

Oddly enough the first post I saw on the top page tonite may be helpful to you

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...heel-lock.html

 

I agree with the above posters that said the shifting issues are likely due to broken shift forks. I had the same problem and I've read about them on here a ton.

As for the service column lock, the gm recalls are a waste of time and money. You'll have the same problem, you need a clb. Search the (literally) thousands of threads on this issue or just read this sticky for more info http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ky-please.html

 

Update:

I had an appointment with my dealership yesterday. Over the phone they told me that they could get me hooked up and ready to roll. Well I showed up and they said there was nothing they could do for me... so that left me extremely disatisfied with my visit.

I contacted GM direct, but didn't really get anywhere with them either.

I went ahead and ordered a CLB on eBay. It was like $50. Hopefully this will fix all my problems.

I have been reading the posts about the Column Lock Error, and it seems like most of the victims are getting stuck with a car that has a locked steering wheel, but in my case, I can turn the wheel all I want, I can even turn the wheel fully while the key is out of the ignition, so I think there's something wrong with the column lock itself, but whenever I go to drive it the engine will cut off after a few feet. Maybe my entire Column Lock Motor is bad and not just the harness? If this is the case, the dealership told me it was a $700 fix including parts and labor.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

 

With the column lock problem the car cuts off fuel supply to the engine at speeds above 2 MPH. Install the CLB and then if you want you can have a tuner reprogram the fuel cut off speed to something reasonable, like 200 MPH.

 

I just hope you got a killer deal on your Vette purchase. Problems like this are a little easier to swallow if you were aware of them ahead of time. I don't think $1500.00 is going to solve your problems but it will be great when everything is working properly.

 

I thought I might give you a easy fix to the tranny problem (don't get upset if its like did you plug it in?) Could the shifting problem be related to the hydraulics for the clutch? I started changing the fluid out little by little (mine was a real gunky black color) and emediately noticed better shifting and less gear hesitation/grinding. Just maybe your hydraulic system needs cleaning.

 

I installed the CLB a couple days ago and it fixed my column lock issue, at least for now. Hopefully the problem wont' return.

Also, I took the vette to a local transmission shop that my family has used several times and they gave me a pretty good estimate. They said $600 for labor and around $600 for parts depending on what is wrong inside the tranny. So I'm looking at roughly $1200 to get a full rebuild of my trans which I think is a pretty damn good deal.

After they finish with the trans, I'm going to start looking into cosmetic upgrades such as Audio. Does anybody have those aftermarket Projector headlights in their vette? Do they look good or are they pretty cheesy?

If you have any suggestions as to what I could get to make this car look awesome, please let me know. My vette is 100% stock and is black with black leather and a targa top. Let me know, thanks!