I've had my 2000 C5 for about seven months, and it has had no problems so far (first Vette, great thing). The previous owner took out the original Bose system and replaced it with some sophisticated radio/navigation, which he ripped out before selling. The car has had a hole there for 7 months and all was ok. Two weeks ago I had a new radio professionally installed (standard 2 din radio with cd and bluetooth, nothing fancy), and the crazyness begun. Sometimes the security light comes on, others my door controls don't work, and in the last couple of days the instrument panel lights up, gauges stop working, the thing goes on reduced power, and sometimes even remote stops working. If I turn off the engine and restart it, everything resets and goes back to normal, until the next time. Could this be related to the radio? Or is it just a coincidence and maybe the computer is about to give up? Any pointers?

 

For 1 I would check out the charging system and make sure the battery is up to par, If all checks out well I would have the installers check it out if you had no issues before the unit install.
Mr.Bill

 

Check for bad Grounds

 

Thanks for the input. The battery did indeed go low after the install, and I dont drive it much, but the charging system seems fine (the gauge is over 13 all the time).

 

You mean bad grounds on the radio?

 

Have the battery charged up and see what happens.

 

OK, I'll charge the battery and come back. Tks.

 

The existing radio wiring does contain a serial data interface wire. If your new radio, adapted into the existing radio harness, its possible that something is wired to the data wire that shouldn't be, which will cause all sorts of problems.

 

How old is your battery? If over 4 years old I'd consider a new one. Low/bad batteries on these cars cause all kind of weird stuff to happen.

 

Date stamp on battery says 5/10, so it's not very old. I hooked up the charger to it, and it is pretty charged up, the green light came on and is staying on. Doubt it's battery, however, the comment about the wiring harness is pretty intriguing. According to the radio installer, several people messed with the thing in the past, so who knows what's there.

 

Just a quick update. The problem has to be the radio; I have been driving with the radio off for the last three days, and absolutely nothing bad has happened. I will get with the installer and will post the culprit as soon as I find out. Tks for your input.

 

Good luck - hope the installer can track down the problem area.

 

If someone has the schematic for the radio interface, they can identify which wire is the serial data line. I would think you could cut the one wire there at the rear of the radio and you'll be ok from there...but then again as you said, others have been in there previously.

 

I cant overemphasize how much trouble a "not up to par" battery can cause in this particular vehicle. I realize you hooked it up to a battery charger and the green light came on but that just means for that minute....its charged....says nothing about how it does with a load on it.

The charging system readout on the DIC you look at when the car is running really has nothing to do with the state of the battery...it shows what the system is requesting from the alternator. The best way to take a look is to disconnect the negative lead and test across the terminals with a digital meter. Better yet, take it someplace and have it load tested (parts stores do this for free).

Is the battery in there a Red Top Optima? The reason I ask is that that particular battery technology doesn't respond well to being drained. You often see where they have been run down, recharged and read the right voltage and in a short while (or when put under load) they crap out.

Many of the problems that pop up from a worn battery happen when you start it, the systems have to all check in in order and when the battery isn't up to par they don't do that and that causes faults (Colum Lock, AH/TC stuff) but it seems from your description that your problems only surface after driving for a while....is that right?

That type of thing is often caused by a short/bad connection/bad ground type of thing (that wouldn't be the ground for the radio, that would be chassis grounds, a specific problem with these cars, has to do with corrosion at the ground points, you can search on that if you want to take a look at that).

The bad connection thing would be what you seem to be leaning towards (as in they screwed something up on installing the radio)...always possible but cant help you there.

The short thing (as in a dead short somewhere in the radio or regular car wiring) is a good place to look as it will cause this type of "non repeatable" symptom. BTW just because you drove a few hours with the radio off and had no problems doesn't necessarily mean its the radio . Now if you did that three times in a row.....ya....that would be repeatable and pretty much clear it up.

One thing off the top of my head that they could screw up in a radio install (or when the guy ripped out the other aftermarket system) is if they had different speakers in the doors. The wire loom that runs through the accordion you see when you open the door is prone (in this car) to have worn insulation on the wires that run through it. Ive seen all kinds of wierd...bad juju type of things reported that wound up being a short at that location. You can just pull it back and look at the wires, nothign to disassemble.

Good luck pinning it down. Enjoy that car

 

That is a great answer!
To add to the above, once you're sure the battery checks out okay, you may want to do some work on your chassis grounds just to eliminate that possibility. If you look at Bill Curlees electrical sticky in C5 Tech it walks you through the problem and solution. If it were me I'd clean the chassis grounds just to eliminate that possibility, and would also check the electrical connections and wires inside the rubber accordions in each door.

 

Also pull your codes using the DIC if you haven't already.

 

I worry about the installers in this situation that is why I still have the factory radio in my vette. Good luck.

 

Thank you all for the great input. Jistari, you are absolutely right, just because it did not happen for a couple of days, it does not mean anything. I took it to the installer, who had ran all his own speaker wires, and had him disconnect the radio (it is still there, but not plugged into anything). Sure enough, the problem was still there and it is getting worse. However, I narrowed it down to some connection to the left door; the lights on the buttons come on and off, and was able to trigger the symptoms by gently pulling the hose that connects the door to the frame. Today I took it to our local Corvette expert, who will track the loose wire (hopefully). As to why change the radio in the first place, I agree; I never got to hear the original Bose, but I bet it sounded pretty good. I had no choice in the matter, the previous owner had ripped his nav/sound system off when he could not pay and the car got reposessed.

 

This answers a ton of questions for me. I have the original Bose stereo and this along with several other threads indicating terror after custom install, I am leaning towards leaving the original and just running the ipod adapter thru the existing CD changer in the trunk.

 

Hmmm! I changed out my original Bose system myself and had absolutely no issues. I got all the "how to" info from this great forum. There is no comparison between my Kenwood and the crappy Bose that was in the car. I'm sure there have been a few horror stories, but they are the exception.