Last month, the wiff and I jumped in the Vette and headed to the Orange County, CA area.

(Bold sections for the short version!)

Just before we got to Flagstaff, AZ, I noticed a ticking sound coming from the right side of the car. It sounded like it was coming from the front wheel but unfortunately, it was so faint I couldn't really tell for sure. It was rather like the sound you hear when you have a screw in the tire.

Dangit.

We pulled in for gas and as we did, I rolled down the window but couldn't hear it any more. We gassed up and headed south on 89A toward Sedona, AZ. As we drove through Oak Creek Canyon (absolutely gorgeous drive, by the way! ), we could hear the ticking again. Definitely coming from the front right wheel. I pulled over and checked but couldn't see anything. Moved the car back and forth checking the tread all the way around but. . .

. . .nothing. Dangit.

Pulled out and could still hear it and about a mile later, pulled over again. Found that the brake caliper was not in the proper position and I was able to pull it back into place with my bare hands. I could tell that the top caliper bolt must have come out although we had never heard anything hit the underside of the car. Also, there is now a nice little channel groove all the way around the inside of the aluminum wheel.

Crap.

After pushing the caliper back into place, we drove on, but I used the transmission to slow the car at that point. In Cottonwood, AZ, we found a Chevy dealer, Larry Green Chevrolet. The minute I pulled in, the car was immediately surrounded by the service guy and a mechanic who is, allegedly, their "Corvette guy." I don't recall his name, unfortunately. Five minutes later, my car disappeared, after I showed the mechanic what was up, of course.

The service writer pointed us to a grill where the dealership was grilling burgers and dogs. We grabbed some food and just as we finished eating, the car was back out in the service drive. They confirmed that it was a missing top caliper bolt and said we were lucky it wasn't the bottom bolt. THAT would have shredded the wheel the minute we put on the brakes at high speed. We paid about $30 and were on our way. Time spent was about 30 minutes but we ate and we didn't have to stop to find food! Overall, we lucked out on several counts, methinks.

For this little repair, I can't rate the dealership completely, however, they didn't make any fuss about it, just got it done and didn't try to rape us on the cost. For that alone, I'd be inclined to go back if need be.

Up to this point, we had been getting about 29 mpg so I was a happy camper in that regard. It correlated with the information I'd been getting here and in other places. That is a calculated number, too, not the DIC number.

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We went through Cottonwood, AZ, up through Jerome, AZ and up to Prescott, AZ. I've always loved that drive. On the motorcycles, it's a blast. In the Vette, it was just as much fun except for the people who won't move over when you get behind 'em. Still, we had a good time driving it. The car does very nicely in the twisties, especially coming out of Prescott, AZ down into the desert toward Peeples Valley, AZ.

We gassed up in Quartzite and then headed across the desert toward Palm Springs and the coast. As luck would have it, a strong headwind beat on us the rest of the way to Orange County and gas mileage dropped to about 21 mpg.

Dang.

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We finally reached our destination and spent the week in So. CA. I'd forgotten how much of a pain it is to drive a manual transmission in So. CA traffic. For the most part, though, we were able to time our trips during off-peak hours. We went to the wedding we were there to see and then bounced around visiting people.

A few days later, we headed back to New Mexico.

As we drove across the desert again temperatures were in the 110+ territory. The car seemed to be running just fine, however. Thank my lucky stars for A/C! At various times in the previous twenty-five years, we had made the trip in various old beat up cars with 2-80 air only and THAT was no fun at all!

Again, we gassed up in Quartzite and everything came to a screeching halt. After refueling, the gas gauge stayed on E. I knew I had read something about that on this forum but I couldn't recall the details of it at first. I knew the car was topped off, though, so I didn't stress about it too much and started to pull away. I don't recall the exact DIC message I got but it went "ding" and said something about the gas tank being empty.

Double dang.

As we got on the freeway, the gas gauge rose to about half way, then dropped to E, then rose to 3/4, then back to E. Finally, after about 30 miles of back and forth, it rose to 3/4, then gradually rose to F.

At this point, I remembered that I had read about the crossover pump going bad on the Vettes or the tube getting plugged up. I figured that we had nine gallons of gas from that point forward and we simply decided to make sure we gassed up every 200 miles or so, just to be sure.

We pulled into a hotel in Phoenix, then decided to go get something to eat. As I started the car, the gas gauge went wonky again but now, we were also hearing a high pitched whine behind the driver's seat. It sounded like a fuel pump to me and I assumed that the crossover pump was pumping its last gas. I decided not to refuel, just in case we took it to a mechanic in the morning, he or she wouldn't have to mess with two full tanks of gas.

We took food back to the hotel, wonky gas gauge and whiny fuel pump and all. Been a while since we had In 'N' Out!

I spent several hours on the laptop on this forum looking for information. The whine seemed to be inconsequential and potentially "normal" even though this was the first time we'd ever heard it. I found a couple of mechanics referred on this site, however, just to be safe, and noted their phone numbers and addresses in the GPS on my phone. Also, I refreshed my memory on the crossover pump issue. We decided we could get home to Albuquerque without too much trouble except for gassing up more than twice as often as we would have normally needed.

When we started up the car in the morning, we were all ears. There was a little bit of a whine and after mere moments, it was gone. The gas gauge was acting normally and showed about as much gas I was expecting, a bit over half.

We gassed up and I put a bottle of Techron in the tank. We went to breakfast and everything seemed hunky-dory. After we ate, we started the car and again the gas gauge did it's little song and dance again.

Dang. I had hoped it was going to just fix itself.

We went through Scottsdale, AZ and took the back road up to Payson, AZ where we gassed up again. Wonky gas gauge again. Gassed up again in Springerville, AZ and ate lunch but this time, the gas gauge was acting normally. In Quemado, NM we turned North to Grants, NM. On this leg, my wife was driving and she got 35.5 mpg. Amazing. Gassed up in Grants and drove to Albuquerque and again, got 35.5 mpg (on the DIC this time). Gas gauge not having any issues.

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Over the next couple of days, I kept an eye on it. Also, I figured that driving around town, the worst that could happen would be that I'd have to call AAA or walk to a gas station for a couple gallons of gas. The gas gauge seems to be working just fine now. Sometime in the next few days, I'll take it to Scotty's and see what they have to say about it and have him check the brake caliper bolt.

Over all, though, the car is decent for long-distance traveling. My only issue is that the passenger seat doesn't lay back so I had a very difficult time sleeping when I needed to while the wiff was driving.

--Wag--

I know, cool story, bro!

 

Glad to see that you both made it back in good shape..btw what year is your c5? Ken

 

Glad you were able to finish the trip considering the issues with the car. Hope things don't end up costing too much to bet it back to good working order again.

 

It's an '04 with about 68,000 miles on it.

It seems like it's going okay. Just need to check those caliper bolts on the rest of the car and the codes list.

--Wag--

 

these cars are great for long trips, but like any 8 year old car, long trips can be a little more stressful. glad you made it home with no further issues!

 

Those caliper bolts should be installed with some red lock tight on the threads. Technically GM says you should not re-use the bolts, but replace them every time the calipers are removed. (no one does this).

 

And we have seen first hand what happens when they're reused without any lock tight. The reason GM says to not reuse them is because the lock tight will be forgotten. New bolts come with the lock tight already on them.

 

Definitely have to get 'em all checked.

--Wag--

 

What an adventure! I really enjoyed reading it and I'm glad everything worked out in the end!

Regarding your gas gauge, it might just be the fuel sending units... Try 2 or 3 back-to-back fill ups with Techron to see if it goes away.

 

A buddy of mine had the same thing happen to him on his trip back to Abq from california, rear caliper bolt came out and caliper was making noise. (wasn't on a vette though)

 

Last week I posted about our 9000 mile road trip and the problems we had with a bad tank of gas in Adairsville Ga at the BP. It took perhaps four bottles of Techron to make the fuel gauge function normally. The I used some Sea Foam and the gauge is behaving.

I also posted about the Chevy Dealer in Ellensburg Wa. who only billed me an hour to repair and replace a spark plug wire some raccoons probably chewed on. Its good to know there are honest dealers when you are on the road.

This forum is a travelling Chilton Manual when you are on the road and the people on post some great info.

 

Exactly!

--Wag--