Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

Your problems are all stemming from the same root cause. The battery is low or bad. I know you said you keep the battery on a tender but eventually every battery goes bad. Especially in the heat of summer.

Measure the voltage of the battery across the battery posts with the neg battery cable disconnected. If it is 12.5 or less then the battery is low and causing the reduced power and traction control messages.

A good battery at full charge will measure 12.7 to 12.9 volts or more measured as I described. The car will start when the battery voltage is 12.2 volts or less but the C5 electronics are NOT happy with 12.5 or less. Having voltage after the car starts does NOT help the column lock system since it runs BEFORE the engine is started and alternator voltage after the engine starts is too late.

The CLB is going to fail to work correctly if the GM K Harness is not removed. The GM K Harness when left in place is between the CLB and the brain that process Column Lock (Body Control Module or BCM). The K Harness is very prone to failure when the battery goes low. When that happens the BCM signals are not seen by the CLB so the CLB cannot respond back to the BCM. The purpose of the CLB and/or LMC5 is to fool the BCM into thinking the column lock system is functioning correctly and thereby avoiding the Column Lock Symptoms.

It is clear that the Tech you are working with does NOT understand the functioning of a CLB nor does he understand the column lock system. He thinks he does but if fact he does NOT.

If you think you know more about the column lock system than I do then why are you continuing to ask for help??? You should be just fine if you know how the system works but obviously you are not fine at this point.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

That will insure that the CLB will work properly. It will have NO EFFECT on the Traction Control and Reduced Power symptoms you experienced.

Column Lock is totally unrelated to either of those other symptoms. You may well experience these symptoms once the CLB is correctly installed with the GM K Harness removed.

Your choice what you do next but if it were my car I would double check the battery and the battery connections. You might also pull and post ALL the codes that your car has. Post the H or C or HC that follow each 5 character code. List the codes below the sensor that they are related to ie 10 - PCM, 28 - TCS, 40 - BCM etc.

If you have never pulled codes before here is how:






OR



http://www.c5forum.com/ayc/dtcdic.php

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

P1518 indicates a problem with communication between the PCM (Powertrain Control Module) and the TAC (Throttle Actuator Control).

Might be a fluke but perhaps not. It is not a code listed in the shop manual for my 2004 so I did a search on that code here on the Forum. Many, many hits. They ALL have the same theme as cause, low battery voltage. Here is one thread that lists the earlier shop manual description of the code:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...dule-urgh.html


Scroll down to post #6. In that post under DIAGNOSTIC AIDS go to line 6 and it reads :

DTC P1518 sets if the battery voltage is low.

The description also mentions that the code sets the check engine light (referred to as MIL (Malfunction Indicator Light)).

P1518 also causes the "reduced engine power" message that you mentioned in an earlier post.


I mentioned many posts back in this thread that "The most common cause of Column Lock symptoms is a weak or bad battery or loose battery connections."

I am also aware that you said you had a new battery. New does not necessarily mean that it is good. I continue to suggest that you have the battery checked and insure that ALL the battery connections are clean and tight.


Your clearing the codes does NOT FIX anything. It simply discards the history record that indicates the event occurred. Sort of like throwing out a bill that you get in the mail without paying it.....


There are some other things that you can check. The side post batteries were well known for leaking acid. The PCM and TAC are DIRECTLY below the battery. If you were to take the battery out and then the floor that the battery sits on you will see the PCM wiring harness. Examine it for signs of acid damage. Damaged wiring can cause strange events to occur that set codes.

As I mentioned above the condition P1518 might be a fluke but only time will tell.....

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

Anything is possible but I think it is very unlikely. I have often started my car which sits plugged ito a battery tender and have never had any issues. That doesn't mean it cannot happen but I feel it is very unlikely.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

They don't remove the lock ring as a part of the recall. They do replace it with a smaller diameter ring that cannot intercept the lock pin thus preventing the column from physically locking.

Is your car an automatic or manual trans??

Makes a difference when installing a CLB. On the 99 and 2000 manual trans there is another step to be taken to insure the CLB will always work if the GM Column Lock Recall service has been done to the car.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

They don't remove the lock ring as a part of the recall. They do replace it with a smaller diameter ring that cannot intercept the lock pin thus preventing the column from physically locking.

Is your car an automatic or manual trans??

Makes a difference when installing a CLB. On the 99 and 2000 manual trans there is another step to be taken to insure the CLB will always work if the GM Column Lock Recall service has been done to the car.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

If you thump the lock motor with the handle of a screw driver it will likely free up. Grease in the motor can get thick with age/time:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...lumn-lock.html


If the car is an auto and has had the GM Column Lock Recall Service, the small diameter lock ring, that has no detents to intercept the lock pin, has been installed. While the BCM continuues to go through the motions of locking and unlocking the column, it NEVER physically locks...

As long as the K Harness has been removed, a CLB install will be straight forward. ie no special steps.


You really should open your own thread about your column lock issues rather than hi-jacking this one.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

Let me try to explain it.


Before the recall was done the male connector from the lock motor was plugged into a female connector that is attached to the bottom of the dash. The wires from the BCM that operate the column lock function come into that female connector.

When the recall service was done the Tech added a GM K Harness between the lock motor and the Connector that is attached to the bottom of the dash.

To install a CLB correctly the K Harness must be unplugged from the female connector under the dash whose wires go back to the BCM. Then the male connector of the CLB must be plugged into that female connector.

When that is done the BCM talks directly to the CLB and not through the GM K Harness.

As an FYI here is a picture of a GM K Harness:


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Notice that it has a male and female connector so that it could be inserted in series between the lock motor male connector and the female connector under the dash.

Let me know if that is not clear.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

I understand that the Tech only went by the directions that came with the CLB. The problem with the CLB solution is that it was aimed at a specific wiring configuration. The people that wrote the instructions failed to recognise that there are MANY different variations of the Column Lock wiring across 1997 to 2004 model years and for manual vs the automatic transmissions and a host of other things like the numerous attempted fixes that GM tried BEFORE the NHTSA mandated recall in Jan 2004 and then the 4 variations of the GM fix that followed the 2004 version. Plain and simple the C5 Column Lock is a total FUBAR thanks the the idiots and bean counters at GM that never came up with a PERMANENT fix that does not fail.


The issue NOW is that the recall wiring on your car which DOES include a GM K Harness needs to be added into the equation for installing a CLB..... the obvious alternative is to remove the CLB and let the GM solution work until it fails again which it WILL.

What the Tech did was unplug the lock motor from the GM K Harness. That left the female connector of the K Harness unused. He then plugged the CLB (which has a male connector) into the unused connector on the K Harness. The result is that signals from the BCM have to pass through the K Harness to reach the CLB. Further the connectors from the lock motor have 4 wires. The factory connector under the dash also had 4 wires so things matched up nicely. The K Harness has a connector with 4 wires that plugs into the female connector under the dash. THAT matches nicely. But the 4 wires go into a relay and 2 wires come out of the relay to go to the lock motor. That DOES NOT match nicely. The Relay was taking over some of the function of the lock motor so it worked for the GM solution. But the CLB expects 4 wires to be connected for it to work. Plugging the CLB into the 2 wires of the K Harness means that the CLB is NOT going to see the signals it was designed to work with. ie it is NOT going to function correctly.

What the Tech needs to do is remove the K harness competely from the car and then plug the male connector of the CLB into the female connector that is attached to the bottom of the dash and whose wires go back to the BCM. With this setup the BCM lock and unlock signals go directly to the CLB. The CLB responses to the BCM then go directly back to the BCM. NO RECALL COMPONENTS INVOLVED TO MESS UP THE SIGNALING BETWEEN BCM AND CLB.


As to why the part that "stuck" did so, I cannot answer without examining the part. Could be electrical failure, could be lack of use or any of several other things.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

I wish I could agree with you but I do NOT. The other code (P1518) is PCM related and the Column Lock is BCM related. The presence of the K Harness will ONLY mess up the communications between the CLB and the BCM. It is not going to impact the PCM.....

Something else is causing the P1518 and I know you may disagree but it is voltage related.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

A small lesson on codes.

MOST but not all codes are generated with the engine running. When the codes occur they will be MOSTLY C with the engine running. When the engine is shut off the codes are changed to H or History because the system that generated them is no longer active so they can not be C or Current..

You CAN pull codes with the engine running. To do that you MUST first clear any messages in the DIC using the reset button. Then pull the codes as normal. If there are newly generated codes during the current drive cycle they will show up as C. You will also see any codes that were generated during previous drive cycles but those will be H since they are "old" codes. H after a code does NOT mean the code can be ignored. They are audit trails of events that have happened and can be extremely helpful in diagnosing problems.

Further clearing codes is NOT a good idea if you have to have the car emissions tested soon. Clearing codes and disconnecting the battery causes certain emissions "ready" signals to be reset NOT READY. It takes several drive cycles after clearing codes or disconnecting the battery to get all the emissions monitors back to the READY state.


Not wanting to pay the Stealership $140 per hour is one big benefit of the Corvetter Forum. The information and help in this thread alone would have cost you MANY hundreds of $$$$$ if you were dealing with the Stealership.

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

I offered that as a solution in the post quoted here....

Originally Posted by 8VETTE7

Good luck with your problem.