ok... so here is some back gound and my problem...

1 month after i bought my car i had a valve spring fail on #4 cylinder.. i sucked a valve and shattered a piston, thus shooting my rod though my cylinder wall... right when the engine blew my DIC went crazy flashing reduced engine power and stuff.

well i got the car towed home and in the front yard i could put the key on and the car would work just fine (electrically) but wouldnt turn (rod stuck through block)

so i then moved the car into the back yard. i put the key in, unlocked the column and pushed it into the back yard on the side of the house. i then began the tear down of the motor, pulling the heads and seeing my #4 piston completely gone with a rod stuck through the block. so then i realized i needed a completely new engine.

i then ordered up my 408 from HPE and got me some stage 3 LS6 heads that flowed 330 CFM @ 600, and bought the rest of the motor stuff...

in the down time of the car i was driving my dads truck and the vette key got stuck in the steering column of the truck (wedged in between the wheel and thing behind it) and it snapped my key in half (only had 1 key) so i went to the dealership and had them make me two new keys off of my VIN number. the key works in everything just fine.

well here is the problem....about a week ago we went to move the car back into the front yard and i stick the key in to unlock the column so we can steer it.... the column will not unlock... and im getting all sorts of messages on my DIC.. reduced engine power, service active handling, service ABS. in that order.. if i reset them they just pop back up two seconds later. my SECURITY light is also flashing.

so at this point i figure it might be the new key is jacked up... so i get some super glue and glue the old key back together.. stick it in and turn it and it still doesnt unlock the column.. all the messages stll come on and no dice..

so then i htink it might have something to do with the notorious C5 battery problems... so i just went out and bought a optima red top, tested it out on my buddies car and it worked awesome (not one of the crappy ones everyone has gotten lately) i put it in my car and try again.. NOTHING... still all the messages... still wont unlock...

All of my accessories inside the car work.. my ac works, my stereo works.. my windows work... my power locks work... i can cycle through my DIC... EVERYTHING works it just wont unlock the columnand im gettting all those odd messages...


does it have something to do with all the sensors to the motor beind disconnected???? the entire wireing harness for the engine is undone. the ground going to the back of the head is the only ground that is undone. and i tried hooking it up to another ground last night and it didnt help the matter at all... .

a few people think my ECU might be fried?? but nothing has changed except the new key and all the wires being disconnected...


i REALLY need some opinions as the motor is being installed in about a week and half andi have to get the car into the garage...


thanks!!

 

Did you check all of the grounds? Sounds like a grounding problem.

 

Ooops, nevermind, you've checked that...

 

yeah i have checked the ground unless im missing one somewhere????


the one on the back of the head, and the one with the braided line that goes to the frame on the drivers side under the master cylinder... are there any other grounds??? i dont recall if there are any other ground underneath the car that i may have unhooked when i was taking off the exhaust and stuff???


also i noticed that the ground wire coming from my starter is a little cracked and stuff... still a continuous wire.. just kinda hard and crackly ..

 

also.. would it be a bad computer if all of my accessories and stuff work??? my car has the column lock recall done on it so that is most likely not the problem with it unlocking.. gotta be something computer related i would think??

 

I believe there is another ground on the passenger side of the block as well. Not sure why any of it would not allow your column to unlock though if all of the other accessories in the car are working. Does the column lock have its own separate fuse?

 

Wow! What a mess. When you unhooked your entire wiring harness, it probably leaves a circuit that feeds power to the column unlock relay open. Hard to tell without a schematic, but it's likely something like that. You might try getting hold of a schematic and tracing through the see where the column unlock circuit goes. But when the harness is disconnected from all the sensors, etc., that likely leaves circuits open all over, so the computer is seeing lots of problems....that's why the DIC is going nuts. Maybe if you get hold of one of the CLB harnesses that is used to unlock the column lock before installation, that might unlock it. Again, it depends on whether the circuit is open somewhere else. But I think the starting point is a schematic and a lot of hard work. You might have to scavenge the old sensors and hook the harness back up.

Good lock....I mean luck!

 

are you sure the key you have has the right pellet[resistance]?i would look at the faults that have to do with the bcm and ipc.your old key may be just jacked and the new key just wrong.

 

thats kind of what i was thinking.. but the old key broke right after the resistor... so it should not have been damaged.. i will check the resistance in it when i get home.. but im pretty sure they are the same.


maybe i will go home and plug in all the sensors and see what happens.. maybe i will get lucky and all will be well...


my main concern.... does this sound like a fried computer??? some guy on Z06 vette said that his security light was flashing so he took it into the STEALership and they said his computer was bad and replaced it and charged him an arm and a leg...

 

also.. i could understandthe reduced engine but i dunno why a plug on the motor harness would throw a fault into the active handling and ABS systems??? why would it throw a message for those if all the sensors on them are done up?

 

doubt it

 

You'd be surprised with these cars. I had a bad battery that caused only the driver's side window switch to not work. Go figure. I spent hours tearing down the car looking.

My vote is for the unlplugged harness or the resistor in the key for sure. It would make perfect since for it to be the key, not sure I why I didn't think of that...guess I'm not fully awake yet.

 

yeah.. the key is my number 1 culprit.. but it just doesnt make sense because the old key does not work either.. and the old key is the right resistor for sure and it still comes on with all the errors and does not unlock.. the old key worked flawlessly before...

 

TTT.. i wanna get some more opinions... come on guys what do ya think?

 

TTT come on guys!

 

anybody???

 

I would think this would cause all kinds of 'Gremlins' The computer is polling all the sensors and devices on the system and a bunch of them are not answering! The computer is telling you, "Don't drive this car!"

 

I'm certainly not an expert, but I'd disregard the codes due to everything being disconnected. Seems like they would be bogus. Someone should post the CLB instructions for actuating the column lock solenoid. You have to use a cigarette lighter adapter, or get 12v some other way, and that will unlock your steering wheel so you can move the car. Worry about the codes, if they're still there, once it's all hooked back up.

 

THE KEY COD IS NOT RIGHT. GO BACK TO A DEALIER AND MAKE SURE
IST WRIGHT.

 

OK.. i checked my manual diagnostics last night.. it was CHOCK FULL OF CODES!! lol.

the only current ones were the following :

C1234 H C - Wheel speed sensor circuit- this one is going off because my rear suspension is hanging and the plugs are unplugged..
B2721 H C - PASS-KEY Detection circuit - i guess this means my key has got to be wrong???? imagine that... god damn dealerships...