Hey, I just joined here, I have a 00' auto vette. My battery died a few weeks ago due to the weather being kinda bad around here for a the past couple of months. I charged the battery and the message stateing "Remove key, wait 10 seconds" and when i would try to move the car it would die. I read a few pages of the collum lock sticky on here, and founjd out about the recall. I called the dealer by me and they checked it and said that the recall was already done. Now, started it again tonight and it said the same message about removing the key, so i did it again. Then started the car and the message did not come up, the "Service Collum Lock" message appeared. And now i can move the car again without it shutting down. When i press the reset button for the info center, the message shuts off and seems like everything is fine, untill i shut the engine off and start the car again. Then the service lock message comes up again till i press the reset button. Now what should i do the fix this? Is it safe to actually drive the car now or what? If canyone can help me with this, it is very much appreciated.

 

I had the exact problem with mine. I pulled the bypass that was already installed out. I replaced it with one from thunder racing. Everything is great now. The old bypass had something rattling around in it though.

 

When you say you "charged the battery" after it died makes me suspicious that your battery is going bad, which will definately affect the column lock.

I'd consider replacing the battery first, especially if you aren't sure how old it is.

Second, the column lock has had several TSB's issued. If only the first one was done, the dealer needs to be sure that you have the latest recall issued installed.

Finally, let the dealer work on this. When my CL failed (after the first TSB had been applied) I had to have the car towed in. My local dealer diagnosed the problem as a failure in the Column Lock Control Module, which they clain was not covered by the recall. After some "negotiating" GM agreed to fix all of the problems at their expense.

HTH

 

Well I just bought the car from a chevy dealer in december of '05. Shouldnt they have taken care of any recalls before the car was sold? And i had to charge the battery because I really dont drive the car too much, i usually am driving my truck around. I just use the car for weekends and other small occasions. I'm just kinda worried about taking it to the dealer, and then they are gonna say its not covered and get me for a ton of money to fix this

 

Make sure when all your work has been completed on this issue to buy a battery tender which will keep your battery in excellent condition by charging and then going into a float mode where it monitors the battery charge 24/7. Repeated discharges of your battery and trying to manually charge it will render it useless and you'll end up going through quite a few batteries. The vettes and most cars of this era draw a small amount of voltage all the time to maintain memory functions, so if u let the car sit for more than 3 weeks, I'd definitely spend $60 or so bucks for a battery tender. Jegs has them.

 

The column lock recall has gone through several "updates", the last of which IIRC was issued in April of 2006 (after you bought the car). Read the sticky (get a cup of coffee and a note pad out, it is LONG) to get all the details, including copies of the TSB.

If you take the car to a dealer for a column lock issue, and they try to charge for it, call GM Customer Assistance and talk to them about it. They have been good to me, as I posted above, the dealer wanted to charge to fix the problem and GM agreed to pick up the cost. I can't guarantee they'll do that, but my impression was that they are sensitive to the fact that this is a federally mandated Safety Recall issue.

HTH