Hey guys,

I was sitting on the forum just wondering around and i came across a bunch of people having EBCM issues with their C5s. I am too on eof the victimis of this problem and I can't believe that after 19K miles of driving this thing just decides to go out. Do any of you guys know why GM has not put a recall on this part or anything like that? How come some people get treated differently than others with customer service and some get it done for free some pay and some pay half???? This is a saftey issue of course. Mine went out on me in the middle of a storm and thank God I knew that my traction was not responding.

 

Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign and/or a petition to try and get GM to recall them. Yes, it is a safety issue and I sure wouldn't want mine to go out at the wrong time and cause some kind of disaster.

 

Exacly. So many people are having problems with this thing and who knows if people have not had accidents because of a stupid EBCM failure. Counting on the forum threre is pleanty of people having issues with this same problem and how about those people that are not on the forums and go to dealers and get screwed for thousands of dollars to fix a saftey issue on almost brand new vehicle????? This is outragous, how about the other cars? How come they have no EBCM issues after all it's a saftey issue how about if someone hurts them selves will GM be responsible for not doing anything about it after getting so many calls about this thing and replacing so many of them and not doing a recall???? This is crazy I think the people that paid should be refunded their money and the people that have this issue or not should get a replacement for free. After all we did not just buy a cavalier or a honda civic. We are driving the American dream, from GM them selves they should watch out for issues such as this one. I think I will give them a call.

 

Another avenue to peruse is the NHTSA.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

If they get wind that there are so many failures, and see that it's a potential safely issue, they will investigate and could possible force GM to do a recall if the NHTSA finds it necessary. Or, if GM knows the NHTSA is investigating heavily, they may voluntarily do a recall before they are forced.

 

It be best to get in contact with them or Gm themselves so that they get a wind of what is happening after all it's not like GM does not know what is goin gon how many new EBCMs did they have to send out to dealers nation wide!? I bet thousands. I don't know and I bet not many people do. I will look into it and do some research try to call dealers around my area just to find out. Obviously if they wont want to say anything my next step would be to call GM themselves and the last resort NHTSA.

 

How often do you drive your car? ppl that dont drive their vettes very much cause the battery to drain down very low. This causes issues in the computers.

If you keep a battery tender on, in most cases there will be no EBCM issues.

 

If you are fortunate to have been able to get an extended GMPP warranty, that would cover you in case your EBCM or BPMV goes out. Arguably, other than major drive line components, replacement of these two babies will set you back about $1800 plus labor at a dealership. Maybe more. My car was out of warranty when I bought it so an extended warranty was out of the question for me. I don't much believe in extended warranties as I wrench my car myself. Instead, I bought both components NIB on auction for about $400. (Yes, there are deals out there!). Once warranties run out, they're non-transferable. Parts, however all always transferable. Forget the recall, if any, on this issue. Hoard the parts, if possible. ZOZ

 

No factual data but I had this same conversation with my dealer when mine went out a couple years ago.

 

Leave NHTSA out of it. NHTSA involvement and GM's response to their oversight is one of the factors in why the CLB fix got so screwed up.

The EBCM is not a safety issue per se since the base brakes work fine.

By the way my 2003 Z06 with 35K that gets tracked quite a few times per year had the C1214 failure show up this last week while spending 2 days at the Glen in the rain. Other than no ABS/AH/TC the car ran fine and I had no problems maintaining lap times. It is at the shop getting debugged today. Will see if it is a ground problem or the module.

Bill

 

Is the extended warranty a good deal?

GMPP Major Guard, zero deductible for $995 for 5 additional years, or 50,000 additional miles paid for itself last week. My wife's 50th AE convertible suffered the 'Service ABS, Service Traction Control, Service Active Handling" syndrome while at the NCM for a volunteer weekend June 2.
Tom Jumper's Jerod fixed the problem by replacing the EBCM and bleeding the brakes. The part was $950+ and 4 hours labor (I did not see the final numbers submitted to GMPP) but it cost me an additional $0.00. Was it worth it? You bet your bippy. We still have 4 years or 40,000 miles to go.

But a recall would have been better!!!!

 

I have been around the block with GM on this issue. They say it it not a safty issue nor a recall issue. The part just fails and that is it. I sent the forum list of people who have had the problem and I received no major response. I was able to get GM to pay 75% of the cost and that took some arm twisting.
Good Luck
FRED

 

the technology seems to have some cheap and failure prone parts.

good news is that you can rebuild the box for $150

bad news is you are screwed out of the $150. I tried to get the dealer to service the EBCM on a 14k mile 2003 zo6. two strikes against me, one, the car is out of warrenty, 2, it's a highly modified tt, not that it would affect the EBCM

many times the wiring/grounds/bat voltage is the culprit, but in my case the dealer confirmed the box is bad, and I'm not about to pay 1800 to have a new (and just as faulty) component installed.

I'm going the absfixer.com route, but in the meantime my brain will drive the car rather than the computer. my tires and brakes work just fine and it's a "feature" having it broken, I don't mind it being off that much.

 

Had mine done under GMPP. I was lucky. I've owned well over 25 vettes in my 54 years. The C5 is one of my all time favorite all around vettes, but come on people, these things are over rated in many areas. GM ,like any of the automakers today will never admit fault with issues like this.The GMPP is our best protection. Vettes are, after all just like any other Chevy out there when it comes to GM's $$$$$. The problems most of us encounter are common to the car during most of its production . We see it over and over with little improvment until the new and improved car comes out,with it little glitches. There are people you can reach by phone in Michigan if you can obtain their numbers. While my '01 was at the dealer waiting 8 weeks for parts , customer service in Mich. gave us a new Tahoe for 2 weeks due to the delay. We take the vette on vacation and I was pissed. They came through with at least that, to ease the pain. Call the factory and the museum for assistance!! I did and it helped. Sorry for the long rant. Thanks and CALL these guys.

 

It's hard for me to believe this. The failure issue with the EBCM is a defective/faulty relay. I don't see how a low battery could cause a relay to fail.

 

It's not the NHTSA's fault that GM doesn't know how to fix a problem on the very car they designed and built.

IMO it could be a safety issue since the ABS/AH/TC will not work if the EBCM has any current trouble codes set due to a hard or intermittent failure during a start cycle. If everyone drove around wondering if their ABS/AH/TC is working or not due to a flaky EBCM, then I guess GM should just stop putting these options on all their cars if they can't make the system work reliably.

 

From the auto industries stand point, there is no way in hell GM will recall the EBCM because it boils down to money out of their pocket - plain and simple.

No matter how passionate we owners are about the Corvette or the fact that it is faulty part, unless it involves some type of bad press for the car maker, it won't happen.

 

It is all about the money! Look at the figures: 214,651 Vettes made from 1997 to 2003. I am assuming all C5s had the potential for this problem. (I do not know about the C6s) Now, assume only half of them actually experience a failure. Assume the cost to fix to GM would be $500 (a clear bargain based on what dealers are charging to fix with potentially defective parts). Do the math. It comes to over $53,000,000!! GM can't afford to recall these cars, IMHO. Doing the right thing, customer service, etc...has nothing to do with it. It is the money! (And, possibly the fear of lurking liability once the plaintiffs bar discovers the potential issues. If GM admits there is a problem and recalls the cars, the plaintiffs case is made..isn't it? Isn't that an admission against your own interests?)

Now, consider if any of the above assumptions are low? If they were to do a recall, more than half of these cars would likely show up to be fixed including some that might not have otherwise have been fixed? Look at the cost of the repair I chose...pulled from the air, actually? I suspect that is low since there is also labor to contend with. I think it is all about money....a lot of money. Until someone can be proven to have been killed as a "direct" result of these systems failing, GM will simply stay mum. To do otherwise is to admit to a huge liability and there are numerous plaintiffs lawyers out there who would love to tackle a case like this...with some evidence of death, dismemberment or injury to point to in their suit. (Remember the exploding Firestone tires a few years back? Ford did not cave in at first...then they blamed the tire mfg! Who could GM blame for this one?)

I actually think the DIC gets GM off the hook in most cases. Think about it. How difficult will it ever be to prove it was GMs fault when the DIC told the driver that the ABS, TC systems were non-functional? Hummmm...I wonder if the corporate lawyers had anything to do with adding a this sophisticated DIC system to these cars so as to make the driver cupable in all cases where it can be shown that he/she drove the car despite the warnings??? Still pondering that one...

LT

 

I got over looking to GM or the dealerships for help along time ago. They are worthless and likely to cause as many problems as they will charge you a fortune to fix. So I antied up my $400 for the part and swapped it myself.

It ain't right, but the sooner you get over it, the less stressed and frustrated you will be. If I ever buy another, the day I drive it off the lot will be the last day it ever sees the dealership.

 

-You can send the old one out also to be fixed BETTER than the orignal for less that 1/2 the $400 if you don't mind the car being down for a few days.

 

Where do you send it? Mine is out as well.