1aznVette

I KNOW this is a long read, I am REALLY truly sorry, but I BEG you all to read through it and if you have ANY ADVICE! PLEASE let me know!
Hello Everyone! I thought making a new thread would be a better fit for this one.

Bought the car last year. After I fly into another state to pick it up, he then tells me that "if it gives you trouble starting it, just wait 10 minutes then try again, it will work" Get it home, friend loses the only key, get the key replaced. The problem WAS starting obviously a bit with the old key, so i ruled out the pellet.

Never had a problem on the way home, 1500+ miles. Got it home, was fine for about 2 weeks, then the battery would "randomly die" I thought anyway...turns out it was not the battery being dead and casuing me to ask strangers for jumps, BUT I think that the fuel was cut off.

DIC msgs at the time? None.

I'd get a stranger to jump, and it would start right up.

Now I move and take it another state. Get it there and it runs decently for about a month. No jumps or anything. I had installed a battery cut off switch, and was just unhooking the battery in between drives. I think this caused fuses to be reset (25 and 23, and so forth) however, I thought that i was so smart as I had solved the battery draining issue...which i don't think actually existed.

Get some performance stuff done to it, really excited to take it out, get my first official DIC

Pull key wait ten seconds
followed by the steering column lock msg, and the column actually locking.


Okay, so if i shake the wheel a bit, it would allow it to unlock then i could drive whereever. Total time sitting around? Less than a minute.
No big deal.

Thinking about taking it to a dealership at this point, but opted to deal with it for a bit b/c i didn't drive the car much.

Next it gets worse.
Now the steering column was having more trouble unlocking. It would lock and no matter the violence or tapping, or anything, it stayed locked for 5-10 minutes or so. If I removed fuses or unhooked battery for 10 minutes it would just reset the DIC back to Pull key wait ten seconds as opposed to the service steering column DIC msg.

total wait time before I can ride each time now increased to 5-15 minutes depending on the strategy.

It is now this time I discover that I can still "Start" the car with the SSC (service steering column) msg. If I try to drive it, I discover the security fuel cut off measure GM decided to install -_-

I still rarely drive the car, so time goes by, and now the problem gets worse.

Now when i sit in the car, I cannot get the column to lock. That's right, I get the PK (pull key wait 10 seconds) msg, followed by the SSC msg repeatedly jsut like before, but I cannot get the PHYSICAL actuator to lock the wheel. I figure maybe my actuator is bad. I don't know. I read about BCMs, actuators, ignitions, pellets and CLBS. Now I'm convinced a CLB is the way to go. So At this point before the order of the CLB....
My column will not lock, unless i try the key at the SSC msg a number of times (5-500 times or so it would seem, i'm almost joking, but sad to say i'm not)...and when i finally get the column to lock WITH the SSC msg (if it does not display a msg, you have to repeat the process until the you hear the actuator motor lock AND y ou have the SSC msg), then I have to sit there and repeat the key in key out process (turning to the ON position) until i hear and feel and SEE the column unlock. When this happens, it is okay to start up and drive without a cut off problem.

Total wait time before I can drive each time: 10 minutes - 2 hours

I noticed SOMETIMES if i get it started like this, it'll be ok to actually turn the motor off, get out for 5min to an hour and come back and it will usually start right up, but this diminished slowly over time, and it got worse.......

So I order a CLB from Corvettes of Houston. Comes in pretty quickly.
I follow the instructions. Car starts fine first time, Drives fine the first time. Then the problem comes back at a lesser stage but I can tell it is getting progressively worse again. So I'm like "WTF is this car LEARNING what is happening and stranding itself on purpose?!" So...now I realize after some more reading that the lock/unlock process HAS to happen for the CLB to work properly, the directions failed to mention that originally and they just mentioned that I have to have the wheel unlocked. It was physically unlocked but I guess the error was in the BCM or something. So i go through the 1-2 hour process with the actuator plugged up just to get it to lock and unlock and perform the process from here.

The CLB now works fine for a period of 2 weeks. I swapped center consoles for the stock console plastice piece with a friend, as he wanted the carbon fiber one that came with my vette and i did not want it...after that the problem came back. We thought maybe he pinched a wire, or disturbed it somehow. I think maybe he just unplugged the CLB by accident, or loosened it.
The car was back to it antics.
So I repeat the process, CLB works a LITTLE Bit here and there (it's a mixture of all problems but mainly the final one where i had trouble getting it to lock and unlock...I had a routine I COULD do if i needed the car... which was:

Have Actuator in instead of CLB to start, Get the message PK to appear, then get the SSC msg right after that 10 seconds. Keep trying until i got the PK msg for the SECOND time (every once in a while, the PK msg came back instead of the SSC)...instead of just waiting 10 seconds, I pulled fuse 25, 23 and 29 WITH the key being pulled...then installed the CLB and then plugged the fuses back up. Then instead of waiting for a msg at ACC or ON...just start it straight up. The SSC msg appears but the car will still drive WITHOUT the cut off...so i can get home at least.


Now the problem gets worse. With the CLB not working again, I will now have to get the actuator to LOCK and UNLOCK Again to install the CLB the right way to get it working. Now it takes 1-3 hours to get the column to lock with the actuator...and then from there I can unlock it with the unlock Cig plug that came with the CLB and install the CLB allowing for a single drive to a single location.

Now the problem gets worse.
Now no matter what, the actuator WONT lock anymore (probably wore itself dead literally almost and maybe has 1-2 locks left?) and I cannot even start the car with the SSC msg. The fuel is PERMANENTLY cut off!!?!?!!?

Read about battery voltage, not the problem. Literally have it hooked up to another car RIGHT NOW.

Tried all sorts of fuses, everything. I ordered a new CLB from Thunder racing, thinking that maybe their clb will work better, or i got a bad one maybe?? read that they could go bad.

Scared i have a bad BCM which I read costs 700-1200 to get done at the dealership.

Read I could have a bad column lock, bad actuator, bad plate, bad pellet, bad ground "somewhere" I'm totally at a loss



Vehicle is a 2000 Manual with 70k miles.

the recall was performed at 33k miles in 04.
GM will reopen the case but refuses to modify, fix or diagnose anything to do with it. So basically they are saying "we fixed it once and don't care that our fix was crap"

PLEASE HELP! SORRY FOR THE LONG READ but after all this **** (excuse me) I realize how important it is for other people searching google to find this!!!

EXTRA INFO TO NOTE: Security light blinks while the key is in the on position when the message is not up with the Thunder racing CLB plugged in. I did not go through the entire lock/unlock process, takes to long and didn't know if it would ever lock again since i haven't had it locked in months (been months since i have been able to drive my car ) ...anyway...I hooked up to my other vehicle for a battery charge, kept it like that throughout this process. unplugged 25 and 23...waited 10 minutes. installed CLB plugged back in 25 and 23 and turned key on, no DIC, car won't start, security light blinking. Turn key off, security light off completely. (in the past i had an issue where the light was on while I was driving).

Also...The column locked twice in my previous state of residence WHILE i was driving the car. That's right, while i'm driving it locked, once i was on a HUGE mountain bearing right, column locked and the car SHUT OFF and I luckly got it started before smashing the guardrail and possibly flying off the mountain, lol. The second time a friend was driving and it locked on him going DOWN the mountain on a straight road and it caused him to nick the curb...and then he restarted it and the wheel unlocked.


Extra Column lock bypass problem tag: Fuel cut off switch fuel cut off car won't start c5 corvette

TEXHAWK0

If you are having this many problems with the column locking, the first thing you should do is remove the lockplate as done in the last GM recall. Then at least you do not have to deal with a locked column.
If your actuator still works, you could try reconnecting the actuator without the CLB.
If that does not work, maybe the CLB relay is not working correctly.

chris723@ptd.net

Hi you have to get recall #04006c done it removes the lock plate and install a K harnas also i wood get it tuned and have the fuel shut off raised to 200mph .also U could email richierichz06 he helped me Chris.