C5 starters
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 918
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From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
C5 starters
Are C5's hard on starters?
Are bad starters or sticking solenoids common on C5's and Z06's.
The starter does not have a heat shield and with everything being so tight it looks like they get heat retention.
Are bad starters or sticking solenoids common on C5's and Z06's.
The starter does not have a heat shield and with everything being so tight it looks like they get heat retention.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 1999
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From: Anthony TX
CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
The starter its self is almost bullet proof. The solenoid on the other hand fails quite often. They will cause a fail to crank. There $60 to replace.
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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From: South Shore MA
I cant answer about how common it is, but my starter solenoid failed. Its not serviceable, so installed a reman starter and starter heat wrap from Jegs i think. No problems now. I have a few customers with c5's and havent had anytroble with theirs.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 918
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From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
"I cant answer about how common it is, but my starter solenoid failed. Its not serviceable, so installed a reman starter and starter heat wrap from Jegs i think. No problems now. I have a few customers with c5's and havent had anytroble with theirs. "
Thanks for the replies. My Z only has 10,000 miles and it's looking like its the culprit and yes it fails to crank. No DTC's, no resistance on the POS battery wire, some on the neg battery wire. I hooked up an extra ground to test it and the OHM went to zero, clicks but no crank. I took a long screw driver and went directly from pos starter post to solenoid and it clicks but not crank over.
Thanks for the replies. My Z only has 10,000 miles and it's looking like its the culprit and yes it fails to crank. No DTC's, no resistance on the POS battery wire, some on the neg battery wire. I hooked up an extra ground to test it and the OHM went to zero, clicks but no crank. I took a long screw driver and went directly from pos starter post to solenoid and it clicks but not crank over.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
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From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
OK, got my answer! The problem was a craked nose on the starter!
At first I had a suspicion about it but kept thinking it only has 10,000 miles!
Yesterday I dropped the exhaust and as soon as I got the starter out? A crack around the nose!
Well that answered why my other battery dropped in charge super fast, and the wires starter where getting quite warm like there was a short...because it was...the armature and body!
I asked my parts guy if he saw that on LS starters as I thought it was rather unusal and he said yes he has seen it before!
Along the way I learned a lot about pricing on starters and solenoids on LS motors!
At first I had a suspicion about it but kept thinking it only has 10,000 miles!
Yesterday I dropped the exhaust and as soon as I got the starter out? A crack around the nose!
Well that answered why my other battery dropped in charge super fast, and the wires starter where getting quite warm like there was a short...because it was...the armature and body!
I asked my parts guy if he saw that on LS starters as I thought it was rather unusal and he said yes he has seen it before!
Along the way I learned a lot about pricing on starters and solenoids on LS motors!
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 1999
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From: Anthony TX
CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
WOW! Thats a FIRST for me! I know that they will destroy them selves if the engine hydrolocks and you try to crank it. Never seen one just crack for no reason.
Bill
Thats a FIRST for me! I know that they will destroy them selves if the engine hydrolocks and you try to crank it. Never seen one just crack for no reason.Bill
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
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From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
Hi Bill, actually I was worried about that myself but I lucked out.
It's a long story, but the short version I was installing some new 42# (50# at Vette pressure) injectors because I wanted to tune it for E85. I use HP Tuners and due to my mistake I wrongly downloaded a slightly different tune that still had the stock injectors written. Of course on start up it sent a bunch of fuel and as the engine started it stalled. I still was not aware of the mistake and I hit the starter again where it just started to turn then stopped! Then realizing something was not right and checking the tune I found my mistake. I pulled the plugs and got a little fuel from #2, #7, and #8. The engine started to turn without the plugs and then stopped.
Like I said what initially was throwing me off was that the car is low mileage 10,700 and I was not aware about the starter noses breaking under those conditions.
I lucked out because everything seems fine, no codes, oil pressure good, engine pulls smooth!
We took a nice ride tonight and the little LS6 was humming along real sweet!
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 149
Likes: 2
From: South Shore MA
Excellent man, glad it wasn't worse. I havent seen a gen3 starter go in that manner in a 'vette or truck alike. Sounds like you found the problem though. Good luck glad you got 'er runnin!
Last edited by trk982003; Apr 25, 2010 at 08:08 AM.
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Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
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From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
An interesting side note is that we got the car in November with only 8272 miles and the mpg has been 26-27 on the highway which IMO was good, much better then the old 426 Hemi Challenger, or SS396 375 HP Camaro!
Anyways there was no evident missfires, or dtc's but our local bank officer and her husband got better mpg on the highway with their 02 Z06 on cruise which is how I drive. When I took the plugs out # 7 was not totally bad but not as good as the others. I just replaced the wires and when I put the plugs back in I put that one in # 2 (easier to get to
) and yesterday I had a missfire show up on #2. I then put a new Denso iridium plug in #2 and the engine is much better, no missfires and on the way to work the mpg climbs faster and seems better then before on the highway! My combined mpg this morning was 28 mpg over 32 miles to work, which I never had before, more like 25-27!
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2010
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From: sunnyvale ca
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 918
Likes: 2
From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 918
Likes: 2
From: Lewisburg TN
St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12,'14
Yes, he means the solenoid tself is not serviceable, you replace the solenoid with another one. Before I got home I picked a new one up, then I found the crack so I just kept it as a spare.
