I posted in the C5 gerneral section, chivette mentioned I should post here..

Hi all,
A buddy of mine recently purchaced a 1998 coupe w/ 30K miles for 24K (Good deal I think), but he had a problem the other day..

He called me and told me the car was dead, so I grabbed my jumper cables and headed to where he was.

When I got there I hopped in and turned the key, the colum was still locked, got the display message reduced engine power message and service engine soon, and no interior lights (but the dash lights/headlights and all worked fine)

I then asked him if he had an alarm, he didn't know.. so I figured it may be the VATS (Do they still call it that? I had a problem on my old 87' corvette years ago). .

So i disconnected the battery for about 30 seconds, and put the cable back on and Jumped about 10 feet!! I guess he had an alarm because the horn/lights etc started to go off!

Then the car started fine, and has been fine for a couple days, I told him to go buy a 5/16th wrench and keep in handy some where..

Do these C5's have a factory alarm that would cause this? if so how do you enable/disable the alarm (Is it through the factory FOB?)

also another friend of mine mentioned a colum lock problem GM had? does this problem just lock the colum or make the car not start either?

any help would be appreciated!!

thanks..

-Bill

P.s. the C5 is awsome, I had a 87' Vert and now have a 78' Silver anniversary.. but I will own a C5 sometime in the future!!

 

did he fill up the tank prior to this happening?