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I have this odd abnormality that has occurred twice on my 02 C5 in the past year. Each time it has fixed itself, but has me really stumped. It occurred back in February of this year when it was a nice day out (70's) and took her for a back road run, ran her pretty hard up to 120 or so in third. Then came back home and had dinner with some friends. A buddy of mine wanted to go for a ride, so I fired it up and off we went. Got about a block and it started stuttering horribly, just normal driving. Finally managed to limp it back home, idle was fine it was just under cruising or acceleration. The next day all was well and the car has been fine since then, up until today. It did the exact same thing. First start of the day and just normal driving, it was like I was turning the key off and on multiple times, It did idle fine yet again, but even trying to pull away from a stop light was a challenge. Managed again to limp it back home and let her sit in the garage for most of the day. Pulled all the codes both current and history and there were none. All checked out fine. So I took it out for another spin and drove it like a rental car for 2 - 3 miles. Ran perfect. Anyone have any idea what this could be??? Obviously the PCM thinks the car is fine, but it was popping and stuttering so bad I was embarrassed.
Without any codes it is hard to diagnose---
Have you tried driving it with the traction control OFF ?? see if it does the same thing--
If it does then it is not traction control or TQ management related
Has your car ever been tuned ?
What mods does your car have ?
Often modded cars with a cam or headers will create false codes so the tuner will permanently delete those codes so they will not re appear--That may be why you are not getting any codes
Other than that the only thing that might occur is that your fuel filter is clogged enough that there is not sufficient flow under a large load---There is no code for that--
A misfire should throw a code---unless your car is modded and the previous tuner deleted the misfire codes which is common
Do you have an oiled cold air intake ??
If so it may have fouled your T-Body and MAF sensor---You can take the MAF off and clean it with brakeclean---and take off the air intake tube and clean the T-Body as well--without removing it-
If you used a hand held scanner those only report standardized emissions codes and NOT vehicle specific codes.
Next time the symptoms occur pull over and pull the codes BEFORE you shut off the engine as shown in the video. To pull codes with the engine running you MUST first clear all messages displayed in the DIC by using the reset button. Then pull codes as normal. Post them back in this thread.
Thanks for all the responses. Yes the car is slightly modded. It has AR 1 7/8 long tube headers, Vararam CAI with bridge, and been dyno tuned. This was all done over a year ago. The weird part is after this occurs if I just let the car sit for a few hours, it's fine again. I did pull the codes using the DIC, but the car was not running. If it occurs again I will try it with the car running. I did not know you could pull codes while it was running. Good tip.
Make sure you Vararam is sealed tightly and all the seals are in good shape...
Is your MAF in the stock location or was it moved next to the Throttle body?
Make sure you Vararam is sealed tightly and all the seals are in good shape...
Is your MAF in the stock location or was it moved next to the Throttle body?
MAF is mounted right next to the Throttle Body, I was told that was the preferred location vs. the CAI bridge and filter.
I'm really leaning towards the crankshaft position sensor. After reading up on that the symptoms seems very similar to mine. I'm not sure if I have to drop the starter or not to replace that??
The exhaust should be fine since it's got headers on it.
A number of years ago, had a similar issue with mine. Cruising along the interstate no problem, dropped a gear and got in the gas, sputter, sputter, reduced power. Appeared to self correct after several minutes. Drove fine for a few days. Then it started doing it again.
Culprit ended up being a plastic wire retaining clip on the firewall. The clip assisted routing and holding part of the wiring harness away from the flywheel/torque tube housing. The clip had broken, the wire moved.. Under certain conditions, the wire was getting pinched between the housing and the firewall...cut the insulation, grounding out. The ground out caused the sputtering etc.
Had the cut insulation fixed and the clip replaced, hasn't happened since.
Well I think I found the culprit rather quickly and a lot of pure luck! I checked all the grounds they all looked fine, I had some brake clean so I thought I pull the MAF off and clean it out. As I was pulling the connector out, I noticed a burnt spot on the MAF sensor lead. Turns out when I put the CAI on I moved the MAF from the front part of the engine shroud to right in front of the TB. Well that freed up a foot or so of cable that I tucked under the driver side engine cover, over time that worked it's way down and at times laid against one of the front engine header tubes and melted the cover and part of the wiring, I guess that was grounding out against the header thus causing the issue. (I THINK).
Does anyone know if I trim an inch or so out of the MAF lead if that will cause any issues? Ohm load etc?? For now I'm going to cut it out, and heat shrink the lead back together and wire tie it off so it does not slip again.
Anyone think this could have been causing my issue??
Seems to have resolved the issue. Man oh man that was pure luck finding that. I was just going to disconnect the MAF but thought what the heck, I'll pull the MAF power lead as well then I noticed the burn through area. All soldered and heat shrink wrapped, car runs like a Vette should run again! One very happy and LUCKY camper. That would have taken quite a while to find otherwise.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
cut all the slack you need to out of the harness and resolder your maf wires... it won't cause any trouble and will look much cleaner... glad it was a simple and easy fix
08-15-2015, 07:01 PM
Engine stuttering horrible -
I was just going to disconnect the MAF but thought what the heck, I'll pull the MAF power lead as well then I noticed the burn through area. All soldered and heat shrink wrapped, car runs like a Vette should run again! One very happy and LUCKY camper. That would have taken quite a while to find otherwise. 
