I had mine done at the dealership an it was $ 325 including the swps part and he also put some kind of upgraded stabilizer so the swps wouldn't move....there was a bulletin about doing this upgrade years ago that solved the swps problem moving out of position...

 

I had two other never-ending frustrating codes pertaining to left front wheel speed sensor. I changed all the hubs so that was ruled out, the pigtail going from that wheel to the main harness was changed. Still codes. I even bought a brand spanking new ebcm (it’s on the shelf now as a spare for the future). Damned codes still.

In the end, I found a thread saying the female pins on the main harness that the wheel pigtail plugs into are prone to failure. I bought a new connector and those codes were finally gone. Very happy about that.

Intermittently during that time the steering wheel position sensor codes were mixed with the the wheel speed codes and then I was getting constant swps codes each time I turned on the car. Same codes you posted. They became more constant. Clearing them didn’t help, right back again..

Changed the swps and zero codes, finally.

 

20+ year old cars, 25+ year old design. When I bought mine in 1997 it was as a daily driver. These days, same car qualifies for antique plates. So, it's strictly a pleasure driver and I expect things to go wrong. That's life with an old car.

 

Right... going to change it. I figured this day was coming based upon many previous posts. Hey, one more 2000 C5 thing checked off!

 

Thanks Josh, appreciate the comments. I’m getting this fixed.

 

As mentioned before make sure they clean the steering shaft with emory cloth/sand paper. From my observation the sensor shorts out internally and the various terminals arranged in a ring burn black (blackened copper) leaving deposits and etchings on the steering shaft where the terminals rest.

Noticed it visually by chance (hadn’t thought of it before then) and made short work of the scale. Make sure your mechanic knows to address that. Makes for a better repair.

-later

 

Yes indeed, I made a note of your comments. Great tips.

 

I'm no tech guru but as suggested above, the easiest and best place to start. Low voltage creates havoc on C5's. MP

 

Moved to C5 Tech.

 

the C1287 code is the Steering Wheel Position Sensor (SWPS) and has been discussed many times on the Forum. Mine went with 40,000 miles and has been out for the last 4000 miles. I have downloaded several fixes that members have completed themselves for when I tackle this problem. Other than removing the steering shaft from the car it is not overly complicated. I have attached a couple to use if you want to do it yourself. You must make sure the replacement SWPS is properly centered and How to manually center it if it has been move is also included. I will be doing mine this spring when it warms up.

 

Great, thank you! I really appreciate it. Found the part. Used of course but “in working condition.” Asked one seller if it was centered, he wrote back, “no.” But another one is. Thanks again. Big help. Good luck with yours. My brother-in-law is an excellent mechanic if I can get him motivated to help me.

 

You have could have a bad transponder key ! Key slot may have a malfunction ! Just some other ideas I’ve seen this code it turned out to be my key!

 

Mmmmmm. How would I troubleshoot that? Regrettably I only have one key, haven’t received the promised second one from owner. Thanks for tip.

 

Every case is different given I had the original key it was my 1st impulse. You could try shooting compressed air into the key slot not to many psi though do t blow it apart. Or cleaning the key with a shot of windex or something that drys quick. Re try it maybe you get lucky who know it’s worth a shot and won’t cost you a cent but your time !
Hope you luck out

 

Mines a 00 as well!

i did a search on that sensor I’ve saw some for 299 I saw others for 59.-79 bucks new one advertised the 98-99 are different and the 00-04 are again different price so I saw one they advertised 79.00 for this 00-04 year ! If that’s the case !

 

If you have not fixed it already.... I was able to clean my sensor without removing it. Other people did not seem to agree with what I did but since you have the hard to get sensor and its a rather hard job to remove and replace you might attempt it.
I had the same codes DIC plus was getting the errors related to failing SWPS including active handing going off on highway with the wheel jerk. Also active handling warming up frequently. Also service active handling.

I posted earlier:
Crawled under the dash and unplugged the harness from the sensor.

The I sprayed a whole can of CRC electronics cleaner through the plug area through the red straw and the solvent filled up the whole sensor and leaked out various openings.
Basically cleaning and flushing the dirt and oil and whatever from inside the sensor.

Wore gloves and eye protection and opened top on convertible. Would suggest a fan and mask.

The fumes are terrible and you will want to put something to catch the liquid. I turned the wheel and sprayed so 360 degrees were covered.

Then plugged in the sensor and started car after let it dry which is very fast. No errors for entire drive. Normally the AH would fire at least once.

https://www.crcindustries.com/produc...-oz-05103.html

 

how long does it take to spray an entire can into the sensor? Like 10 minutes? Come on man. This is ridiculous. Borderline trolling. No one in their right mind would spray an entire can into one sensor. Not unless you want to drive the car and pass out from the fumes. Troll.

 

Why would this be trolling? Lord Almighty.

It is very forceful aerosol and the can empties quickly under 2 minutes tops.

I blasted the SWPS w the wheel dead centered PAUSE
then turned full lock left sprayed PAUSE
then full lock right and sprayed PAUSE
then center again finally and blasted until gone and just propellant came out.

The can was prob 3/4 full to be honest when started.
I overkilled it as I wanted to be sure to fill up the sensor as much as possible and get everything out and its a pain to get under there and did not want to keep going under the dash.

It evaporates very very fast. If you think about it its the nature of an electronics cleaner that it would be very volatile and leave no residue and evaporate quickly with the ability to flush out some debris. People use this stuff on radio ***** and and amplifiers and similar. You cant leave residue behind on electronic parts.
CRC almost instantly vaporizes.

The C5 SWPS seems to present a similar problem with dirty contacts and voltages spikes which throws off the computer as it thinks the wheel is turned in opposition to all the other sensors. My though was to clean the contacts and it seems to have worked. I assumed the SWPS is like a dimmer switch so to speak with changing voltages depending on position.

Other cars like BMW use optical SWPS rather than potentiometer (spelling) type SWPS so I am not sure how well this technique would work in that case.

 

tearing apart the steering column and removing the sensor legit is a many hour PITA process esp with my automatic tilt memory steering column

I dont think spending 2 minutes spraying some CRC EC and letting the car air out for a half hour with the top down is ludicrous.
I didnt advise huffing the fumes for Gods sake

I would say that is a wise use of time and energy
hardly ridiculous

 

Thanks for offering this. Battery is on a tender and running at 13.6+ volts on the road. I brought my vette back to shop that did the alignment to correct steering wheel being slightly off center. No code for about 80 miles. Codes have since returned plus TCS 1288. Found the steering wheel position sensor here on the forum. Going to corvette-exclusive shop next week to get diagnostic. Will update later.