I have a 98 C5. It is a manual. Though I learned afterward through the VIN, that the car was originally an Auto. Since buying it about 4 years ago, I have been dealing with certain issues that I'd finally like to start fixing.

I tend to overthink things, yet I am not real mechanically skilled. My goal is to always have a decent guide before diving into diagnosing potential issues, if possible.

Issues - Wipers wont shut off or change speeds.

When I flip the switch on, they just go fast. There is no option to change speeds anymore. When I want to turn them off, I can flip the switch but I need to try and flip it when the wipers are near the base of the windshield so they do not obstruct my vision. They do not go down all the way. What is the best way to diagnose this problem?

I have read a bit about a failing or failed wiper motor, I've seen bits about a dead fuse. I've also seen bits about a bad computer on the bottom side of the wiper motor.

I just got done cleaning the drivers side udders and the passenger udder behind the battery. I have cleaned the drivers side before but never the one behind the battery until today.

Would it be a good idea to open up the wiper assembly to see if the area is wet or filled with debris? I considered ripping it open. I decided, wouldn't it make more sense to wait until I have the replacement motor on hand? But then I think I read that some have not had to replace their motor at all and that they just needed to clean it. So again, I'm torn on what to do.

- Left headlight wont stay down after turning them off. I had my brother help me swap the plastic gear to the brass one I bought from Rodney Dickman online but that didn't seem to fix it? I'm thinking its probably the rubber bumper stops. It seems like I'm missing one on the drivers side. I have a replacement stop on the way.

I have no idea if we added washers in there while replacing the gear or not. I have HIDs and they seem to make this weird sound like a small motor is running when they are on and for a bit after they turn off. No idea if that is normal or not?

- I feel like I have a slight battery drain on the car. I am not sure if I actually do or not or how I would diagnose this. There is an aftermarket stereo and sub, as well as the HIDs. I didnt do any of these mods, they were done before I bought the car.

- I have a hardtop convertible and the top leaks when washing the car near the top of the windows on both sides kind of near where the top of the windshield and hard top connect. I dont know if this is basic weatherstripping? One Vette shop I brought it to, suggested that they may try and tighten up or lift the windows a bit?

I'm open to messing with weather stripping if it can be done by an average joe but the window thing scares me a bit. I would rather have someone else tackle that if it's a bit risky.

- A few years back I had my car at a local shop up on the lift. I had never gone to this shop before idk how they do things but basically they mentioned I may need new sway bars soon? Is that common for those to need replacing after 100k miles? Is there a way for me to know how badly these need replacing? If so, is there anything else I should potentially look to fix on top of the sway bars?

- Recently my ABS and traction control lights have come on and I can no longer turn my TCS off with the press of the button. Some quick research led me to believe this could be due to a failing EBCM?

- Also recently, my oil pressure gauge has maxed out. More quick research led me to a failing oil pressure sensor.

- On the passenger side, the sun visor kinda dangles. I could care less! But of course the non-drivers don't seem to enjoy it. It seems like something became disconnected or broken inside toward the top. Any idea how to fix a hanging sun visor without completely removing it and deleting it altogether?

I have no problem buying some of these parts such as a wiper motor, an oil pressure sensor and a new EBCM but I dont want to jump and buy these parts if it could be something else. Like I said, I like to try and plan out as much as I can before I start. I know how these things work, many times once you get into the project, you realize there is something else you need to finish it. That stuff is largely unavoidable but if I can learn from some of you more experienced mechanical who have already run into my headache, you may be able to save me a lot of time, money and stress as well.

I know, I need to use the search. I have searched and that's how I learned what I did. But since I have so many quirks, I didnt think creating my own thread would be that problematic. Any help at all is very helpful! I'm looking to bring the car to a shop for a tune soon but I'd like to see about these other fixes first. Hopefully I can fix most of them myself before paying more for a potential simple fix.

I can add pictures, details and answer any further questions I may need to in order for you to help me out a bit. I tried my best to include any info that I could think may be helpful.

 

Should I post this in the general section?

 

There is a lot to tackle there but it sounds like to at least have a good handle on some of it.

your oil pressure issue is the sensor. Here is a video I did on replacing it.

the weather stripping can definitely be done by yourself. Many people on here have done it.

The sun visor issue may be be as simple as replacing it entirely. They aren’t too expensive and it’s easy to do.

the ECBM is a know issue on earlier C5s and can be very costly to replace since they do not make them any more. A lot of people send them out to get repaired.

The wiper issue is most likely the circuit board mounted on the bottom of the motor. I would simply replace the motor and board.

 

This is great information Chris, thank you.

I am slowly trying to knock the items off my list, one by one. I now feel more confident about ordering parts such as weather stripping and the oil pressure Sensor to hopefully knock those off the list. Eventually once my list is smaller, I will be able to focus more on the individual tasks. Thanks again, your video should be very helpful for me!

 

Also, I don’t think sway bars go bad, but the bushings may need to be replaced. Also replacing the end links is a good idea as well. Both are fairly easy to do yourself if you have a jack and jack stands.

 

Interesting. Yeah it's possible they said bushings or end links to me, tough to say. I was blindsided by it and just excited to have a new car at the time! I have yet to do any research into that. Either way, this is more information than I previously had.

Thanks again, you have already saved me a great amount of time!

 

In regards to your left headlight are you saying that you turn the headlight off, they go down and then the left one goes back up and stays up?

In regards to your HID's, are you sure they aren't LED's which have an incorporated fan? You can look up a picture of LED headlight bulb and see if that matches. HID's require a ballast and I haven't seen any with a fan but that doesn't mean they don't exist. However, a ballast making a sound (if it doesn't have a fan) would indicate that the ballast is failing. Have you ever heard a fluorescent light buzz? Same kind of ballast for them and that usually means failure on the horizon.

Battery drains (vampire drain) are very difficult to diagnose and sometimes even harder to correct. After you turn you car off many systems are active for a short period of time (up to 20 minutes on some cars) as they shut down. The only way to know is to wait an hour or so and then test the battery for amp draw. Prepare the car for this when shutting down the car by opening the hood and disconnecting the light bulb under the hood. Opening the door to pull the hood latch can activate systems again so you will then have to wait to test.

Leaky windows can be adjusted. If you search using the search function of the forum you will spend forever looking for threads related to such because it is such a bad search engine. Use Google instead and type in "c5 corvette adjust windows corvette forum". First search result is https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...djustment.html. You will find that helpful as well as other search results from other forum and YouTube.

Google search and YouTube videos are your best friend when looking for problem solutions.

 

Yes, that is exactly what is occurring with my headlights.

They are HIDs. I believe I tried to replace a bulb a while back because for some reason one light had a slight blue tint, while the other was more of a white light. Yes that is more like it, probably a ballast failing. Yeah I used to work with many kinds of lights for my job, but yeah it does kind of seem like a fluorescent buzz sound. That one is not necessarily a Corvette specific issue it seems but a ballast seems likely. Maybe that ties in with my possible battery drain? I am not sure what is normal, I am able to let my car sit without starting it for at least a week and a half to two weeks without issues so maybe I dont have a drain at all? Idk the drain issue was not recent so details are pretty blurry. And yeah maybe there isnt a drain at all haha idk.

I am not sure that I have any light under the hood. The gentleman before me basically tried to turn this base model into an aesthetic Z06 so he modified many parts. The hood is different and now has some Z06 padding attached under the top of the hood. No lights that I have noticed though. But testing the battery for amp draw - I'm a bit unfamiliar. So after waiting an hour after opening the hood, put an ohm meter on the battery to see how much power it reads? Is there a general number it should read for Corvettes?

Thank you for that link about the windows, I will take a look. Thanks for all the help today from everyone! I'm excited to finally be proud of my entire car again someday!

 

( just used the quote feature to reference the poster of the instructional video. .

My response is only to compliment the man on the video.

Because when my oil sender went out, I didn't know much about the car, so figured any advice would do to get me oriented on what can't be that difficult of a job.

I followed some questionable advice without much thought, I didn't know the scene about internet advice at the time, and wound up having to buy a new pigtail after I screwed up the OEM plug. The advice I came across didn't mention the critical information that all connectors on the car have some kind of snap clip, and I didn't know that. At least I knew enough not to start chopping holes in the car, that advice got a lot of thumbs up. I can usually let the everyday stupid stuff blow past, but when a guy starts giving out bad repair advice, it chaps my hide. And I really get upset when I follow advice like that. I didn't mind buying the new plug extension, but the OEM part had been on there from the build date, until I came along and started fixing things.

I hate to admit it, but I was ready to find fault with the video, , there are so many people giving bad advice on the task, I was ready to pounce.

I took the manifold off, for my fix, it would have been required by the size of my hands anyway, but in this case , it was required by plain stupid. Removing the manifold is the doing it like the book says anyway, ask any German his opinion on that.

Also, I had never worked on a car of this complexity before, so wanted to make extra sure I had no leaks when I was done, so it was a torque wrench for me, I had read about frequent replacements of the senders, and some suggested installation errors were damaging the part by too much muscle trying to prevent leaks, by flexing the internals, others said it was just a poorly made part and get the brass one. I took both approaches, and torqued in the non OEM part, something I might not do today, but don't consider a big deal on a part that is already installed.

Pulling the manifold wasn't a bad idea with my used car, It needed some internal cleaning, being a used car it probably shared that need with most old cars. I don't think rinsing out the manifold did much, , but it was pretty easy, and now it is clean. The throttle butterfly had grime in the corners , and I also cleaned the map sensor, it got cleaner, , now the car runs a little better , although I can only tell when listening from outside the car when at idle. the improvement was so slight, I have to say it was just preventative maintenance. I could have reused the gaskets, but now I know the condition and age of my manifold gaskets and that everything is in good repair.

The only bolt I couldn't torque properly was a light duty manifold bolt, way in the back that I did by feel, after tightening the other seven, which just push the foam manifold gaskets down tight. I did tear up some plastic hose, figuring that any hose that broke on car of this age , needs to be replaced anyway. Live and learn, a trip for new hoses down at the GM parts counter smartened me up real quick. You don't do that caveman stress test stuff on this type of design.

I also relocated the sensor, a common modification, and now am considering putting an oil pressure gauge on that line , but can't quite get past the idea of installing a gauge I can't use while driving, but It looks pretty racey.

I'm going over to YouTube and pull all the levers and handles that all the videos want viewers to do, in support of his help here.

 

Hello, if I understand the headlights correctly it may very well be your missing stop that is causing the problem. I believe that the mechanism looks for positive stop to stop the motion. Without it, it may continue to cycle until it hits the open stop.

 

Yeah that's my hope for fixing it as of now. I have a new stop on the way. If that's all it's been for these past few years.. smh at myself for not ordering one earlier!

 

Easy to test. Remove the same stop from your working light. Won’t stay down? Very likely. Put stop on other light. Won’t stay down. Not the problem...

 

Sure enough, a $2.50 part from Rodney Dickman, the plastic headlight stop was all I needed to fix my headlights! If I had known that all along, it would have been ordered long ago!

This week, once my parts arrive, I'll be tackling my oil sensor issue. I'm excited to be making some progress though! Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

Great! I’m sure you’ll tackle everything in time. Look up My Corvette Life on YouTube. He has a vid for the oil pressure sensor change as well as many others. He is on the forum here as well.

 

Exactly! Chris posted his video, I watched it last week. It is very informative and very helpful. I love the fact that he included specific parts needed to do the job. So thank you Chris, I will definitely be referring back to your video for the repair. Your white C5 is very nice!

 

An aside - try to get a set of shop manuals. They cover everything, and especially electrical fault finding, in detail.

 

That's a good idea, I really should. It would be helpful to have on hand.

My dad was giving me some **** the other day. "You know in my day, we had manuals so that when something went wrong, we could fix it!" My smartass said, that's what YouTube and the internet are for. 😁

But either way, there is a lot of helpful information in those manuals that I'm sure would help me with a lot of these little issues. Thanks!