Hello,

I need help in how I should proceed in troubleshooting an issue that occurred with my C5 today. In March of 2018 I purchased a one owner 2003 C5 coupe with 51,000 miles. It has been regularly serviced and all the dealer recommended maintenance performed at a local Chevrolet dealer. I have driven the Vette less than 4000 miles since ownership. The only issues since 2018 have been; (1) steering angle sensor was replaced a few years ago and (2) recently a new battery. I replaced the battery last month with a Delco AGM battery. Subsequent to replacing the battery, the local Chevrolet dealer inspected (state & emissions) the vehicle. I also asked them to check the new battery which they did charge me for and they said checked out ok.

Today while merging on to I-95 the Vette simply shut off. I am pretty sure it is not a fuel issue since the gauges went out along with the frightening experience of the steering wheel locking. Fortunately no traffic was coming up behind me and once I stopped the vehicle it started right back up (10 seconds later). No codes or warnings on the DIC and no check engine light appeared after starting the car. I have a scanner and I will check for stored codes later today.

Any suggestions as to the cause? Could it be the resistive key? If it was battery related would that not cause a failure in the alternator? As I mentioned I am eliminating a fuel starvation issue, since it did not sputter, the cluster went dark, and it started back up. I continued to work which was less than a mile without any issues.

Any help is appreciated, unfortunately I am now concerned about driving the car.

Thank you,

Ken

 

Sounds like it could be an ignition switch, but will let others weigh in as well.

 

Welcome to the Forum !!...yes, I'd check for DTC's first...only emission related powertrain issues illuminate the MIL...sometimes data bus issues or low battery voltage can cause this or some other circuit issue...make sure your battery is charging properly...if your scan tool can only scan powertrain codes you may not see anything...try using the cars built in "code reader" to scan other modules…if you look at the “stickys” at the top of Tech you will see this topic covered at length.

 

Your car must of lost power, which I would suspect is the Ignition switch or a intermittent bad electrical connection in the power distribution. The steering wheel locking up means the BCM sensed that power had been turned off like when you turn the car off.

 

If none of the more obvious culprits (ignition switch, passkey, etc) turn out to be guilty, I had a car do the same thing to me once. It wound up being an aftermarket alarm/immobilizer system I didn't even know was on the car.

 

Also check battery terminal connections to be clean and tight, 11 foot pounds per FSM.

 

I had a Saturn once where my stepson installed an aftermarket radio. It didn't shutoff, but the starter wouldn't operate without jumping the starter/solenoid directly. It was the anti-theft system. Might be something like that.

 

try cleaning your maf.