Friday night/Saturday morning around 1:00 am my car decided to leave me stranded. I go to start the car and nothing... no starter clicking, battery is fully charged, no column lock issues, no codes on the DIC.... nothing...

I disconnected the battery and let the PCM reset and still nothing. The car would not start. By this time it was 2:00 AM and I opted to let the car sit overnight while I decided what to do. The next morning I called a flatbed and had it towed to the nearest dealer that fortunately was open for service on a Saturday. Unfortunately they did not squeeze my car in on Saturday like I was originally told.

Once the car got to the dealer I called and talked with the service manager. He told me that my car was already on the lift and they were looking at it right now. He noted that there were two nails in my rear tire, but he would not be able to get to it that day. A few hours later I stop by to pick up some items that were in my car and found out that the service manager confused my black vette with a torch red vette that was also in the shop. My car was still sitting in the back of the service area parking lot. Luckily this meant that the two nails were not lodged in my BFG KD's.

So I give up all hope of having the car ready on Saturday and wait until Monday. On Monday I called and found out that the problem was a bad relay in the theft deterrent system. It appeared that there was some sort of voltage spike or some issue with the relay to cause it to go bad.

I searched the CF and did not see any mention of this ever happening to anyone else, but if you get stranded keep this in mind.

 

That sucked!! :yesnod:

 

Damn, man, I feel for you. Never fun getting stuck , much less at night time.

At least they isolated the problem quickly.

Btw, which dealer was it? Inquiring locals want to know. :)

 

I was off if I-20 at the time so I had the car towed to John Thorton Chevy off of exit 44.

One thing to note... My C5 did the same thing and did not want to start two days later. Luckily it did this while I was at home. I popped out the relay and took it to Advance Auto. They had two in stock so I got both of them. After replacing the relay the car started.

At this point I'm sure the relay issue is cause from something else. Yesterday once again the car did not want to start when leaving my office. I popped out the relay and plugged it back in and the car started. Last night I tried to reproduce the problem with no luck.

The only thing I can think to check it the wiring of the circuit that the relay is attached and anything that may impact that circuit. I'm wondering if it could be a loose ground or a possible current draw issue from some switched accessories I've added to the car.

Any suggestions?

 

Where in the car is this relay located and what desgnation does it go by?

 

:cry Good luck with the relay issue.

 

Mine is in the shop now with the same issue... Which relay was it and where is it located ??????

:confused:

 

:lurk:

 

It is under the dash on the passenger side. The relay is not in the fuse box. You may have to hunt around for it, but it was not hard to find. The relay is slightly smaller then the size of a golf ball, but sqaure and black.

I can post the part number here in a few minutes.

 

Day 2 - Service Tech says after 5 hours of troubleshooting it appears I have a bad PCM and he has ordered one. It will not be in until Monday so they will have my Vette for the week-end... Keeping my fingers crossed on this fixing it.... :rolleyes:

 

I hope your troubles are resolved. The part number for the relay that the dealer replaced for my problem was 12177233.

Since then I am thinking my problem is caused by something else, but removing and reinserting the relay gives my the ability to start the car. I have not had any trouble with the car over several ignition cycles now. I have my fingers crossed.

 

Click here for the Theft Deterrent schematic. The problem is probably with something on this page.

GOOD LUCK :seeya