Originally Posted by MBrianB

Thanks for the reminder Bill. I remember reading about the door connector somewhere in the last 90+ pages of this thread.
My driver door does not always respond with the fob to unlock so that connector is next on my list to inspect.

Originally Posted by Upsman84

Bill Curlee, been having ongoing issues with 01 starting again!! So my ?is after messing with the starter an banging on it while my wife held the key down I got in the car and slowly kept moving the key back an forth!! And figured a way to start it but wanting to know what pieces of the switch do I replace now? I already put the Big plastic assembly part on that holds the tumbler but should I replace the keys and tumbler or just get all New switch parts all New again?? Help!! Thanks again for your expertise in all of this !! Upsman!!

Originally Posted by Upsman84

Hey Bill Anyway you can call me?? Just trying to speed up this starting issue?? 417-533-0765

Originally Posted by VetBaby208

Bill,

I wanted to use my first post to thank you. I just bought my '01 Z06 in August. It is bone stock, has been garage kept its entire life and has just over 48,600 miles, and 6,000 of those miles are mine. It also ran a 13.52@110.11MPH at Firebird Raceway in September.
My dash lights and headlights have been flickering, since I bought it, and it finally got to the point where it was bugging me last night, so a quick Google search led me to your thread. When I disconnected both grounds, only two of the pins on each connector had slight blackened corrosion on them. After using some sandpaper and electrical cleaner, I reassembled everything and took it out for a test drive; no more flickering!!!!

Thank you so much, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Fred
Retired Army Guy
2001 Z06

Originally Posted by leo12

Hey bill,great write up on the c5 notorious electrical problems, Need a bit help here,just last summer I noticed that every time I turn the traction control off my c5 the car at times will go into limp mode, REDUCE ENGIE POWER....TRACTION CONTROL FAILURE,in the beginning it wasn't too bad, I would just shut it off wait a couple seconds and off I go,late in the summer it progressively got so bad that every time I turned the traction control of it would go into limp mode and stay there to the point that I couldn't start it back up a gain for a hour or soo,now I'm at the point that I can't take the traction control off and that's no fun.anything more I should be looking at said the grounds?.

Originally Posted by WetMountainMan

Interesting old post., thanks.
My question is regarding the pronged type plugs ... How exactly were they cleaned, using what as a cleaner?
Would packing them with dielectric grease help when reassembling?

Originally Posted by leo12

Bill,can the fascia splice backs create any electrical problems if they are damage in any way?

Originally Posted by Bill Curlee

ABSOFRIGGENLOOTLY!!!! A Splice Pack is nothing More than a ground termination point for multiple electrical components in that area. ALL the ground wires connect in that SP and a singe wire carries the SP ground to a chassis ground point.

If ANY connector is exposed to water, salt, or a corrosive enviorment, the connections inside the connector will corrode and cause a poor ground connection.

Here is a picture/s of a chassis ground (G-101 ) and a SP that was exposed to poor environments. The corrosion rendered the grounds to a failed condition:

Exposed to North East weather:








Exposed to a Leakey OEM Battery. Just the acid fumes caused this:





The female pins can just spread apart due to temp and vibration over time and cause a very poor connection with the MALE PIN. Very common problem with GM female pins:

Example of a really BAD female pin that had a very poor connection in a door power connector: (top row center pin is really spread apart):



A splice Pack connector is NOT water tight and always exposed to the environment.

Bill

Originally Posted by leo12

Yes i got that,i n the engine department i have already bunched the wires up and solder them to one ground point,the packs under the fascia just hang there ,how are they grounded ?

Originally Posted by Bill Curlee

Many of you have asked me for help on solving electrical problems and I thought this would be VERY interesting!

My 98 coupe would get the infamous "REDUCED ENGINE POWER", "TRACTION CONTROL FAILURE" and a host of random failure codes. After many, many hours of troubleshooting, replacing the BCM and TAC module, I solved most of the driveability issues. Still getting the random DTC failure codes, I thought that I may be having ground issues. Back in June I cleaned ALL of the chassis grounds and the car virtually stopped throwing the "RANDOM" DTC failure codes. Just moving the wires in the chassis ground connector was enough to change the indications and make the issues stop happening.

I had a chance to speak with some GM C5 Trouble Desk Engineers when I went to Bowling Green KY in April and they pointed out that MANY of the C5 electrical issues can be directly linked to chassis ground problems. The engineer even went as far as to recommending that I chop off the factory under hood chassis ground connectors and combine all of the wires into a single ground lug. Not wanting to just LOP off the factory connector, I took a chance and disassembled one of the ground plug connectors and to my surprise it was indeed full of corroded connections.
I strongly recommend that any C5 owner that has had or who are having electrical issues, examine and clean the chassis ground connectors. This may save you from needlessly replacing expensive electronics modules. Each ground connector can be disassembled and cleaned in about 20 min.

Just cleaning the metal ground connection between the chassis and the plug is only a band aid solution. Now that I look back, when I cleaned my chassis grounds and initially solved my issues, I believe that when the connector is being removed to clean the connection between chassis and the connector, just the wires being moved inside the plug is what changed the indications and made everything work better.
Disassembly of the chassis ground plug and cleaning the contacts inside the connector is the correct method of solving the issue!

I took some pictures of the under hood chassis ground connector and the corrosion that was in it. I cleaned the two connections on the frame rails and the left one was significantly corroded! Taking it apart and cleaning it is a very straight forward procedure and I believe that if you follow this recommendation, you will be on the way to solving the many of the electrical issues.

Here are some detailed pictures of the ground connector and the corrosion that was found inside it!

Picture of under hood Chassis Ground connector G-101



Corrosion inside connector! (You ain't seen nothing yet!)
[IMG][/IMG]

Next three photos are of the corrosion found on the connector terminals!
[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]


Self tapping ground screw and star washer. This is what you will need if the ground stud breaks off during removal!
[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][IMG]

Here are where the chassis ground points are on a C5:



Attachment 48174127

Attachment 48174128



PLEASE let me know if you have any questions. NOTE! All of the pictures that I have of C5 Grounds have been posted on or in this post.

Bill Curlee

updated 02 March 06