When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
Sometimes I ******* hate this car, its a 07 with head work, cam, and full 2 inch exhaust with full tune. Well today I go out to the garage and start up the my 07 Z06 and she turns over a little slow, also I have had the battery on a tender as I dont drive it much since its getting cold and rains all the time. So I take the car out today to drive to a family event, she sits for a good three hours, then come back out and start her up just fine. I go to drop my gf off at work and head to the gas station, fill up the tank and get a drink then come back out to start the car and slow *** crank almost like the battery has no juice. She starts but the tach isnt working, so I try again and the same thing. I drive it home and its all jerky and acting weird, no CEL either which I find odd. I get her in the garage and turn the car on without cranking it and the voltmeter is reading halfway below 12v. So my question is, is my battery **** because its only two months old if that. Took it to the people at autozone and they said its fine, but that was after I drove the car so the alternator prolly charged it up. I have wrapped the starter with some heat shield material and this only happens after I drive the car and it gets warmed up. Also here lately my ABS light and traction control light pop on and tell me to service handling system soon, along with my voltmeter bouncing around a little on the dash. Could this all be root cause by the battery, or is my starter taking a **** on me?
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (track prepared)
C6 of Year Winner (track prepared) 2019
Originally Posted by EviLS7
Sometimes I ******* hate this car, its a 07 with head work, cam, and full 2 inch exhaust with full tune. Well today I go out to the garage and start up the my 07 Z06 and she turns over a little slow, also I have had the battery on a tender as I dont drive it much since its getting cold and rains all the time. So I take the car out today to drive to a family event, she sits for a good three hours, then come back out and start her up just fine. I go to drop my gf off at work and head to the gas station, fill up the tank and get a drink then come back out to start the car and slow *** crank almost like the battery has no juice. She starts but the tach isnt working, so I try again and the same thing. I drive it home and its all jerky and acting weird, no CEL either which I find odd. I get her in the garage and turn the car on without cranking it and the voltmeter is reading halfway below 12v. So my question is, is my battery **** because its only two months old if that. Took it to the people at autozone and they said its fine, but that was after I drove the car so the alternator prolly charged it up. I have wrapped the starter with some heat shield material and this only happens after I drive the car and it gets warmed up. Also here lately my ABS light and traction control light pop on and tell me to service handling system soon, along with my voltmeter bouncing around a little on the dash. Could this all be root cause by the battery, or is my starter taking a **** on me?
That absolutely sounds like a bad solenoid. This is what mine looked like after exhibiting most of the annoying characteristics that yours did:
The material gets very brittle from the heat and with the post being loose it can go from starting perfectly fine to not at all minutes later.
Depending on your brand of headers you should be able to get a 13mm socket or stubby wrench on the main starter lead (remember to disconnect your battery first) and try tightening it. If you're lucky it may have just come loose like mine has a few times.
If the nut doesn't feel loose see if the post will wiggle back and forth. Even a little movement means it's likely shot. Fortunately though Amazon sells a replacement solenoid so you won't have to buy another starter.
Ill try that now, but it literally drove fine and no issues. Then get gas and bam acts like it dont want to start and then no tach plus random **** going wrong. Hard to believe a starter could cause so many issues, but I literally cannot think of anything else since I have tested everything else.
I have the exact same issue. From my research here on CF your starter is getting heat soaked and either needs to be replaced, or like subfloor@centurytrans suggested maybe it is just the solenoid.
A little bit of good news is that the tach and other "limp mode" problems that you describe will go away after the car cools down and is started again after a long rest.
Good luck with repair. Until my shoulder heals from surgery, I can not get under my car to diagnose my specific problem so I have been parking on hills when it is hot.
I had the exact same symptoms and it was a bad battery. It would charge, but would not pass the load test. If you rule out the battery, sounds like starter heat soak.
Yea I just got done pulling the starter and am going to take it and the battery to get tested tomorrow when autozone is open. Its a good thing to bc I found I have a small transmission fluid leak from when I had to tap the cooler lines with the kit Stainless works provided. Looks like I just need to tighten the fittings, but will have to get the exhaust out of the way at least the passenger side. Good thing its almost winter bc this car sometimes makes me want to just sell it.
But this time I am just going to say give me a new battery bc this one just seems to not be up to par. Had it on the trickle charger for days and it still was hesitant to start makes me not want to deal with this battery anymore. I am thinking about getting the DEI starter wrap, they had a couple at pep boys, has anyone had any luck with those? or should I just wrap it with the DEI thermal tape?
I had the same issues, my car would barely crank when hot but start fine, I tried 2 different batteries and finally bit the bullet and purchased a starter from Rock Auto for around $90 bucks.
I was also running factory exhaust but this time I bought the DEI gold reflective tape and so far it seems fine.
This is a good start, but it doesn't protect this critical area, an area responsible for most of the "headers burned up my starter" failures.
I will try to get a good pic of my set up, but in addition to the stick-on shielding, I have a large piece of aluminum w/ heat shielding glass material. It's ty-wraped against the side of the block, between the header and the starter terminal.
Dan,
I heard that the solenoid and it's plugs are the main issue with heat soak and the plugs getting brittle and breaking but was also told that starter wraps are not that good to use, I am curious to hear about your fix.
It’s crazu that more and more of these threads popping up but no Solid solution. I’m having exact same issue. It’s becoming more and more frequent where I can maybe only make 1 or 2 stops/park car and when I get back to her she slow cranks and goes into limp mode with No Tach working.
I had the same problems. The car would charge fine below 2500rpms but above it stopped charging. So the battery would drain. The traction and abs light would come on. Check your voltage output at low rpms and higher rpms
Got the starter tested and it was bad. Looks like I need to find a new starter. I bought a DEI heat shield to wrap around the new one, but also now need to remove the exhaust which is being a bitch to fix the leaking transmission line.
11-23-2017, 05:00 PM
I think I need a new starter
