MODERATOR. NOTE If you would be so kind to leave this in BOTH. General and Tech, for a couple days I would appreciate it. I feel that this is very important and want maximum people to read it.

Returned from Carlisle yesterday. Great time as always. Could have done without the rain and the coldest day I ever had had there.
Now for the meat of my posting!.

Was lucky enough to be at the engineer’s tent as Dave Hill pulled his Zo6 into the tent Friday morning...
Waited a couple minuets and had a chance to talk with him. Asked/told him about all the problems with DBS/no start. He was very noncommittal and acted sort of surprised at our problems, but offered nothing that could help. Walked me over to another part of the tent and introduced me to a engineer to listen to my problems. We discussed things for about 10 minuets or so and I gave him a prepared manifesto of what I have learned from this group and C5 registry. + All I have personally seen and done to find/correct this problem. (3 pages) I left there with the understanding I would be contacted on either Wednesday or Thursday by a engineer to work with me and my dealer to find this problem. I said that would be great and I would talk with him or anything else that would fix this problem.
From what I can gather they think this is a very small number of cars with this problem and are not really treating this with the resources needed to find/fix it

Flash forward to Friday night. I attended the C5 Registry dinner, Will Cooksie and 8 other B.G. people were in attendance. Mr. Cooksie was guest speaker and solicited questions from the floor. Being the shy retiring person that I am I raised my hand and was the 6 person asked to speak, I asked him about the put in reverse being eliminated for 06 and weather that could/would be a retrofit for our cars, as a lot of folks including me think that has a lot to do with our problem. Mr. Cooksie is a great fellow but missed his true calling of being a politician as he spoke about it for a while but really did not say anything. Another BG. engineer also spoke but really did not say much. The one thing I did accomplish was getting this presented in a public forum so GM cannot say that did not know about our problem. (About 80 or so people there)

On Sat. I talked extensively with a GM engineer (I will not name this person) and got some insight into the coperate world and our problem... It looks like it will be our problem only unless a lot more people have this issue. I hate to say this, but if it occurs in the new batch of cars, more will be done.
I also talked with a engineer, not GM that is aware of this issue. Among other things he said this car is a electrical hog. He recommends shutting down all systems you can before parking it (radio heater/ac) He also said to get at all fuses& relays, under the hood & in the passenger compartment. And tap them down into their sockets, that is to be sure that that are seated properly.

I have said enough for a while! Anyone else PLEASE jump in here, any ideas suggestion, thoughts, please submit them. I take note and will add them to what information I now have. Hopefully we/dealers/GM can find this problem.
Dave

 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this weekend. Thanks for making this a priority as best you can. I unfortunately have been bit by the DBS really bad. My first C6 had 3 (got rid of it and thought I'd try again) my second has had 5. I have had 2 batteries replaced, it has sat with the dealer for 4+ days and they found nothing. They gave it back to me and said next time it happens (#6) they will come out to the house. I get the feeling that there is some belief that outside interference has something to do with it. I have unplugged both garage door openers. (lets see if that works?)

One suggestion is to get a small group together to discuss similarities: parking location, electronics (in & outside of the car), shut down procedures & environment?

 

Thanks for the info and putting everything together for the GM engineers! I'm a little disappointed to hear that GM appears to be so lackadaisical about this problem. Maybe if we try to tabulate some of the hypotheses proposed by forum members, we can make a correlation. I've started a poll that might help us figure out which of the current theories might apply. Hopefully it will shed some light on the subject that GM seems to be keeping in the dark.

Mike

 

Mike, I spoke with Will Cooksey and an engineer while at Carlisle, outside the GM tent. The engineer felt that not locking the steering column could be part of the problem for those who otherwise shut down properly in reverse. Interestingly, one of the display cars, a 6 speed non Z06, had a dead battery. I had to help a guy "escape" by reaching in and pulling the latch next to the driver's seat. They also told me we could not integrate the 06 technology with our 05's. I really believe it has alot to do with the steering column lock. Lock your steering columns. I told them it was too bad we had to be this methodical.

 

Your right it's to bad we have to be so methodical...maybe it is in the mechanism, however, to your methodical comment I lock my column every time I exit still resulting in dead batteries...supposedly the corvette techs in la la land asked the mechanic if I lived near a Police Station, Fire Station, Cell Tower or Airport. My gut is it's external...for what it's worth...

 

Well, much thanks for the post. I've had just one experience with DBS.
When it came time for you to speak, just wish you might have been more aggressive with these folks-like suggesting, unless it gets fixed, you might go the lemon law route. By the way, please understand, I'm not being critical of you in any way.
Just wish someone would have REALLY taken them to task!!

 

Sorry for the second post, but one last comment. After almost 6 mos of ownership, & about 3000 mi, I decided to activate Homelink. The next week, encountered my first episode of DBS!
Any connection? I don't have a clue.
Take Care All.

 

Seems to me from the vague references from the different engineers who spoke to different members is that GM feels some external RF signal is continually waking up the car and causing the high drain…

Is this what you guys got out of it??

 

That is my sense...