Fellow C6 Owners of Corvette forum,

Doing a search on the term "Service Active Handling" brings up a litany of titles such as "wiped out on the highway" or "brakes seized" in your search results. After becoming a victim of a light speed incident of this failure I decided to do my homework. The information below is not intended to alarm anyone, but please take this thread seriously as your car may be fine, but it may be the life of a fellow Corvette brother you save by taking action.

GM made an "effort" to address the AH/TCS concern by releasing Technical Service Bulletin 06-02-35-002B THE BULLETIN WAS INTENDED TO CORRECT A FRETTING CORROSION PROBLEM WITH THE STEERING WHEEL POSITION SENSOR CONNECTOR C202. This went from installing a zip tie to now inserting a "clip" to ensure the wire is not frayed or pulled taught.


Example of reported incident:

I recommend any one with any concern with their Electronic Stability Control (Traction Control / Active Handling) system contact the Office of Defect and Investigation (ODI) both informally through the contact link and formally with an official reporting link. Also, for those that have not yet had an issue, but still drive a 2005-2008 model year; it may be in your future interest to also send a letter of concern to the ODI.

Here is the OFFICIAL report the ODI currently is operating with:
http://nhthqnwws111.odi.nhtsa.dot.go...9002-32761.pdf

As you can see they have only a few limited reports of this incident when this forum alone has twice as many. If this is a systemic engineer problem the number of incidents will only increase as our cars age and wear.

Please be sure to address your concerns to the Engineer currently working on the case, Stephen McHenry stephen.mchenry@dot.gov (202) 366-4883 and the Office Director, Kathleen C DeMeter kathleen.demeter@dot.gov.

Use this form to contact ODI:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/contact.cfm
Please be sure to include the current investigation number EA09-002

Complete a formal complaint form here:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

It is imperative that this community use its active online presence to advocate this concern.

 

Any luck with this? Thanks for taking the initiative. I contacted the listed personnel about my experience.

 

I actually just put this all together last night, so I haven't had a chance to dig too deep into. At present I will be operating my car with TC and AH off rather than careening off the GW Parkway into the Potomac.

Given my current job (I run the military and transportation portfolio for a member of Congress) I have a VERY good understanding of both the bureaucracy in DC and how effective a good letter writing campaign can be. I get excited when I can put my "skill set" to good use, more so when cars are involved.

I hope everyone will read the first post carefully and express their concern to both the DOT officials and the GM representatives Ito be added shortly). Heck, feel free to write your member of Congress as well - give them all the information above and encourage them to contact the DOT. This will help MORE than you think

 

This is in my opinion the way to get spit done.

I have filled out the ODI contact form and have filled out the formal complaint form.

In short i hope this helps solve the problem/s with ah system failures,It wont get my 4500 mile 2lz Dsom z06 back but more importantly it could save lives and other property.

Thanks for donating your time to this.I as well as others im sure THANK YOU. Ian Cote

 

Ian,

Not a problem. I do it for the same reason - to protect others.

 

I have to fill this out!! I thought this sort of issue would be resolved on the C6. It isnt and you are correct!! THIS WILL ONLY GET WORSE AS TIME GOES BY!!

Thank you

Bill Curlee

 

You should report the problem to the NHTSA. I had an AH/TC problem and reported it, and I know a few other folks have as well. This way, all of the information can be aggregated and analyzed by someone - it might help other owners in the future. You tax dollars are paying for this anyway, might as well use it. Here is what the investigator sent me when I reported my problem:


Thank you very much for the information. If you know some other owners who have had problems with the Stability Control system please ask them to also fill out official complaint forms at the www.safercar.gov or call our hotline at 888-327-4236.

Regards,
Stephen

Stephen McHenry
Investigator, US D.O.T.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Office of Defects Investigation
NVS-213 Room W48-217
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE
Washington D.C. 20590-0001
202.366.4883 or 1.877.536.8368 x-64883
Fax 202.366.3171

 

Well I hope you don't have any issues. I'm sure there were plenty of people who didn't have their roofs fly off either...

 

Thanks, I hope so as well.





True, there were/are, I am one of them as well.




*In case anyone was wondering where the quote in the post above this one came from, I'd deleted my original post because it really wasn't all that contributory to the topic at hand.

 

Can someone clarify if this is for 05-06 only or 05-08?

 

I talked to DOT today. They do have a test vehicle and are studying this specific issue, which sounded like they have been able to reproduce the problem.

They were very interested to learn that that the AH/TC would come back on after turning it off if the system detected an error.

If anyone else is having these issues please contact the DOT at the safety number above.

 

I have an '08 and it happened to me.

 

I received a questionaire regarding this problem from the NHTSA today in the mail. I had not had any contact with them prior.

 

Glad to hear they are reaching out to people.

 

What is the problem, exactly? Is there a way to "tune" this out, or is it not just the computer?

 

I will file a complaint for this serious problem, in addition to the roof complaint I already filed (GM would not repair my roof that was about to fly off due to a previous "repair").

My active handling activates almost weekly at lower speeds while turning, even with the traction control off. The problem is it locks up the front brakes!! While this may not sound too serious at low speeds, imagine pulling out into traffic and the brakes lock up on your car. It occurs pulling onto grass or loose gravel also, especially in turns. I have to turn the car off and restart it for it to move again.

The problem first occurred last Fall and I finally addressed it with the local GM shop with TSB 06-02-35-0002B on 1/2/09 ($88.15 service), which added a clip to the SWPC connector. It did not correct the problem long term. I do have stock size street tires on my car also.

 

Glad to hear you are taking steps to have this resolved and bolstering our efforts to FORCE GM to look at this as a BIG safety issue and less of an annoyance.

Two points that I continue to stress to the DOT -

After shutting down the system (holding the button for 6 seconds) and if you trigger the mysterious SAH message - AH comes BACK ON due to an error.

The previous "clip fix" clearly wasn't the actual problem. I've been talking to the DOT rather frequently and they are seeing more and more alarming engineering behind this issue on their test car in Ohio. They have been able, without much effort, reproduce all the problems listed in this thread.

I encourage you all to continue to touch base with them. I would be happy if GM would at least release a system update that would allow me to turn off the AH WITHOUT IT COMING BACK IN. At least this way I know the car's steering and overall control rest in my hands and I'm not competing with the various stability control components.

 

I appreciate all of those who have voted they don't have the time for this. I'm sure you'll be back searching for this thread once your wheels lock up and you battle your car to not run you off the road.


See you all soon.....

 

Is it problem only with the telescopic steering wheel option?

 

I know three people who have had the problem (myself included) who DO NOT have a telescoping wheel