Hi guy i am new to the forum, last friday i purchased a 2005 vette. It reads in the DIC (shocks inop, max speed 80mph)

the clip mod, recall has been done and the battery is ac delco 6 months old. the dealership cant get the car in until next monday to check it out. is there any other ideas i can check for what is causing this?

thanks for the help

 

Does you car have the Mag Selective Ride suspension?

 

it is a f55 car is that is what you are asking...

 

Well, since you know the battery is only 6 months old and if you are sure it is fully charged, then the most likely issue is one of the connectors or sensors at one of the wheels. Actual, serious problems with the F55 system are rare. The dealer should be able to diagnose and treat pretty quickly. If you have a code scanner you might be able to pull trouble codes yourself. Sorry you're having problems already. Best of luck for an easy fix.

 

i had the codes ran and there are none....i knew this was an issue on the test drive but part of the deal was it would be fixed. i bought it from the harley dealer ship here. It was a trade in on a bike. they made an appointment at GM but its like 8 days away so just trying to see if it was something simple i could handle.

 

If you know what you're doing you can get under each wheel and check the connectors. The problem is if there isn't something obvious like a connector detached or broken there isn't much you can do. We've had a few reports of corroded connections that weren't visible until the connectors were removed.


Edit: I meant to add, try to be patient. Member HOXXOH has a lot of experience with those shocks and will likely chime in later tonight or tomorrow and might have ideas to offer.

 

When my 2005 with F55 showed the same codes, I pulled my hair out trying to diagnose for almost 2 years. First, I would open the hood and check the front sensors on the shocks. They're located just above the shocks. Make sure the connections aren't loose, disconnected, or contaminated. If all is fine, wait til the dealer can look at it. The rear sensors are also above the shocks but the shocks must be removed to get to them. Which involves a lift and removing part of the rear suspension to get out. The F55 system is very sensitive to all the parts working perfect, so it may take the dealer some time to diagnose the issue. I hope this helps some, but unless you have a tech II to fully diagnose there's not much you can do.

 

With what you said so far, but there's more to check. Also to remove any confusion, what I assume you called sensors are actually the electrical connectors on the shocks.

First thing is to check both fuses #3 and #13 in the underhood fusebox to verify they're good.

If you're comfortable using a multi-meter, you can check the console switch and the suspension sensors. I'd suggest you get the proceedure from an '05 service manual, as it may be different from my '08.

The suspension position sensors also have an electrical connector and are mounted on the frame with a rod that connects to the lower A-arms in the rear and upper A-arms in the front. If any of the electrical connections on either the shocks or the sensors are loose or broken, the system will flag a SHOCKS INOPERABLE notice to the DIC. A bent or broken bracket or rod is easy to diagnose and repair. It also seems that Corvettes are notorious for having grounding issues, so it won't hurt to remove, clean, and replace any of the ground wires that are in the vicinity of the shocks.

This whole system ties in the ABS, the vehicle speed sensor, and the steering position sensor, so at any time you feel overwhelmed, don't feel bad by letting GM handle it.

One more thing to note. In order to confirm if anything you change or repair actually did fix the problem, you need to start the car and drive it at least 3 mph then stop and shut it off for at least 60 seconds and repeat it two more times. If the DIC is clear you're good to go.

Best of luck. Be sure to report back what the cure was.

PS. Thanks Rick for the vote of confidence, but I'm far from the expert, but I have had some experiences though.

 

Nice writeup!

 

hey guys thanks for the input....the dealership called me today and was able to take the car in today so its in thier hand now. I talked to the service guy and he is going to let me know exactly what fixes the issue.

I will be sure to give an update

 

Nice info, we get the question a lot, thanks for posting. Hopefully the OPs dealer will get it taken care of, but we all wanna know what the cause was!!!

 

dealer says the car has the wrong shocks up front...that the are standard c6 shocks not f55....how can i tell if these are the incorrect shocks just by looking?

 

It's pretty easy, the factory F55 shocks will have a wiring harness that attaches to them. The standard C6 replacements will not have this harness.

 

do you have a picture...so there should be wiring on the shocks itself?

 

That's a picture of a Mag Ride Shock, notice the wiring harness.



This is a picture of the Johnny O'Connell shock package we offer. Visually these look very similar to the Non Mag Ride OEM shocks. Notice no wiring coming from the shock body.