Informational post- I heard from another member who also had a terminal engine failure. Upon engine reinstall he also needed a new starter motor and additionally they needed to pull his front bumper to get to a fuse.' Im suspicious I may have the same fate.

So if your motor bricks let the SA know this sequence it may help expedite your repair

 

Especially if you tell them you 'read it on the internet'

 

I am having a hard time imagining 1) that there is a fuse behind the front bumper, 2) you would need to remove the front bumper to access any fuse, and 3) that would be the location of a fuse controlling the starter. Perhaps there is but it does not sound logical. Perhaps there is a fusible link burned somewhere around the battery that required removal of body pieces???

 

there is a fuse behind the front bumper. its attached to the battery. 200 amp fuse. when the starter motor shorts out for whatever reason, the fuse pops. probably can replace it without removing the front bumper, but may be easier to repair if you remove it.

 

I am not doubting you. It sounds like you know what you are talking about. With the battery being close to the firewall and the starter in the rear of the car, it seems strange that the fuse would be at the front of the car. I am sure there is a reason.

Good luck to the OP in getting your car fixed. I know how stressful these major repairs can be.

 

To me the bigger question is why did the fusible link blow? Its been posted at least twice now coinciding with engine replacement. Did happen because someone tried cranking the engine when it was trying to seize up thus drawing too much current and then the starter stopped working? Did the starter motor actually fail or was the starter motor fine and misdiagnosed? Was it noted that the engine would no longer turn over? If so it should be planned as part of the engine replacement when the engine won't turn over. Or did something occur during the engine replacement that caused it to blow?

 

It does sound strange but location is probably due to that being a fire hazard.

 

Learned something new today about how the C8 is put together. Does seem strange that a fuse is placed behind the front bumper and is for the starter, but they must have a good reason for it.

 

Technically, 99% of the car is behind the front bumper! Just sayin!

Getting to battery is very simple. Remove the three amigos and you're there.
Most fuses are behind the "waterfall" between the two seats.

 

That's my guess. First thing tech did was hit the starter button to make SURE it was actually dead.
That probably damaged the starter motor as well as drawing too much current.

 

The purpose of a fuse is generally to protect the wiring, not the object drawing power through the wire. The reason for protecting the wire harness, is that it's usually quite troublesome to replace an entire harness in an automobile.....or aircraft. Replacing a harness will often require a large disassembly process and reassembly. According to the philosophy the fuse for a starter should be immediately after the battery: battery-fuse-wire harness-starter, not battery-wire harness-fuse-starter.

 

Yep, and there are usually two fuses related to the starter.
Starter is usually direct wired to battery via a fusible link due to the high current it carries. Starter has a solenoid / switch, and that solenoid is much much lower current and has a fuse in the regular fuse box.

Anyway. I think it is interesting that I have heard of more than one case where an engine failed / seized up and after they got the new engine in they ended up saying they had to also wait for a new starter.
Does this mean the new engine was shipped without the power accessories, starter, etc. and GM figured those would be taken off the original engine for re-use?
It would seem quite odd to me to have a NEW engine with a NEW starter installed and then immediately find out the new starter was bad. if that were the case, why wouldn't they just pull the old starter off the original engine and use that one to quickly get the car running again? Nope, they end up having to wait for a replacement to arrive.
That tells me they are likely re-using the old starter and it was damaged during testing trying to turnover the seized motor. That's my guess anyway.

So to me the lesson learned here is, if you get a seized engine, take out a sharpie and put an X on the starter. If you end up with the car back and the starter has an X on it, you might request they replace that starter because it likely was pretty heavily abused.
I would request this anyway, but marking the parts is my way of keeping folks honest!

 

Sounds fishy. The service manual doesn't show any fused behind the front bumper that I noticed. And no other car I've owned put the fusible link that far from the battery and starter motor. if this were accurate, you've got heavy gauge wire going from the starter to the front bumper, and then all the way back to the starter? Weird design.

 

I hope we get another follow up on the follow up post soon.

 

No follow up as yet. Zero communication from sa. Working on it

 

Call the BBB file a buy back claim sit back and watch GM react and call you in 48 hours.