Infamous Steering Column Lock...Need Advice

[99C5Coupe]

I just purchased a 99c5 coupe mn6 with approximately 24k miles on it from Carmax about 6 weeks ago. I went ahead and got an extended warranty through Carmax since the car is several years old.

Tonight I was in downtown Raleigh at the Carrier HVAC Training Course and after class got the Steering Column lock reading. Unfortunately this is a bad area of town so I didn't want to leave the car there overnight so I went ahead and had it towed to Carmax. Once we dropped the car off the driver ask for the mileage so I hopped in to get that for him. Now that I think about it I am not sure if I would have been able to access this information with the column lock error. Well anyway low and behold the steering column wasn't locked anymore??? Go figure!

Prior to having the car towed at first I got the take key out and wait 10 sec message. I did this, turned it off and on a few times while turning it left to right trying to free it up. Needless to say none of this worked.

Well enough ranting so on to my questions/concerns. I am sure that I will get a call from carmax stating that the steering column isn't locked. I am also concerned about there techs abilities, or lack there of, to diagnose and fix problems. I would much rather take the car to a chevy dealership, however my warranty is with them and I don't want to have to spend a bunch of money to have it fixed. I guess what I am really wondering is there anything that they can do to prevent this problem in the future.

In addition to this problem my passenger side window stopped going down a few days ago. Its making a clicking sound. I would assume that this would be the motor perhaps? These two problems couldn't be related somehow as far as the computer is concerned could they?

In the event that carmax doesn't do anything about the steering lock problem, which I am sure they won't seeing that it is now mysteriously gone, are there any forum members from around the Raleigh NC area that could recommend a chevrolet dealership that I could have take a look at it?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice. In the meantime I know there are a few threads pertaining to this problem here so I will sift through them for some information.

[Lucky7's81]

I work at Gordon Chevrolet in Jacksonville FL and do at least one steering column lock a week. Ecklers sells a bypass wire kit that just bypasses the steering lock. As for your passenger window. I replace a few of those as well and have both a passenger and driver window motor and regulator assembly. It sounds like the regulator has broken if you hear a clicking noise when the switch is replaced. Other wise I would say take the door panel off and just hit the window motor while pressing the switch. 90% of windows can be fixed this way. What happens is the window is allways all the way up or all the way down when the switch is pressed and its contacts get worn in the motor and givng it a wack frees it up 90% of the time.

[Vette96CE]

Hi Lucky,

Talking about steering wheels. I drive my 1996 CE everyday. About two month ago my steering wheel column started to have a ticking noise when you turned it to the left. I could feel the tick in the brake pedal also. The car has 98,000 miles on it, I don't autocross or drag strip the car so what do you think it could be??
I pretty much ruled out a tire rod because, I just had them
checked two weeks ago. The problem seems to exist in the steering column.......

Thanks in advance, Jim "Vette96CE"

[doylede]

My 2000 Coupe went through this phase at about 20K+ miles. Twice in my garage I got the wait 10 seconds... etc and then it worked. About two weeks later it locked in a parking lot and I had to get Chevy to come tow it. The dealer fixed it.

Bummer, but once it was over, it was over. I believe there is a GM bulletin on this problem.

You were smart to get an extended warranty. I got the GM 5yr/75,000 mi at purchase, and am very glad that I did. So far I have had

1,200 mi - power steering seal leak. Dealer replaced rack and pinion. Bowling Green claimed it was the first they had ever seen - lucky me. It took a week. The dealer put the belt back on wrong giving high temp. Replaced the belt. Someone spun the steering wheel while the rack and pinion was out and broke the steering wheel position sensor. Dealer replaced it.

3K mi - Hatch "realigned" because you had to slam it so hard that it moved the rear view mirror. Chevy salesperson says "Yeah, you have to really close them hard". Works great now. Lower, put hand on emblem, push - no problem.

11K mi - left rear axle seal leaking. Dealer replaced it.

20k+ mi - Steering lock.

31K mi - Battery died. Installed an Interstate.

Along the way to 42K mi - Three tire pressure sensors. One, then two at the same time. Dealer replaced them. Left rear tire still slowly looses pressure, but much faster than the other three. On the second set of tires now ($1,400 even for exact replacements). For this area, a good price. Dealer quoted ~$1,800.

42K mi - belt tensioner failed. Belt came off. This one was scary. Turning on to an Interstate on-ramp, steering got real heavy and engine power went way down while making a left turn across a 4-lane in traffic. Clearing the on-comming traffic, I looked down to see if the engine had cut off just in time to see the coolant high-temp light and hear the beep. Pulling to the shoulder of the on-ramp (good that it had one), I switched off the engine as I stared at the pegged temp guage - 260 - visions of cooked motor. Cutting to the chase - belt ran off bent-over tensioner under turning load. Temp immediately went max (95+ outside temp). Computer backed off power. Engine seems OK.
GM covered towing, tensioner, and belt because it was damaged by part failure.

Upcoming events - The outside coating on the glass top is starting to peel. The driver seat leather is about to break down (there is a GM bulletin on this - botton line - replace the seat). The dealer will hear about these problems.

Lurkers - After about three hours on the Interstate, the cruise control will quit working. Stop - turn off and restart - working again.
Same driving time on I-state, gas guage drops to zero. Head-up and guage say out of gas, but mileage in DIC still working. Same work-around. Off-on and working again. A little scary the first time. Some time spent looking for leaks.

Yeah, I'd say an extended warranty is a good bet.

Don Doyle

[c4c5specialist]

HI there,
If the recall was done on your column lock system, I would suggest that your relay for the feedback circuit may not be working correctly.
Allthebest, c4c5

[Remo]

Chris - Kurt (Lucky 7's81) had some good advise about Ecklers bypass wire. And while your ordering it also get the 1-to-4 shift bypass relay if you have a six speed.

doyledge - what a list of issues on your 2002. I've had pretty good luck with my 01 vert. I was at the Bowling Green assembly plant on September 15th and I was surprised to see how many vettes failed the final drive booth test process. There were about eight repair bays in the staging area just outside the test booths. All of them were full - all the time. This might not seem to bad but the plant only produces 116 cars per day. The C5 was was introduced in 1997 so you would think by the time they built your 2002 the systems would have been error free. There were other observations I made but no sense in rambling.

Remo

[Lucky7's81]

Sorry Jim Vette96CE I haven't come across that problem yet or heard anyone at my shop have that problem. Maybe, c4c5 specialist has seen this before. I found a customer satisfaction campaign for the electronic column lock #01044A.
The corvettes involed are as followed vins
1998 From W5123355 Through W5131069
1999 X5100001 X5133283
2000 Y5100001 Y5116233
Part number is 88952427 for Automatics
88952428 for Manuals in US vettes
For corvettes over seas all vettes use the manual #

[atmmac]

My 97 so far has been ok except for the steering column. The Steering column has cost me 650 bucks car has 11,500 miles. The only other issue was the belt recall that was free.