Electrical Gremlins

**Tuna** · 07-18-11, 11:17 AM

Well last week was not my week.
We had thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon with hail and I watched the hail and rain from my office window but I wasn't worried - I drove my '08 Vert to work that day and hail hardly bothers the car. The metal cars in the parking lots got some damage but my Vette was just fine. So far, so good.

Drive the car home and stop once along the way and it's all still good.
Pull into my driveway with the garage door going up and I get all sorts of failure messages like: SERVICE TIRE MONITOR, SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING, SERVICE ABS, SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL, LOW FUEL - that's when I looked at the gauges and all were reading zero except the battery volt gauge and the tach. Pulled into the garage and checked over everything and figured that a shut down and restart would "reboot" the car. No such luck. In fact, it didn't want to start at. The green circle and even the red and amber lights were out.

Okay, I'll go in and call my dealer to come get the car only it will not let me open the door. Had to use the manual/emergency door release to get out. Not good. I shut the door and it would not let me in either. Used the emergency key and got back in and tried to start - no green circle and no messages telling me that a FOB is not present. Tried the docking slot in the glove box and nothing.

Over the next hour, I disconnected the battery a couple of times to see it would clear up the problems. Once it gave me the green circle and the car started only to go through all the error messages again and zero the gauges again.

The '08 went to the dealer on a flat bed and they managed to duplicate the problem once they got it. It's still there and they are still chasing electrons. I think aliens possessed the car or it just needs a good degaussing.

On top of that, when I opened my house door, there were a lot of service alarms going off inside also. Seems that lightening hit very near my house that afternoon and fried the security alarm, set off the smoke alarms, fried my U-Verse modem, fried one phone and my DVD player. Last Tuesday was not a good day. $2000+ and 5 days later, most of the house is up to speed again and I'm still waiting on the car.

**jhecox** · 07-18-11, 02:29 PM

WOW, when it rains it pours. No pun intended. Good luck.

**Tuna** · 07-19-11, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by jhecox

WOW, when it rains it pours. No pun intended. Good luck.

I'm supposed to get the car back today. After the initial duplication of some of the issues last week, it's behaved nicely for them. Time to get it back and we what happens when I get it home.

**LLC5** · 07-19-11, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by Tuna

I'm supposed to get the car back today. After the initial duplication of some of the issues last week, it's behaved nicely for them. Time to get it back and we what happens when I get it home.

It sounds like all your modules stopped communicating with each other, and that is usually a voltage problem caused by either by harness connections, charging system, or battery. Hopefully they do a thorough check of your charging system and battery (actually I would insist on it with printed results, but that's just me), as it is easy to over look the basics when a problem like this exists, and truthfully you should not try to diagnose any electrical problems until you verify (not assume) that all the basics are good. Hope it is fixed for you, good luck with it.

**Tuna** · 07-19-11, 11:40 AM

Yea, I hate these electrical gremlins as they are really hard to find - especially if the technician only looks at the diagnostic tool and it says everything is working. We'll see.

**Tuna** · 07-20-11, 07:51 AM

Well, the service department still has my '08.
It was hauled to them last Tuesday (Jul 12) after the service department closed. They checked it Wednesday morning to get ODO info and other stuff and that's when the service writer got stuck in it. Since they didn't have a technician ready for it - they were pretty busy so it sat for a day - but they tell me that they checked it later and it worked just fine. Worked just fine on Thursday, Friday and again on Monday and Tuesday for them. Computer check did not reveal any stored codes.
So, we drive down to get it late yesterday. Sign the paperwork and get the FOB. It was parked not far from the service entrance. Walk out to it and it will not let me open the doors or the trunk. Here's one quirky part. When I squeeze the drivers door membrane, nothing happens. When I squeeze the passenger door membrane, the red light on the door flashes and the window indexes down but the door will not unlatch. Trunk does not work either. Tried the FOB buttons with no success.
Took the FOB back to the service writer and told him it was still his. He went out and got the same results. Got the service manage and he got the same results. Guess they'll have to look a little harder.
Oh well.

**Dad** · 07-20-11, 09:02 AM

Did this all happen the day they released the last Harry Potter film???

**Tuna** · 07-20-11, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Dad

Did this all happen the day they released the last Harry Potter film???

I wish I could blame it on the Dark Lord!

**Tuna** · 07-21-11, 09:03 AM

Good news today - yesterday morning, the service writer checked my Vette and it worked just fine. After lunch, during the heat of the day, the technician went out to get my car and put it inside. It let him in and it started but while driving it into the shop, it went totally stupid and died an electronic death. That's the good news - they duplicated what I saw over a week ago. Now, maybe they can fix it.

**LLC5** · 07-21-11, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Tuna

Good news today - yesterday morning, the service writer checked my Vette and it worked just fine. After lunch, during the heat of the day, the technician went out to get my car and put it inside. It let him in and it started but while driving it into the shop, it went totally stupid and died an electronic death. That's the good news - they duplicated what I saw over a week ago. Now, maybe they can fix it.

That is a good thing, verifying the problem is half the battle. Contacting GM Tech Line will hopefully be there next attempt at repair.

**Tuna** · 07-27-11, 10:15 AM

Well, the technician still hasn't found the problem and the car still does not respond to the FOB. They put in a new battery and that didn't help. They tell me that they now have GM and Chevrolet involved but that don't want to throw parts at it and hope that something fixes it.
So, 2 weeks and counting and my Vette is still in the shop. My local club is having a picnic at the dealership this Saturday so I'll get to visit it while I'm there at least.

Yes, it's a little frustrating to say the least.

**Red Vette** · 07-27-11, 10:29 AM

Since your Corvette experiencing the problems is an 08, I hope you still have a warranty to cover the cost or an extended warranty. Some people don't believe in them, but I put the extended on all my cars, and have had to use them, unfortuntely, but they were a blessing when it came to the bill.
Keep us updated and I hope they find the real problem and can fix it. Too bad Paul isn't the one working on the car, I'll bet he would find the problem.
Barrett

**XLR8** · 07-27-11, 09:05 PM

Dang, Tuna! Did you break a mirror or run over a black cat?!?

Between the dealership, GM/Chevy, GMJunkie, LLC5, C4C5Specialist (Paul) and other assorted tinkerers/magicians here on the CAC... hopefully the problem will be resolved soon! Call in all the Big Guns!

Sorry for the aggravation and I sincerely hope the fix will be found soon.

Jane Ann

**Tuna** · 07-28-11, 07:29 AM

This just ain't my month.

I work for the FAA also and I can't wait to get furloughed next month if Congress can't agree on a budget.

**Tuna** · 08-04-11, 10:32 AM

Well my car is still toast - 3 weeks and counting.

Dealer service department and GM Customer Assistance seem to be baffled. Service tech seems to think it's all anti-theft related but they haven't started replacing any parts yet. Probably because I called my insurance company to take a look at see if it might be lightening (electro-magnetic pulse) related. Well, the adjuster didn't see any obvious damage to the car so he when home but he didn't tell my service manager that they need to keep looking. We had a talk about that this morning and the adjuster is supposed to call my service manager and explain their position.

Basically, the service tech needs to keep digging and repairing stuff as a warranty claim until they find something wrong that is clearly damaged from an external source. If that happens, it gets tossed back into my insurance company's lap.

In the meantime, it appears that GM/Chevrolet do not want to just replace electronic parts without actually having a test to show that they are bad. The problem with that (in my mind) is that there are so many electronic issues with the car that it may never "test" bad. And until they start replacing parts that they "know" are good, they may never find out where all the problems might be.

I'm trying to be philosophical about the whole situation but it's hard.