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2003 Anniv. Edition. Random trouble when starting

Gman46

New member
Joined
Jan 13, 2016
Messages
4
Location
Simpsonville,South Carolina US
Corvette
2003 50th Aniv.Edition,LS1. Convertable
Bought car in Apr-15.Always start on 2nd or 3rd crank. Now-about once a month or week, you turn the key, and get NOTHING. notr a light comes on or anything. NEW battery, charging system checked. Voltmeter gage shows pulling 13.5 to 14 volts. I read where a member had slightly different problem, and he was told to try turning ignition on,NO START, press reset button, press and,while holding options button, press fuel button 4 times in 10 seconds. Whada Y'all think? Any help out of this?
Gman46
 
Welcome to the Corvette Action Center!

I'm going to move your post into the C5 Tech Center for greater exposure...
 
What is the Security light doing when you have the Ignition Key in ON?


Mr. Sam
 
What is the Security light doing when you have the Ignition Key in ON?


Mr. Sam

Good question Mr. Sam. I'll pay attention. Read some stuff in owner's manual about security and starting. I'll have to check ON position when it fails to crank on 1st turn. When it doesn't make a sound and ALL lights are off, is behaving different than "trying" to turn over and catching on the 2nd or 3rd try. Thanks for the response
Gman46
 
Good question Mr. Sam. I'll pay attention. Read some stuff in owner's manual about security and starting. I'll have to check ON position when it fails to crank on 1st turn. When it doesn't make a sound and ALL lights are off, is behaving different than "trying" to turn over and catching on the 2nd or 3rd try. Thanks for the response
Gman46
Check and clean your battery cables at the battery,B+ at Power Distribution Center and chassis ground connections!~!!:thumb

:beer
 
2003 Aniv. Vette.

What is the Security light doing when you have the Ignition Key in ON?


Mr. Sam
Mr. Sam. Got in car this A.M. Had not been started all morning. Turned key to "ON". Security Light came on with others, then went out with others. Started car, took 2 cranks, fired up on 2nd crank. Open door to get out. Security light flashes while door open.
 
Bought car in Apr-15.Always start on 2nd or 3rd crank. Now-about once a month or week, you turn the key, and get NOTHING. notr a light comes on or anything. NEW battery, charging system checked. Voltmeter gage shows pulling 13.5 to 14 volts. I read where a member had slightly different problem, and he was told to try turning ignition on,NO START, press reset button, press and,while holding options button, press fuel button 4 times in 10 seconds. Whada Y'all think? Any help out of this?
Gman46

Had a similar problem back in August on my 99, cleaned the grounds, batt terms and torgued the battery cables. Problem hasn't recurred. Ground block/box on drivers side of engine was pretty funky prior to cleaning and my guess is my problem was stemming from there. There's a youtube vid by Froggy that shows the cleaning of the grounds if you are interested to search for it.
 
Mr. Sam. Got in car this A.M. Had not been started all morning. Turned key to "ON". Security Light came on with others, then went out with others. Started car, took 2 cranks, fired up on 2nd crank. Open door to get out. Security light flashes while door open.


Seems like the VATS security is working fine. I think it is probably the electrical ignition switch.

Pull your DIC codes from the dash and let us know what is there. If you need help on that I can provide the DIY.


Mr. Sam
 
Random Trouble while Starting

As everyone knows who has a C5, small electrical gremlins are endemic. The car is wonderful, but it can keep you busy chasing them. As has been said many times, grounds are the source of some of them. But not always.

I just cured a problem that sounds like yours. About six months ago my 2002 Automatic Coupe began to occasionally not do anything when the key is turned. Nothing. The fan would run, radio would play, lights on the dash, but turn the key and nothing would happen. I started thinking it was the neutral/safety switch being defective. So I would try to move the selector from Park to Neutral repeatedly. After doing that ten or twenty times, it would start and run perfectly as usual.

This would happen maybe every other day. It would always start perfectly when cold or slightly warm. But drive it till fully warmed up and it wouldn't engage the starter solenoid and energize the starter, until I repeated the transmission selector thing again.

I took it to my big Chevrolet Dealership and told them the story. Ended up leaving it for five days for them to try to diagnose this problem. At the end of my visit, they could not give me an answer, but no charge. Said they checked the neutral/safety switch and the ignition system. To make a long story short, over the last six months, I have left my car with them for two more visits of a week each. Always same answer. No answer.

Several weeks ago I met a terrific classic car mechanic (think Deusenberg and Packard) that goes to my church, and I related my story. His name is Terry Weiss of Terry's Repair in Tyler, TX. He said my problem with the dealership was that they are all well trained technicians, but not mechanics. He said, "If the problem doesn't show up on the On-board Diagnostic Systems or in symptoms in the manuals, they don't know how to diagnose a problem."

Terry asked me to bring my car and leave it for the day, and he would look at it. I dropped it off at his shop Monday morning and it was fixed by
Tuesday morning. What he did to diagnose the problem, was to take a jumper wire and run from the positive terminal of the battery, straight to the terminal on the starter. And it started immediately. That simple test eliminated all of the keys and switches and possible causes.

He found that the starter had a cracked field that opened when it got very hot. As it is situated next to the right exhaust, it gets plenty hot. Once it cooled, it made contact again. So he replaced the starter and it's fixed.

I learned a lesson there. Look for the simple causes. Trust old mechanics thoughts. I still love my Corvette even with it's peculiarities.
 
"Terry asked me to bring my car and leave it for the day, and he would look at it. I dropped it off at his shop Monday morning and it was fixed by
Tuesday morning. What he did to diagnose the problem, was to take a jumper wire and run from the positive terminal of the battery, straight to the terminal on the starter. And it started immediately. That simple test eliminated all of the keys and switches and possible causes. "


In that case the opposite is true. It would just rule out the starter when it was cold.


Hot starters being a problem is known.


Mr. Sam
 
You evidently comprehend the systems involved more than I understood what Terry said. But whatever he did to isolate the problem to the starter, and fix my ongoing problem, was correct, and much appreciated by me. I remain amazed that the Chevrolet technicians couldn't find the problem.
 
battery drain on 2003 corvette

Bought car in Apr-15.Always start on 2nd or 3rd crank. Now-about once a month or week, you turn the key, and get NOTHING. notr a light comes on or anything. NEW battery, charging system checked. Voltmeter gage shows pulling 13.5 to 14 volts. I read where a member had slightly different problem, and he was told to try turning ignition on,NO START, press reset button, press and,while holding options button, press fuel button 4 times in 10 seconds. Whada Y'all think? Any help out of this?
Gman46
after weeks and weeks of battery drain i found it to be the instrument cluster..
 

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