Tired of these ground problems in my c5... About to try this..

[Wardamncorvette]

Ok so about a week ago my car got a "charge system failure" message. I did some research and decided it probably wasn't a big deal so I kept driving..
Couple days later I'm driving down the road, and my front speakers go out.. So I'm thinking it must be a ground wire behind my radio. So I'm in the middle of nowhere so I keep going. About a mile later, all my lights start flashing, and everything on my instrument cluster(all the gauges) start going from 0/200, bouncing back and forth. It was Crazy. So I was about to pull over and then engine shuts off. I was luckily able to coast into a parking spot at a dollar general. I then sat for a minute, tried cranking my car and got the dead battery clicking. The whole time I was thinking it was my alternator. But somehow I had some corvette guys convince me I had a bad battery, so I went and bought a new battery. Car drove great all the way home until I got another charger system failure. Next day I took it on 2 60mile trips and it drive fine but I noticed when I was driving at night my lights weren't very bright, and my voltage was only at 10.5> volts.
Since then I've taken my alternator off, taken it to an alternator shop. Had the guy take it apart and check it out and showed me that it is working. (He had some machine show me).

i have come to the conclusion that it is one of my ground wires. I have cleaned and scraped them until it is perfectly shiny. I am about to connect these grounds to the negative side of my battery. Has anybody else done this? I'm using some 8gauge amp wire. I hope this fixes my problem. Now my battery is dead and car won't start

 

[kpic]

Corroded weren't they.

I would put a light coating of dielectric grease on those nice shiny connectors. The ones that I've cleaned; I used dielectric grease on the contacts and coax seal tape on the outside to prevent anything from getting in.

 

[Wardamncorvette]

Corroded weren't they.

I would put a light coating of dielectric grease on those nice shiny connectors. The ones that I've cleaned; I used dielectric grease on the contacts and coax seal tape on the outside to prevent anything from getting in.

Actually no... The person who had this car before rewired the grounds to where it was just a connector grounded to a bolt...
Has anybody ever grounded these ground wires to the negative side of battery before? Is it safe?

 

[dadaroo]

Yes you can connect your grounds to the negative side of the battery but you really need to find out what your problem is.

Have you checked the connections at the starter? If they are bad the battery will not charge properly. A bad fusible link can do the same thing. There are 2.

Here is the charging schematic and also a great link to what every ground services.

Remember dielectric grease is an INSULATOR. DO NOT put it "IN" the current path. It is used "around" the current path to prevent moisture intrusion and corrosion. Don't create a problem.




Ground locations - Corvette Forum

Also you could be having some serial bus issues bringing things down.

 

[kpic]

That is correct, however, it only fills the voids where there is metal to metal contact there isn't a void.

Hams use it for RF (radio frequency) connections. If you want a conductive sealer, use Penetrox. However, for RF connections Penetrox (I believe Penetrox A) is a conductor; so there is a potential for it to migrate through the connector and cause a short. In the 1980s, I did tower work for commercial broadcast stations at that time, same as spark plug boots we used dielectric grease. Both Ham and commercial towers are tall and exposed to the elements, corrosion in the connectors is the last thing one wants.

The key is if you get water into the connection, the seal has already failed. Other options are Scotch Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape 130C by 3M, Rescue tape and Gardner are other splicing or self amalgamating tapes. Coax Seal 104 (used by the military) Splicing tapes are

 

[Wardamncorvette]

Here's my codes..
10-PCM p0141 c
10-PCM p0161 c
10-PCM p1571 h
28-tcs c1225 h
28-tcs c1232 h
28-tcs c1236 h
28-tcs c1281 h
28-tcs c1286 h c
RTD NO COMM
40-BCM b0502 h c
40-bcm b0507 h c
40-bcm b0844 h
40-bcm b2482 h c
40-bcm 2583 h
40-bcm U1040 h
60-IPC U1176 h
A0-LDCM B2282 h
A0-LDCM B2284 h
A0-LDCM U1064 h
A1-RDCM B2283
A1-RDCM b2285 h
A1-RDCN U1064 H
A6-SCM NO COMM
B0-RFA u1255 h
B0-RFA U1096 h
b0-RFA u1064 h
B0-RFA u1016 h

 

[dadaroo]

OK, I saw in another Thread you were replacing the ignition switch. Is that done yet?

Need you to pull the carpet back from the passenger foot well and see if you have any moisture around the BCM or fuse box.

Clear all those codes and go for a short drive and then pull your codes again.

I want to see if you might have a serial bus issue.

May need to look at the PCM a little later.