Corvette starting problems?

B

backwoods_lex

New member
Anyone ever detail a 06/07 vette and have starting problems afterword? I detailed one for the dealer that I work for today and it did not start afterword. Process was traditional wash w/ hose, clay, poliseal, and ONR to follow. He thought that the battery had a low charge because the doors were left open (he wasn't there, but they were only open for around 15 minutes). I think it may actually be a problem with the transponder since all of the lights were of normal brightness levels and the engine didn't even crank over. Anyway, the guy was not so diplomatic about it as he chirped the tires on a few cars around the lot and was not too shy about letting everyone know that he was pissed off. Anyway, no interior work was done and it is a rarely driven garage car with around 4K. Thanks guys.
 
So, you never popped the hood or touch the engine bay??



Did you leave the car radio on while you were detailing?



I've detailed hundred of Vettes and never had a problem starting them afterwards.
 
Try taking it out of park and then put it back in to park. Sometimes that’s all it takes. I had a Volvo S80 t6 and a Mustang that gave me this problem and that’s how I remedied them. I guess there’s a sensor for the shifter that if it thinks something is off it will prevent it from cranking. I hope that’s all it is. Good luck. :nervous2:
 
Never had the hood open at all. He did open the trunk jam (it is a convertible) so I could clean that area. Didn't touch any area inside at all. He left the door open for about 15 minutes, but I closed it since the main goal was to work on the outside because of contamination. BTW, awsome that you have worked on hundreds of vets. That is nice for your resume.



I think that he may have run it through the gears during his rant, but I'm not sure.



I'm thinking something electrical, wether it is a malfunctioning transponder (it is keyless) or just some switch or something overlooked. Anyway, hopefull it works itself out tomorrow morning. Otherwise there might be a jihad.
 
C6 vettes have a lot of electronics in them that will drain a battery very quickly. Especially, one that already has a low charge. Here's an example: all C6 vettes have a feature called window indexing. This is where the window automatically lowers about a 1/4 of an inch just prior to opening the door. Then it automatically raises again after the door is closed. This is to provide a tight seal inside the cabin to reduce outside noise. The car will not go into electronic lock down mode until the doors are closed and both windows have fully indexed. This could cause an already low battery to fail quickly and not have enough juice to crank the engine. However, there may have been enough power to illuminate the lighting. I'm not a mechanic, but I've owned two C6's and have learned the hard way about making sure the car is electronically locked down before leaving it. Otherwise, all those electronics will keep working and they have a ferocious appetite. Here's another thought: maybe the jerk didn't have his FOB with him inside the car when he tried to start it. If so, a message on the dash would have read "NO FOBS DETECTED" and the car would have exhibited the exact problem you described. Here's another little gem for ya. Did you know that a 2005 C6 has to be shifted to reverse before it will go into electronic lock down mode? Is there any chance that this guy got this C6 recently? If so, it takes a while to fully understand how all these electronics work. Whatever happened, it's not your fault.



Patrick
 
I did a wash, clay wax, interior vac and protect on an '06 Vette yesterday. The guy that owned it has had it into the dealership 3-4 times because his battery keeps dying on him. Unfortunately, after I worked on it yesterday, it died again to the point that we couldn't even get the accessories to run to take it out of gear. It had to sit in the driveway overnight, but with a cover on it.



Maybe GM should stick to what they do best with the Vette which is make it an unbelievable sports car. I'm sure most could do w/o the fancy electronics like push button start.
 
backwoods_lex said:
Never had the hood open at all. He did open the trunk jam (it is a convertible) so I could clean that area. Didn't touch any area inside at all. He left the door open for about 15 minutes, but I closed it since the main goal was to work on the outside because of contamination. BTW, awsome that you have worked on hundreds of vets. That is nice for your resume.



I think that he may have run it through the gears during his rant, but I'm not sure.



I'm thinking something electrical, wether it is a malfunctioning transponder (it is keyless) or just some switch or something overlooked. Anyway, hopefull it works itself out tomorrow morning. Otherwise there might be a jihad.
Click to expand...





I hope I wasn't sounding arrogant, I used to drive a Vette myself just before I started detailing so I knew tons of Vette guys and that's kind of how I got started detailing professionally. My first year of detailing was nothing but Vettes, I know I did nearly 100 different Vettes in that 1 year stretch.



Anyways, Vettes have plenty of gremlins and I'm sure that was all it was. I wouldn't worry about it.



Josh
 
Sounds typical of C6 Vettes that aren't driven regularly. My father keeps his C6 Z06 on a battery tender to avoid this.
 
JoshVette said:
I hope I wasn't sounding arrogant
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No, definitely not. Very few people, even top professionals, can say that. Ptaylor, I am impressed with your knowledge of vettes.



Anyway, after arriving to work, I saw that the car had been moved to a storage unit. The dealer had complained that all of the jump boxes were dead (pointing his fingers, rude tone), but I checked one of them a few minutes later and the gauge read fully charged. So did another one. I also found out from someone else that he tried to jump start it and it still wouldn't work. All that "F'n this!" , "F'n that!", "wah, wah, wah!", "blah, blah, dead battery" and he probably didn't even have the fob in his pocket.



Not to throw out my personal business or sing a sad song, but the guy only pays $10/hour and that is with me using my own MF (and washing it), PC, rotary, shop vac, and occasional chemicals to fill in the gap of his dealer stuff. I also take personal care of his high dollar personal vehicles like they were my own. He also has me do atopian level jobs for friends that he owes favors to. After 10 months, I'm ready to get out of there. He's mostly respectful to me because I'm valuable for my work, but he barks quite a bit at other female employees on a regular basis. Hopefully something comes along quickly.



Thanks for all of the help guys. I'll update the post if I am able to find something else.
 
I realize this is a little off topic, but I've learned the hard way with many Vette engines (LT & LS). Avoid washing the front of the engine because water can cause a decent amount of electrical damage (ignition). They always seem to run perfect at 1st, but goes down hill shortly after that.
 
backwoods_lex said:
No, definitely not. Very few people, even top professionals, can say that. Ptaylor, I am impressed with your knowledge of vettes.



Anyway, after arriving to work, I saw that the car had been moved to a storage unit. The dealer had complained that all of the jump boxes were dead (pointing his fingers, rude tone), but I checked one of them a few minutes later and the gauge read fully charged. So did another one. I also found out from someone else that he tried to jump start it and it still wouldn't work. All that "F'n this!" , "F'n that!", "wah, wah, wah!", "blah, blah, dead battery" and he probably didn't even have the fob in his pocket.



Not to throw out my personal business or sing a sad song, but the guy only pays $10/hour and that is with me using my own MF (and washing it), PC, rotary, shop vac, and occasional chemicals to fill in the gap of his dealer stuff. I also take personal care of his high dollar personal vehicles like they were my own. He also has me do atopian level jobs for friends that he owes favors to. After 10 months, I'm ready to get out of there. He's mostly respectful to me because I'm valuable for my work, but he barks quite a bit at other female employees on a regular basis. Hopefully something comes along quickly.



Thanks for all of the help guys. I'll update the post if I am able to find something else.
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Man, you sound like a good guy. Way too good of a guy to put up with crap like that, especially at ten bucks an hour. You handled yourself in a very professional manner, which is more than he can say. You even attempted to find out if there was any way you *could* be at fault, even though it didn't seem like you could be, and attempted to solve a problem that was clearly *not your* problem... that's class.



I really hope you're able to get out of there, and into a place that values a good detailer when they see one. Don't stress about this one, man, it wasn't your fault, and you went above and beyond in trying to help.
 
Sounds like problem solved, but my first thought when reading the thread was, "battery." My Dad saved his pennies for too many years to count, and when he retired in late '06 he bought himself a new Corvette. After four visits back to the dealer via flatbed for electrical demons he decided that maybe he wasn't a Vette guy after all. :lol



And what the heck, since I'm on a hijacking tangent anyway...I hope you find a better place to work. Your boss is a knucklehead.
 
David Fermani said:
I realize this is a little off topic, but I've learned the hard way with many Vette engines (LT & LS). Avoid washing the front of the engine because water can cause a decent amount of electrical damage (ignition). They always seem to run perfect at 1st, but goes down hill shortly after that.
Click to expand...



The LSx Vette engines don't even have any ignition components on the front...they are coil on plug...:woot2:
 
Sounds like the steering column lock has failed. there is an update to reprogram the BCM and if that doesn't work the dealership needs to replace the steering column lock. I believe they removed that from the 07/08 models so this doesn't happen.
 
that guy keeps you around because you do top quality work and use your own stuff for cheap. sorry to say you sound like his personal servant. he knows he has you for real cheap. you think he could pay a pro to detail his cars for that cheap. I hope you can find better employment as this guy is just using you for his own gains. could always hologram a few of his cars as your way of saying I quit :rofl



btw dont you know low man on the totem pole catches all the flack. its never the bosses fault :rules:
 
Figured I'd follow up on the post. I quit a few weeks ago. I had asked the boss man to talk about keeping me around and money around 3 months ago and he never got back with me and kind of put me on a shelf so to speak. I tried to address the issue again (since he was definitely losing his diplomacy and having me work on his GF's car for dirt cheap) but he blew me off and left town midweek. I decided on that Wednesday that Friday would be my last day.



I guess in the end I decided that it was just not worth doing huge turnarounds on cars for so little money when the owners makes +-$5000 on a vehicle and just decides not to pay. There was a huge gap in his benefit vs. my benefit.
 
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