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Daniel the Vette is now safely at Cormier Chevrolet. The suspicion now is that the ignition is faulty. Car will run if the key is held in the position between Start and Run, after starting the car!

Mako,

Apparently ignition switch failure is very common for C5's. Here's a link to a Corvette Forum thread.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-tech ... epair.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mako Koiwai wrote:Daniel the Vette is now safely at Cormier Chevrolet. The suspicion now is that the ignition is faulty. Car will run if the key is held in the position between Start and Run, after starting the car!

Mako, I think you will be happy with Cormier, hopefully you will have your car for this weekend. My experience is their techs are very good at diagnosing the problem and don't succumb to the lets try this part replacement game of some others.

Mako Koiwai wrote:Daniel the Vette is now safely at Cormier Chevrolet. The suspicion now is that the ignition is faulty. Car will run if the key is held in the position between Start and Run, after starting the car!

You named a Vette Daniel? Well that's the problem right there! Too metrosexual. The car is obviously having identity problems. Switch to Spike or Butch (or even Danny Boy or Dan-O) immediately and wash him in beer once or twice and he'll be right back to normal!

Daniel = Karen's butch Canadian weekend garage Warrior Dad!

Cormier says Vette is working fine now! They suspect a loose connection in the fuse block, supposedly a "known" problem for the Z06 during that manufacturing period. They're still diagnosing ...

Tomorrow morning. Thursday, we have to make a decision on whether we want to replace the Fuse Block, $360 incl. labor ... besides the $95 Diagnostic Fee ... since that part must be overnighted in order to have it in time to install Friday, for us to get the car back in time for the weekends events. They say replacing the Fuse Block is the only thing they can do to "guarantee" that the problem won't return ... even though they in fact can't seem to pin point what is apparently an intermittent problem ...

We wish we could get the Miata, with it's new lighter flywheel and clutch AND the Vette and the Support Van out to El Toro on Saturday to play with. Got To Get A Trailer ... and a tow truck ...

Mako Koiwai wrote:Daniel = Karen's butch Canadian weekend garage Warrior Dad!

I thought it was from the song by Elton John, red tail lights and all.

Small world ... so our Cormier Chevy mechanic Tim found this thread through one of his Vette owning colleagues who found my post on the Vette message board. It was good that he got the full story.

So now he knows why he couldn't find any codes relating to our electrical problem, because I accidentally erased them "While we wait for the flatbed."

Since the car is running fine now, he can't really make any progress. Between his "real" work he's fiddling around with electrical connections/ignition and fuse block to try and get the Vette to going into our problem mode. He doesn't really want to just replace the ignition ... pretty big job requiring pulling the dash, but he does have that part in stock ... or the fuse block ... which requires over night'ing that part.

We WILL be able to pick up the car tomorrow for this weekend ... but there is no guarantee that the problem will crop up again.

However if it crops up again you will know likely what it is, and have the car towed to Cormier to start with. You might order the fuse block at your convience as well as any other parts. You can always have Tom Berry install it. He does good work on Corvettes.

I do suggest adding a road racing style tow hook to your C5.

Kurt Rahn wrote:

Mako Koiwai wrote:Daniel the Vette is now safely at Cormier Chevrolet. The suspicion now is that the ignition is faulty. Car will run if the key is held in the position between Start and Run, after starting the car!

You named a Vette Daniel? Well that's the problem right there! Too metrosexual. The car is obviously having identity problems. Switch to Spike or Butch (or even Danny Boy or Dan-O) immediately and wash him in beer once or twice and he'll be right back to normal!

Spike or Butch? PUH-LEESE!
Gee, Kurt, I'm curious what you named YOUR car ;)


...Dan is quite happy with his name... he likes flying to Spain at night.

Karen Zaterman wrote:I'm curious what you named YOUR car ;)

I this sort of thing common?

I don't even names my pets!

Karen Zaterman wrote:Spike or Butch? PUH-LEESE!
Gee, Kurt, I'm curious what you named YOUR car ;)

I'm not much of a car namer, but my daughter is a card carrying member of the car namers club. She named it Kirby. My last car (the G35) was Steve. Don't ask me why.

Anyone who has kids that have seen Disney's Suzzie the little blue coupe have had their cars named. As for me I figure I name my boat I can name my car.

Kurt Rahn wrote:

Karen Zaterman wrote:Spike or Butch? PUH-LEESE!
Gee, Kurt, I'm curious what you named YOUR car ;)

I'm not much of a car namer, but my daughter is a card carrying member of the car namers club. She named it Kirby. My last car (the G35) was Steve. Don't ask me why.

How do you know if your car is male or female? (My Mother the Car TV series long ago..)

I liked when flight crews would name their planes and the "art work" that went along with the names/mottos..

Kurt Rahn wrote:My last car (the G35) was Steve. Don't ask me why.

Don't be picking on fat old white dudes....

Daniels home ...

Cormier Chevrolet Rocks ... except we still don't know what the issue was/is ... but that's because Mr. Fast Fingers accidentally deleted the Codes. Since the problem, isn't ... there wasn't much they could do. When it happens again, and it likely will ... we now know to try shaking the Fuse Block! They could have easily changed out both the Fuse Block and Ignition. I'm kind of thinking it's the ignition and wish they HAD gone ahead and changed it out.

Cormier knew about our issues two days before Daniel ended up there ... and a day before we had even selected them! How? Because their Alignment guy found this thread, via the Corvette message board! The alignment guy warned them to not screw up, otherwise it was going to be all over the Net! How well they know me ... :gpower:

Our Cormier Mechanic Tim is going to try to come out to our Practice tomorrow to get some rides. Pretty cool. He's restoring a 912 Porsche and the alignment fellow Al has a I believe C4 Vette.

Mako Koiwai wrote:Daniels home ...

Cormier Chevrolet Rocks ... except we still don't know what the issue was/is ... but that's because Mr. Fast Fingers accidentally deleted the Codes. Since the problem, isn't ... there wasn't much they could do. When it happens again, and it likely will ... we now know to try shaking the Fuse Block! They could have easily changed out both the Fuse Block and Ignition. I'm kind of thinking it's the ignition and wish they HAD gone ahead and changed it out.

Cormier knew about our issues two days before Daniel ended up there ... and a day before we had even selected them! How? Because their Alignment guy found this thread, via the Corvette message board! The alignment guy warned them to not screw up, otherwise it was going to be all over the Net! How well they know me ... :gpower:

Our Cormier Mechanic Tim is going to try to come out to our Practice tomorrow to get some rides. Pretty cool. He's restoring a 912 Porsche and the alignment fellow Al has a I believe C4 Vette.

You didn't say how much they charged you but I can tell you on one fix that turned out to be simple (it was my old Hyundai) but I didn't know it, they just charged me the cost of the part, the looked at, knew what was wrong, pulled the bad part and replaced and sent me on my way. I would imagine it was reasonable, they always have been for me. There parts counter is real helpful too. My family has been going to Cormier since 1964. Glad they could help you.

The basic $96 diagnostic fee ... included checking the bottom to see that the oil pan was properly replaced ... and of course a wash down. We're bringing the original pan with the hack welding job. I would have liked to have seen the crack!

That was a good read (read it all in one sitting). Thanks for sharing the info and keeping us posted. I'll be sure to pass on the info to any Vette owners I know.