C5 Help / advice needed

[Buttmonkey Racer]

Having extolled the virtues of C5 ownership, its finally bitten back.

Can anyone offer advice on this mornings chain of events? -

- On starting this morning it seemed to overrun on ignition. Odd.
- All ok, off to site
- Get back in car 1 hour later, it fires up then dies
- Fire up a second time, engine idles fine but no electrics (gauges/ventilation/stereo/windows). Worries about whether engine fans gone too
- Lights popped up but won't go down.
- Not wanting to be stuck on a building site I decided to run the 3 miles back to the office
- Barrelling down the A38 engine dies completely
- Onto hard shoulder. Fire the car up, idles great, all elecs now back perfectly apart from lights which won't go down
- Orange engine check light now on and staying on

It's an early C5 (1997) without HUD. 75,000 miles. No probs at all up to now. Handbook all in German, might as well be Greek!

My local tuner looks after the car for routine servicing but he's not overly up to speed with Vettes!

Any thoughts / advice would be appreciated. I'm not aware of any specialists in my neck of the woods - Chesterfield / Sheffield / Peak District and don't really want the nightmare of visiting Bauer Millet in Manchester again. Not sure a visit to my local Matiz dealership will help either.

[JenkinsComp]

Sounds like a bad earth.
See if you can test the battery for charge, and also look around the engine bay to check for for loose wires / corrosion on battery terminals / other dodgy electrical connections. Clean and tighten any you find and try again.
Start with the - free - obvious things.

Good luck!

Edited by JenkinsComp on Wednesday 26th July 13:47

[Buttmonkey Racer]

Yeah, trying that now. Not great stuck outside the office in Derby with passers by asking me 'wot's wrong with yer Ferrari mate?'

[gsmcoverage]

Check the battery hasnt leaked on to the computer below. Could easily have corroded the computer which is badly placed on C5 older than 2002's.

Oh and check the active DIC codes and see history if there is anything important there.

Edited by gsmcoverage on Wednesday 26th July 16:11

[v8d]

I would check for codes first of all, best place to start. If that doesnt shed any light, I agree with a previous post. Check all the earth posts, especially all the ones in the engine bay that get wet. With so many different events, its unlikely to be that many different problems. There will surely be some common root cause. Let us know how you get on! - Good luck - V8D

[Buttmonkey Racer]

Thanks for your help and advice. Got it home ok last night. Will spend some time tonight going over it.

The worst aspect was losing the air con. Still never really need an excuse to take the top off

Are there any other Vette owners near me (Chesterfield / Sheffield / Peaks)? I see a very nice dark green C4 going in the opposite direction on the A38 near Derby twice a day. Always seems to be moving at a fair speed

[Twin Turbo]

Might be worth giving these guys a call? They sell, rather than service, but might be able to point you in the right direction.

Ask for Paul or Malcolm.



www.americancarsuk.com/

[Buttmonkey Racer]

They sold me the car!

Unfortunately its the busy Summer sales season and Malc's flat out and Pauls a bit grouchy as I sprang a last minute oil change on him before I nipped off to Le Mans

Thanks for the tip anyhow

[Twin Turbo]

Aha....I think we may have conversed before. I bought my 2.8 Capri off them a while back. Did you say you store the Vette there?

Hope you get it sorted soon

[Buttmonkey Racer]

Yeah we did. How's the Capri? Malc's trying to talk me into a MKII Lotus Cortina at the moment but after the disaster that was the Urraco I'm not sure I can face another 'classic' at the moment

[Twin Turbo]

The Capri's great fun.....although any car without air-con is a nightmare at the moment. Nothing like getting out of it with a sweaty back!

He also has gorgeous Mk1 3 litre GXL Capri. It'd be mine if I had £8k going spare

Edited by Twin Turbo on Thursday 27th July 14:53