The World’s Fastest Paperwait

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

The low beams work about 90% of the time, which is better than pretty much anything else in my life is running right now so I have left them alone.  When they don't work the driving lights are usually sufficient or I use the high beams.  It's been my DD since memorial day as I hit a deer with the Buick and the Jeep is overdue for brake and an inspection but work has kept me busy and I needed to fix my well pump and clear some trees before I get to it.

As frustrating as all the little bits that need work are, it's far better at doing most normal car things than it should be.  I generally take the train to work two days a week and drive the other three.  it sits happily in rush hour traffic, cruises mostly comfortably the rest of the time, and always reminds you that it could kill you at some point.  It's even reasonably efficient averaging mid 20s as long as I behave.  There's a list of little issues I need to tackle on it, but It's an amazing car for being somewhat affordable. It is well overdue for a wash since it rains almost every day now and it's bug season.  I'll get to it eventually but right now I kind of enjoy how much a filthy Corvette angers a few people around here.  Someone from a local club followed me into Home Depot the other night to tell me I didn't deserve the car if I was going to use it like this. I hope he stuck around to see me fill the trunk with charcoal and plumbing supplies.   

 

       

I'm glad you're finally able to enjoy the car. 

I can't imagine telling a total stranger how they should or shouldn't be taking care of their car.  I would have been tempted to tell Mr. Butinskin that it was just an old Chevy and you use it for Home Depot runs instead of one of your good cars.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

Someone from a local club followed me into Home Depot the other night to tell me I didn't deserve the car if I was going to use it like this. I hope he stuck around to see me fill the trunk with charcoal and plumbing supplies.   

 

       

DRIVING A CAR YOU OWN? HOW DARE YOU!?

If I were you, I'd show up at the club just to troll them.

In reply to APEowner :

I can't believe someone is that ballsy.......clowns.

Slap some gambler 500 stickers on it and roll up on their meet to ask if anyone wants to help clean up the local trails!

Glad to hear ya jumped the legal hurtles to start enjoying it more!

So stoked to hear you're legal for a year!!

Did he massage it for the pass and then put it back to how it was? 
 

Unbelievable that anyone would say that to you!  When I got mine, I was so stoked to meet other owners and talk about these cars and what they do with theirs.  That quickly faded!

if that cam is what is giving you issues, I'd suggest put the stock cam back in over a weekend or two and just run it stock and never worry about the smog again.  

In reply to jfryjfry :

I am not entirely sure what was done to pass inspection as I still haven't had time to go over it but it didn't need to be undone and the car still runs fine.  

It continues to be the most fun and frustrating car I've ever owned.  All it's issues are electrical, which is the thing least competent at dealing with.  When it runs, it's awesome.  It happily eats up miles, everything works as it should, and it is an incredible car for the used Camry price I paid. Unfortunately once I go out i really can't turn it off because either the starter has been cooked by the headers or there's a ground issue I haven't tracked down yet because if I shut it down and don't give it a few hours to cool off it clicks once, zaps the battery down to 8 or so volts, and will need a jump once it cools off.  It's fine for the drive to work or events where I will stay a while, but no good for short trips or running errands unless I park on a hill (i only bump started it once, it was more violent than I was comfortable with).  With the Buick totaled I am going to need to get this and the headlight issue sorted out fairly soon or it will have to move on and be replaced with something more useable.   

I have the twin to your car, and (like every other C6Z06 owner) had starter issues for a while (I have big full length headers that cooked a good bit of wiring on that side of the motor..)  I changed mine for a race style compact starter (can't remember brand right now) and put one of those fiberglass heat shield blankets around it.   Additionally I put heat shield around every bit of wiring down there.  Seemed to cure my issues.

I wish I had video of us push starting it in a Walmart parking lot a few years ago tho..

In reply to Kendall Frederick :

I also have long tube headers and suspect the same problems. Over my vacation I'm going to put it on my friend's lift and start insulating. It should have been a sign when I ordered some parts and they threw in some insulated coasters for the cup holder 

I have a fair amount of space between my headers and starter, more than a lot of pictures I've seen, so I went with a new starter from Chevy, insulated blanket for it, and wrapped the wiring under there.  It's been working fine since although it's been pretty cold every day.  The headlights have gone to not working about 75% of the time but continue to work flawlessly every time I get a chance to look at them, and the radio stopped working last week. It's getting power but won't turn on.  I miss having bluetooth more than I expected to.  The front tires are getting near needing replacement and I'm probably going to look into getting the alignment set back to the factory settings.  It's a bit more aggressive than stock now and I and seeing as it's only seeing street use I don't need to burn up tires as quickly.  In spite of the constant little issues that come with buying an used sports car on a budget it still drives well and is an incredibly fun car.  

Always glad to see this pop up. I'm sure you'll be able to fix these little issues and get the most out of the car.  They really are so cool....

In reply to jfryjfry :

I'm really enjoying it so far

IDK how the tail lamp circuit is grounded, but i'd probably find a way to run a ground wire directly from B(-) to the rear of the car, and ground all of my bulb sockets to it.

then again, it's not my car and i'm not an electrical engineer.

Two weeks ago I pulled it out of hiding and put some more miles on it. My gf was driving to Disney with her family and we got the bright idea to drive half way to go to Radwood in Charlotte.  We left NY Thursday night after work and made it to Harrisburg at about 11 pm when the headlight issue returned and we called it a day. We got a bit of a late start Friday and spent the day driving through heavy rain and wind, which finally let up when we hit High Point NC.  Home of the world's largest chest of drawers, which is across town from the largest dresser.  It handed the ride down without issue other than the return of intermittent headlights.  

 After that it was a quick stop in Thomasville for a large but not record holding chair and a gas stop where the lady behind the counter got into a heated discussion with a customer because they only serve gizzards on Tuesdays. They have livers all week but gizzards are a treat. 
 

Saturday was another very wet drive to the show at Hendricks Motorsports where I got to meet up with Patrick, Michael, and Bradley. The weather cleared up beautifully and we had a great time. From there it was a nice ride across the Carolinas to Florence SC to see Buc-ees and hand off the Girlfriend to her family.  
 

Sunday was a solid day of driving. The plan was to stop in Bridgeport NJ to race the modified but still more rain put a damper on that so I kept going home. In four days we covered over 1700 miles and averaged 27 miles per gallon. It's like a responsible car most of the time. On the way home I ended up talking to someone who let me know about a recall for the headlight wiring. Like everything else in here it can cook and fail intermittently. A theme here.  When I get time in the coming weeks I'm going to take care of that, new front tires, an alignment as the fronts on it now are brand new except for the inner few inches, figure out why the front bumper is popping off, and an oil change.  Even with it's numerous quirks it's really grown on my. 

It's been a little while since my last update.  It's gotten a fair amount of use the last few months, some dates, a car show at Lime Rock, and my DD for a couple weeks while the girlfriend's KIA was having some long neglected service done.  After that was done it went in for some service and it's annual state inspection.  Since I got it titled and registered last year it has covered 13,870 miles.  Aside from the a few quirks and failing/worn trim bits it's been rock solid.  The only really concerning issue continued to be the intermittent headlight problem.  Following advice from a few other owners I replaced the relay, and because I'm terrible at wiring problems my friend/mechanical savior Pete opened the fuse box and replaced the terminals.  The box itself may need to be changed but new ones are currently unavailable and he's had luck doing this rather than swapping in a used one.  We also changed the oil, gave everything a good going over, the rear swaybar links had worked loose and were rattling, and replaced the front tires.  I eventually want to switch all four to Michelins, when I picked it up it had Coopers on the rear and Pirellis on the front.  The rears are still pretty good so I just did the fronts for now, and went with Falkens.  There appear to still be a few supply issues so getting Coopers to match the rears, or the Pirellis that were already on it was not possible at the time.  I still haven't addressed the bumper problem, or the headlights that desperately need to be polished, or any of the interior bits but as work is doing it's best to make sure I have no free time they will have to wait.  

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Try this on your headlights. I've used it on everything I've owned with success. It takes less than 30 seconds. 

There was a recall on the C6 headlights wiring harness. Has that been done?

In reply to Toyman! :

I'm going to have to pick some up. 

In reply to myf16n :

I'll have to check.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to myf16n :

I'll have to check.

I got the notification of the recall and put it off for a few months. Finally scheduled the work and the very next day my headlights failed. At night. On a twisty mountain road. Hard on the brakes, turned fog lights on, slowly drove 15mi home.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

The low beams work about 90% of the time, which is better than pretty much anything else in my life is running right now so I have left them alone.  When they don't work the driving lights are usually sufficient or I use the high beams.  It's been my DD since memorial day as I hit a deer with the Buick and the Jeep is overdue for brake and an inspection but work has kept me busy and I needed to fix my well pump and clear some trees before I get to it.

As frustrating as all the little bits that need work are, it's far better at doing most normal car things than it should be.  I generally take the train to work two days a week and drive the other three.  it sits happily in rush hour traffic, cruises mostly comfortably the rest of the time, and always reminds you that it could kill you at some point.  It's even reasonably efficient averaging mid 20s as long as I behave.  There's a list of little issues I need to tackle on it, but It's an amazing car for being somewhat affordable. It is well overdue for a wash since it rains almost every day now and it's bug season.  I'll get to it eventually but right now I kind of enjoy how much a filthy Corvette angers a few people around here.  Someone from a local club followed me into Home Depot the other night to tell me I didn't deserve the car if I was going to use it like this. I hope he stuck around to see me fill the trunk with charcoal and plumbing supplies.   

 

       

Can only imagine how they'd treat me. I used to take my utility trailer to the dump with my 75.

Don't let other folk dictate how you use your car.

I've received a ton of crap about my Porsche. "You drive it in the rain?!?" "You drove it across country?!?!" "You have zip-ties holding parts on!?!?"

My reply is: "You leave yours in the garage?!?!"

The electrical problems continue. The car's been sitting a few months because work is a zoo. The battery was low so I started it with a jump pack. It ran fine for about five minutes then all the gauges dropped to zero and the screen has a constant parade of warnings for the fuel system, clutch, brakes, stabilitrak, etc.  I shut it down for the night, and the next morning the battery was dead again. Tonight I put a new battery in, the volt gauge read thirteen volts, hit the start button and everything went dark for a second, then the volt gauge dropped to 8. It's probably going to sit a while longer now until I have the time to look at it or get it hauled somewhere. 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

It ran fine for about five minutes then all the gauges dropped to zero and the screen has a constant parade of warnings for the fuel system, clutch, brakes, stabilitrak, etc

that sounds like a low-voltage-induced running reset of the BCM.

Tonight I put a new battery in, the volt gauge read thirteen volts, hit the start button and everything went dark for a second, then the volt gauge dropped to 8.

And that sounds like a loose battery cable.  I'd check the connections at starter since that was messed with recently. I'd also check the integrity of the interface between the cable and the terminal. 

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks, that will be tonight's project. Hopefully it's that simple.