I got the heat shield on the driver's side motor mount turned around where it needed to be today. Easy enough to do. Just loosened up the bottom nuts for both left and right side motor mounts, as well as the top nut on the driver's side mount. Then put one of the adjustable tall jack stands underneath the oil pan, put a couple wooden boards between the jack and the oil pan to distribute the lifting pressure on the bottom of the oil pan, and just turned the screw shaft enough to just lift the engine a smidgen to loosen up the clamping force the weight was putting on the heat shield. Fortunately there isn't any sort of indexing peg on the shield, so it was a simple matter to just nudge it around 180 degrees while it is loose. Lowered the stand's shaft, tightened all three nuts, and DONE.

I've been placing shop towels into the opening where the blowoff valve sits on the intercooler, trying to sop up as much oil as I can that way. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot in there, and since the inlets for the intercooler are at the bottom and the outlet going to the throttle body is at the top, I doubt very much, if any, oil got up to the top. The convoluted tubing and cooling fins in the intercooler would have likely acted as a pretty effective catch can.

So I should be getting to checking out that SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING issue pretty soon. Hopefully it will just be something that got jostled out of whack when the engine was pulled at the shop.

Was just over in the garage, to shut it down for the night, and wound up underneath the car again just checking out things. Noticed that the hose on the large air pipe on the driver's side turbo was sticking out more from the side of the turbo body than the one on the passenger side. So I reached up and found it would slide back and forth easily by hand, meaning the clamp hadn't been tightened. This is actually the inlet for air from the air filter going into the cold side of the turbo. So I tightened down the clamp and checked the other one. Then I saw that the hose on the pressure side of the turbo going up to the intercooler wasn't sitting right, neither, and the hose clamp was loose. So after fixing that I went around and checked all the clamps on the turbos. I already had to replace one of the clamps on the small hose on the passenger side, because it had a hose clamp on it that was way bigger than needed, so there was quite a bit of extra metal handing down from the clamp and quite noticeable when viewed from the rear end.

Now that I think about it, the nut at the top of that driver's side motor mount didn't take much effort at all to break it loose. So I think perhaps I need to check every nut and bolt that might have been touched while the car was in that shop. I'm planning on changing the oil and filter tomorrow, so while the crankcase is draining, I'll be checking hardware to make sure everything is tight.

Yesterday I found that the clamps on the airbridge were loose, so I tightened them all down. Then when I looked at the hose clamps at the inlets to the intercooler, I saw this for the one on the passenger side:

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/turbo_clamp_01.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/turbo_clamp_02.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/turbo_clamp_03.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/turbo_clamp_04.jpg


Not only was it situated in such a way that the end of the threaded shaft was jammed against the radiator (and likely would eventually wear a hole in it from vibration), it was pretty much impossible to get a socket or wrench on that nut. I was afraid that the radiator would have to come out in order to correct that problem, but I was able to loosen up the pipe enough, and nudge the radiator over a bit to the left enough to get a Gearwrench 11m box wrench on the nut and tediously loosen up the nut enough so that I could move the clamp around to a better position.

Then looking around more, I spotted this:

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/cradle_nut_01.jpg

The left front nut holding the engine cradle up to the frame was completely loose. So far everything else I checked was tight, so it seems like many of the clamps related to the turbo system were loose. I sure do hope the bolts holding the bell housing to the block are nice and tight. When the car came back from South Georgia Corvette, not only were they loose, but a couple of them were missing entirely. Which apparently contributed to the destruction of my clutch system back then. So I certainly didn't want to go through that again.

Got the oil and filter changed. Decided to go with Amsoil 5w30 this time. But honestly I am strongly considering going back to Royal Purple. Been using the Joe Gibbs LS30 oil the last several oil changes, but honestly, there probably isn't all that much difference between any of them. But with having turbos, I think they are a bit more critical concerning the composition of the oil than the more modern engines. If the modern oils are not suitable for engines with flat tappets, that gets me to thinking that the journal bearings in those high revving turbos might be an issue too. The problem is that the more you read about oils and lubricants, the more confused you get about what is actually *THE best* to use.

I've been just glancing at stuff before I actually tackle this SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING problem, and this seems like it might be a good chance of being the problem. Thanks again for pointing me in this direction. Matter of fact, I had to repair the heat/AC module back when Chris Hardwood had the car all apart with some soldering. A lot of the lights were out, and I read about resoldering the flat surface mount resistors to fix this exact problem. Sure enough, that did it. So seems that there might be several electronics modules in the C5 Corvette and have a rash of bad solder joints in them.

Anyway, I was under the car today and on a hunch was checking the wiring going to the wheel speed sensors. Seems to me I had this error message show up one time when I had forgotten to hook one of the cables going up to a speed sensor. And one time I had this error show up in the C6 Z06 I used to have that turned out being a bad wheel speed sensor. So seemed like a good place to start looking.

And I did find a loose ground wire on the frame inside the rear wheel well on the driver's side. G401, I believe. I looked for one on the passenger side, but couldn't find it, so I'll have to take another look tomorrow. I probably need to check the other grounds, and likely should go ahead and reseat and clean up any and all grounds that I can find. Probably just as well I do this, even if it isn't the cause of the problem.

Oh, I found some YouTube videos showing that fix with the EBCM, that are real helpful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GXD76dFGD0




And I found another place that will do turn around service on the EBCM if I get to being lazy and not wanting to take the module apart myself.

https://www.myairbags.com/product/ch...waArrREALw_wcB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi3CvDNBV1Y

Well, looks like the SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING problem wasn't as complicated as it could have been. While poking around looking for obvious problems (which just seems to be par for the course when my car goes into a shop), I noticed a plug on the brake pressure sensor that sits on the side of the ABS pump. Something just looked odd about one of the three wires going into that plug, so I broke out the borescope to get a closer look at it.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/PIC_0004.JPG

Yeah, that doesn't look right. Checking around further I found pics of other plugs, and sure enough that white insulator should not be sticking out like that. The plug is a bit awkward to get to, but fortunately my small hands and some adequate cussing got it loose. Yeah, that pin had apparently been yanked out of the plug.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...or_plug_10.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...or_plug_11.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...or_plug_12.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...or_plug_13.jpg


BTW, the error code I was getting on the DIC was 28-TCS C1293.

So I oriented the pin the way it needed to be in the plug, and then pressed it back into place. Seems to be pretty snug, but I found a used wiring harness on Ebay for a decent price, and ordered it to have on hand, just in case. In any event, after two restarts of the engine, the error message went away, and will hopefully STAY away.

But I'm not out of the woods yet. Yesterday when I started up the car to see if my cleaning some of the ground wires had made any difference, I noticed some oil on the garage floor behind the tailpipes. Great..... I remember talking to the tech that worked on my car, and he said he had a problem with oil blowing out of the tailpipes. He said that it turned out being a loose connection in the oil return lines, that he was able to fix by tightening one or more connections. Right now I'm not sure exactly which ones. I know I had to check the intercooler when I got the car back home, and sure enough, had to sop up oil out of the bottom of the intercooler. But it appears the problem has come back. So I'm not sure if it is the same leak he saw earlier, or something new. The oil scavenge pump sounds like it is worked fine, but I sure am glad this leak didn't happen on the way back home. It would have likely drained the oil pan leaving me stranded along the road in the middle of nowhere.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...platter_01.jpg

I took some pics of the fittings in the return oil lines, and forwarded them to the tech to have him indicate to me which fitting he had had to loosen while working on my car. I numbered the fittings to make it easy to reference them.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ittings_01.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ittings_02.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ittings_03.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ittings_04.jpg


The fitting is loose at point #2 up front on the scavenge pump, and I had already tightened down #6 and #9 in back that were loose. I'm thinking I may have to pull off some of the fittings and put new teflon tape on them to seal them up good. I want to start with any that the tech had disconnected first and see if that fixes the problem, but I may wind up doing all the fittings that I have even slight doubts about. Apparently with a leak on this side of the scavenge pump, the pump is sucking air and not able to extract enough oil quick enough from the turbos. My guess would be that the loose fitting right at the scavenge pump would be the most likely culprit.

So that is what I will be working on tomorrow. Honestly for the money I paid for that clutch job, I really had expected I wouldn't have so many issues to have to deal with here at home.

I was reading up on topics such as oil leaks with the STS system, and from what I have been able to gather, putting teflon tape on AN connectors is not recommended. Apparently that can cause more problems than it will solve. NPT fittings are OK, however. I think the NPT threads would be directly into the brass fittings in that oil scavenge system. So I have to pull things apart to take a look at them.

I sure wish I could take this car to a shop without afterwards having to spend my time fixing things they break.

Well, it gets even better.

I was over in the garage just a bit ago, figuring I would try to trace the oil return line from the "T" coupling on the rear cradle to see if I could find any damage to the oil line itself. I saw that it went over top of the rubber boot on the half shaft axle on the driver's side, so I reached up to see how much clearance the oil line had. Well, it had NONE. And my fingers came away covered in axle grease. So yeah, the tech didn't check and that braided oil line (which I covered with insulation, fortunately) cut into the boot and it is now leaking.

I am soooo PISSED!!

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...le_boot_01.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...le_boot_02.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...le_boot_03.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...le_boot_04.jpg

Talked to the service manager at the shop that worked on my car yesterday afternoon, and he sent out a flatbed today to pick the car up to take it back to the shop. So the car is headed back to the shop right now after being back just 9 days.

So we'll see what happens now.

If you look at the last picture above showing the grease leak, you will perhaps notice what the problem is. That return oil line is underneath a hard brake line and that is actually pushing the oil line against the axle. Matter of fact, had the protective insulation I have wrapped around that oil line been turned differently, it is possible that it would never have sliced into the rubber boot. But the edges to that opening are kind of sharp, so I'm sure they had no problem slicing into rubber.

Oh yeah, while I was checking out the car getting it ready last night to be towed out of here today, I closed up the hood and noticed some damage up at the top of the hood near the center.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/..._damage_01.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/..._damage_02.jpg

Looks like a pretty good abrasion there. Could just be scratches or it may be cracks around it, which indicates to me either the hood was dropped when it was removed from the car, banged against something, or something banged into it.

Great.....

:face_palm_02:

I talked to the service manager and the tech today. They said they didn't see any oil leaking, so it appears there must be an intermittent problem. Hopefully they will find it so I don't have to worry about it happening while I am on the road. I might need to carry a few quarts of oil with me for a while, just in case.

A replacement boot for the half shaft is no longer available from GM, so they are ordering a new axle from Nashville. Hope to get this wrapped up next week, but I'm not holding my breath. The closer we get to Christmas, the more dicey it will be getting anything delivered quickly.

I was told that the body shop manager will be looking at the paint problem on my hood. I'm hoping it wasn't an impact that caused the paint to actually crack, instead of being scratches. So we will see.

Got a spare bay in the garage again. :(