[MagSS]

Hi everyone. I'll try to keep this relatively short while not leaving out any potentially important details. I have a 2016 SS1 Camaro with <19K miles on it. I'm the second owner. Bought her 2 years ago this May-6500 miles and 2.3 years old at the time of purchase. I've kept up with regular maintenance and rarely drive her to her full potential. The car is stock and was garage kept and babied before me, from what I can tell.


The only issue I've had was the engine shudder problem, which was fixed a year ago when the transmission fluid was replaced around the time the TSB came out. For nearly two years now, I've had an annual membership to a local carwash where they dry and detail by hand, but run the car through an automatic wash. I've been through there 75+ times over the last 2 years without issue. About 3 weeks ago, I brought her in and noticed they had trouble starting her up when pulling her out of the bay. I then had a slow start when leaving that day and saw a tiny bit of steam burning off the engine from the louvers for a second or two. Drove around for a bit and everything has been fine since then. ZERO slow to start issues, even after sitting untouched for several days (3-6 days in a row sometimes)....until today when I went through the carwash again.



Washed today (for the first time since the last incident), and again, they had trouble getting her out of the bay. I questioned the girl about it, and she said sometimes when she puts cars in neutral to go through the wash, the battery light comes on for whatever reason. I took my car home for the day and parked her. Shut off and back on one time, with only slight hesitation. I tried to re-create the problem by placing my car in neutral and letting her roll like they do (however, I tested with the car on-not sure how they are getting her in neutral with the engine off) Anyway, I didn't have any luck . I sat idling for a few minutes while searching forums for similar issues. Next thing I knew, there was a message saying the A/C was shutting off due to high engine temp! My baby was in the red!! Shut her off instantly and opened the hood to cool down. Nothing appeared unusual, except the fan rotated sporadically back and forth, which-I'm guessing- is an advanced technological attempt to cool the engine down when it gets that hot.



What on Earth could be the problem? Any ideas or advice? Mags and I thank you in advance for your input before we have to resort to our useless local dealer!

[Jb54]

His: Interesting problem you're having. It has me scratching my head. I have a few ideas, but not sure.
(1) Low coolant
(2) Faulty cooling fan or fan related. Like a a faulty thermal switch to tell it when to turn on or off.
(3) Bad belt tensioner. Belt gets wet and slipping, thus not circulating coolant due to the water pump not turning properly, then heating up.
(4) Worn drive belt
These are some of my ideas. Good luck. For what it's worth, I don't think it is anything major.

[SoulCyphyr71]

Possible faulty thermostat? I remember reading here on the forums about them sticking a bit when they fail.

[Rock-It Man]

Your starter may be getting low voltage due to a short caused by the water from the carwash.

First place to look is the the starter terminals.

And I can't resist an editorial comment: your car is a thing, not a woman. "It" not "she".

[Fred 6528]

You should try spraying water on hood and see if it’s leaking into engine area that is causing your problem

[ssmofo]

Bad battery maybe and a coolant leak on top of it.

[MagSS]

Thank you all for the replies. To follow up, my car has been sitting for the last 3 weeks, but I did start it up once or twice to keep things primed.

Took it to the dealer for a necessary oil change today and asked them to check out the AC while they were at it. They ran a diagnostic test and couldn’t find a single code on the car’s history. AC ran beautifully....of course. Got it home and AC quit. Took it back to the dealer and recreated the problem on my own before pulling up to the service bay. At that point, the vehicle temp was steadily climbing, AC was blowing but not cool. Codes were run again, and again, no codes could be detected.

The service guy said the temp was accurate and the fans were not coming on as they should. Does anyone have any idea why there wasn’t a code being produced by the computer or a service engine soon light coming on? Has anyone ever experienced anything similar?

TIA

Rock-It Man, I apologize for the faux paux, I’m a newbie and still learning.

[WCoolBreeze]

I had a very similar problem. Took it to the dealership, they ran a test on both the Alternator and Battery. They found that the battery was bad and replaced it free of Charge.

Walt B

[Abubaca]

Rock-It Man, I apologize for the faux paux, I’m a newbie and still learning.

While I too always chuckle when people refer to their car as a "she", don't apologize for it. SOOOOOOOOOO many other people do it too. I'm sure he was just messin' with ya.



But I gotta ask....you take your car to an automated car wash....take it the dealer for an oil change, and then BACK again to have it checked out, am I right? WHY....did you not just have them FIX the problem? Who CARES what the problem is, let 'em find it for you!

[Cechk01]

Originally Posted by Abubaca

Who CARES what the problem is, let 'em find it for you!

because dealers are incompetent, they need their hands held if the problem needs even they slightest bit of technical trouble shooting