C5 Corvette Secrets

Lyle from C&S Corvettes continues the series on Corvette Secrets, Easter Eggs & Cool Features. This week covers the C5 Corvette. www.CorvettePartsCenter.com #corvette #vette #C5 #secrets

Hello everybody welcome back to C&S corvettes in Sarasota Florida this is Lyle here to talk to you more about some special corvette information uh this week we're going to be talking about c5 corvette secrets and points of interest that you may not be aware of last week we did the c4 secrets if you haven't seen that video yet make sure to check it out also please make sure to smash that like button and the subscribe button so that we can continue to bring you content like this now that we got the business out of the way let's talk about the 97 to o4 c5 corvette this car didn't have as many Easter eggy kind of things like the c4 did or even like the c7 and the c8 do where you have the corvette emblem folded into all these different things c5 really didn't do much of that because the story of the c5 development was very much different than those two cars that'll be another video for another time but today we're going to talk about specifically c5 secrets quirks things you might not know about a car you've owned for a long time or if you're looking at buying one of these cars these are things that will answer those questions that you may have looking around your interior number one we're going to cover some of the little bits inside your car that when you're sitting in the driver's seat you're looking at and you may not know what the heck you're seeing so first and foremost on the right hand side of your instrument cluster is this little guy this is called the dic or the driver information center this is all the controls for that data disgraceful you know display screen on the bottom of your uh display uh instrument display so you've got all the buttons are pretty self-explanatory but you'll see up here there's this little itty bitty lens right and people are like what what is that what is that that's real simple that is simply a light sensor for the interior of the car so that if the car is in a dark place it darkens the display if it's in a bright place it brightens the display that's all it does it's it's only job but that's what that little lens is next to your ignition key you've probably noticed this little guy it looks like a tiny little vent you're like i don't feel any air coming out of it doesn't seem to do anything nothing lights up behind it what is that this is simply a cover for the inside ambient air temperature sensor so behind here is the sensor that's telling the computer who runs your hvac system what the actual temperature is in the car so that it can make whatever changes it needs to make to make sure the temperature is at the perfect setting for you now another sensor that works in concert with that is actually up in your defrost vent now this front sits up in front of you like this actually like this and you'll notice there's two holes in that now depending on how your car was optioned out or what year it is you may only have one hole but this one has two because i want to talk about both of them the bigger hole over here has a little when it's in the car it has this little like shaded dome it's like tinted dome that sticks up there like a button uh that is actually the sun load sensor that is reading how much heat is coming into the car from outside that works in conjunction with this sensor to make sure that your ac is doing what it's supposed to do this little sensor over here is for your twilight sentinel so that the car knows whether it's light or dark outside to determine whether it's going to turn on your headlights for you or not that's both in the defrost grille some of the other little things on your c5 uh let's see if you have your key in your hand and you're standing outside your car you put the key into the door you turn the key forward one time it unlocks the driver's door a lot of people don't know that if you turn it forward a second time it unlocks the passenger door and if you turn it forward for a third time it pops the trunk so if you're coming back with your friend from the beach and you got to throw stuff in the trunk and you don't have your fob on you you put the butt you put the key in turn it go one two three everything will be open pretty neat and they don't really advertise that it's a neat quirk one of the other things back to the driver information center here if you go to trip odometer you have the trip a and trip b i'm sure if you've been through your screens you know that those are there you probably didn't know was if you hold the reset button down on one of those it actually shifts over to how many miles you've traveled since you last started your car so your trip may have been 10 000 miles if you haven't reset it but if you want to know how far you've gone since you turned the key and got in it today press and hold reset on that and it'll come right up uh let's see ah with the c4 video we talked about the cinch button on the seat belts how to make the seat belt really tighten up and hold you in place actually there's a very similar feature in the c5 but it doesn't require pushing a button it doesn't require doing anything if you're going to go drive your car in a sporting fashion or if you're going to do a track day here's what you do move the seat about that far back from where you're comfortable so if you're comfortable move the seat backwards toward the back of the car about three or four inches and stop at that point put your seat belt on and pull it all the way up until it stops and then start letting it go and you'll hear a ratcheting clicking as it goes back in and that means that that seat belt can't come back out again so if you go to reach for your radio you're going to reach for your drink it's not going to move with you the whole point is to hold you in place now the cool part is if you want it to be even more snug after it's ratcheted move the seat track back forward to where you're in your comfortable position and the seat belts will necessarily tighten up as the seat moves forward while they aren't a five-point harness you can make them hold you in the car really really well it's a neat feature that i don't think they talk about much in the owner's manual let's talk about competitive driving mode now i've talked about that in some of my other videos cars with active handling which is controlled by this little button right in front of your center console door uh 97 to 2000 it was the jl4 option you may or may not have had it depending on how your car was equipped if you have a 2001 to a 2004 all cars came with it okay so here's what you need to know if you press and hold this button down for five seconds it will take you into what they call competitive driving mode which kind of dumbs down some of the babysitters lays off the traction control a little bit lets you drive the car in a more aggressive fashion while still kind of protecting you from your own stupidity at the limit i will say this excuse me in the 97 through 2000 cars you can only activate this while you're sitting still in the 2001 to 2004 cars you can press and hold this button at any time for five seconds and it'll put you in a competitive driving mode on either car to get out of it push the button one time and you go back to normal mode as the default if you want to ah here's a good one odometer i talked in the c4 video about there's a trick if you don't want to get in and start your car to see what your mileage is on the electronic display 90 to 96 cars you can just turn on the parking lights and instantly the mileage will be displayed uh on your just on your instrument cluster and you can just see what your mileage is if you're trying to fill out a form or fill out an insurance form or doing whatever you're doing same thing with the c5 you just turn on the parking lamps and the only thing that will come up in that digital display under your instrument cluster is your odometer no matter what other pages you had open it goes straight to the odometer so you can quickly check your mileage while having to scroll through a bunch of things if you are looking for your option codes on the car they are on a white sticker which i'm sure my it guy allen has put a picture of next to my head here it is located in the glove box in the right hand side of the dash open that you'll see a four by six white sticker with a bunch of three letter and digit codes that tells you every option that car was built with if you need help decoding it email me and i'll happily tell you what that means if you ever want to find the build sheet from your car the original piece of paper that was with your car as it went down the line at the bowling green factory I'll tell you where to find it if for any reason you ever have your front bumper off of the car at the very front of the car immediately behind the front bumper cover is a big rectangular bar where the two frame rails come up this ties them together and it's hollow and inside one side or the other usually the driver's side and here's a picture right here of what that looks like you can reach in and pull out probably at this point what's left of your build sheet but it's a neat piece of your car's history to have and if you can save it before it goes completely away it's a neat thing to have laminated and put in your scrapbook that is pretty much it as far as the neat quirks i can think of for today for the c5 if you have ideas about neat things on the c5 oh wait bonus there is a fuel door release tab on the left hand side going through your rear hatch of your trunk on the left hand side above the wheel well there's a little black tab connected to a cable that says fuel door release if for whatever reason your button in the center console doesn't work you can reach in pull that it pops the fuel door see you're getting more than you even thought you were getting it's awesome anyway if you guys know of things that I've missed or things I should do a second video on on cool c5 features let me know you can email me at lyle@corvettpartscenter.com or you can just comment below the comments are always really helpful because that puts them all in one place where I can check them answer them quickly and then get back to work so again thank you for watching I hope you found this helpful and enjoyable and I'll see you next week with more interesting corvette information have a good weekend