Here is the story. I had friday off of work and was planning on doing the header and DP on my car. To do this I needed to get a gasket. I was searching high and low for one to no avail. I decided to give it up and just wait til next weekend and just go get some fireworks for saturday.

On my way home I hit a section of road that was raised up a bit with potholes around it and the car stalls (this is an ongoing problem GM can not figure out how to correct). I put it in neutral like always and start the car back up. This time was different, instead of functioning normal, i had all kinds of things wrong. The first lights to come on were the traction control and security. I think well maybe it will go away after putting the car in park and turn it off then back on to reset everything. I pull off at the nearest exit and try this idea. No luck. The car still has these light and now the e-brake and ABS lights are flashing and the DIC is stating problem with the Power Steering. On top of all of this, the transmission is not shifting properly and on the way to the dealership the check engine light came on.

I call the dealership and they say to bring it in ASAP and they will take a look at it. I ask about a loaner and they state they do not have any on site and will have to check with the local rental places. They then call me back and say if you bring it in we will give you a loaner but you have to pay out of pocket til we determine if it is warranty work or damage caused by the road. If its warranty they will cover it, if not i will have to pay for repairs and the rental.

I call my insurance company and explain the situation to 4 people in the hour I was on the phone with them. They eventually came to the conclusion that an adjuster would have to see the car before anything could be done. They tell me to let the dealership not to touch the car until they come out on monday. If the dealership doesn't cover everything under warranty, I will have to file a claim with my insurance company and pay my deductible if damages exceed that amount.

Right now I have a POS '09 focus that is baby blue and no idea what is wrong with my car or when I'll get her back. Im hoping it doesn't take too long because I have a car show to go to on the 18th. So much for working on my car this weekend.

 

Gotta love GM quality! Damn car can't even handle a bump! That thing would never have survived a Canadian spring!! LOL

 

Just got off the phone with the insurance adjuster. He said he didn't see anything collision related that it should be covered under warranty. I then called the dealership to let them know this and give them the all clear to start the diagnosis on the car. From what it sounds like now only the check engine light is on. Will just have to wait and see what they find now

 

For that many lights to be going off all at once and at random like that, it sounds like something's up with the car's computer.

 

Agreed....either that or a bad ground that temporarily let go and 'cause a short somewhere in the electrical system.

 

it's the BCM .. my co worker had the issue.. i'm going to go out on a ;limb and say you have an 05-06 it's a common problem.. heres would do the same thing all the time

 

You are correct, Its an '06 LS. I also think its either the ECU or BCM we will have to see what they come back with. Knowing my luck it will just have an engine code for something and they will just fix that and not even look into the other issues

 

Today marks day 4 and I am still playing the waiting game. The dealership didn't even look at the car yesterday. They hoped to get it in today to look at it.

 

thats just not cool

 

Maybe your Shift + is fouling things up.

Hell it could be anything.

 

Its been on for over 2 yrs now and I have never had a problem with it. When the trans was acting up I turned it off and the problem still resided.

Shift+ Kit may be the cause of transmission shift problem. I just got off the phone with the dealership and they told me the reasoning for the check engine light was due to an internal transmission problem. They do not have a trans tech on site so I will have to take the car to a different dealership 30 minutes away. Doesn't sound like a good idea with a bad trans IMO. From what they said there is a short in the transmission torque converter circuit that needs to be fixed. As far as anything else is concerned they don't have an answer for that at this time. There were multiple history codes thrown all related to the transmission. Once they get the trans fixed they will be able to diagnosis it further

 

sigh.. it's going to take time but i'm willing to bet it's your bcm causing the issue


i know what they said but it took a while for my co workers to get fixed because they kept "finding" other things that were wrong

 

i take it you never seen pot holes in michigan

 

Playing the waiting game again. The first dealership still has the car, they are waiting for switches to come in so they can replace them before they give me the car to take to the other dealership.

EDIT: Update

Switches were suppose to be in this morning for the cruise control and HVAC. The parts didnt arrive this morning and I called them this afternoon and they finally told me that the HVAC stuff came in but the CC switches won't be in until next week. They are just now starting on replacing the i-shaft in the column and will replace the switches in the HVAC so that I can go take it to the other dealership to have the trans work done.

EDIT: Update:

They didnt replace the i-shaft or the switches they are going to wait until after the trans is fixed because the CC switches are not going to be in until next week. They called me today around 3 to tell me to come get the car to take it to the other dealership. Not sure what they even did at the first dealership but the car no longer shifts funny even tho they say the torque converter circuit needs repair. I now have a red Aveo to drive until the trans gets fixed then it has to go back to the first dealer next week to have the switches and i-shaft replaced. What a hassle

 

Just got a call from the dealership at about 4:30PM today stating that they were able to get the car in and the transmission torn apart. At this time they didn't know the extent of the problem but that if it was a simple solenoid fix then i should be able to get the car back sometime tomorrow afternoon. At this point I am hoping its simple because I would love to be able to do some work of my own to the car this weekend. I want to do the header/DP, reinstall the headunit that I just got back from the manufacture repair shop, and install some new rear speakers.

 

do u think the tranny problem had anything to do with shift plus ?

 

Your lucky you didnt install those parts it could have voided your warranty if the dealer wanted to be an ass.

 

ehem

i had a problem very similar to this. my car would stall when going into a driveway, into a gas station then it got progressively worse.

shutting down on the highway, and even at a traffic light.

the times it broke down the only warnings i got were the lockout symbol and the power steering DIC message.

car wouldnt start for a good half hour after each time this happened. although opening the hood sped up the downtime.

turns out it was a problem with the Ignition Control Module.

funny part of the story was that the shop called me up and told me that they think the fixd the problem by replacing a few relays, then they said that after replacing those things they couldn't replicate the problem, eveen driving 13 miles on it. i go there fire her up and back her out of the garage. i get onto the street and guess what she stalled.

have GM or whoever check the ICM

 

Well i finally got the car back form the dealership yesterday. It turns out that it was the torque converter pulse width module solenoid valve that needed to be replaced. Between parts and labor the bill was $688 all covered by the warranty. I am happy to have the car back but now there are several other problems with it.

After getting it back while driving home I noticed there is now a rattle on the driverside that sounds like a heat shield or something as well as a squeak on the passanger side. I think the squeak might be the breaks only because it happens when breaking. That or I was thinking it might have been the serpentine belt not really sure. I had the A/C on so I will have to see if it might be related to that cuz i normally don't have it on. I will test this theory over the weekend by simply driving without it on and see if i still hear it.

On my way home I stopped at my local dealership to get the new header gasket and while I was there I told the service guy about these problems. He told me that I would have to go back to the other dealership for those because they must have done something and if they fixed it they wouldnt get paid to fix the other dealership's mistakes. He then informed me that the HVAC and cruise control switches as well as the i-shaft had came in that I could bring the car back on Wednesday to have them installed. At this point I tell him NO, I have a car show next weekend and I have work of my own to do to the car and I don't need anything else broken before the show that I will wait til the following week.