Only read this if you're bored and have some time
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Joined: 03-19-13
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From: Macon, GA
Only read this if you're bored and have some time
I will attempt to give an account of the goofy, hard to believe story of the epic disaster of recent car repairs I have been attempting.
First I recently purchased a 2006 Cobalt SS. I wanted a manual transmission vehicle to teach my children how to drive a stick shift car. I have thoroughly enjoyed the car but it has been plagued with a number of recalls. The most famous of which is a recall of the ignition switch. If the car hits a bump or pothole the key could come out of the run position and rest in the ACC spot, shutting of all power to things like brakes, power assist steering and the airbags. A brutal combination if one isn’t quick thinking. This is sorta how this story begins.
One night I was heading home and travelling down the interstate to my exit. Speed limit in the area is 55 mph and I was travelling approximately 60-65 mph approaching my exit. Construction crews have been working on this expressway for some time, at least 5 years. Recently they had resurfaced the exit ramp and there was about four inches of new surface. They had temporarily finished the junction with a few inches of asphalt creating a very rough transition between the old and new sections. For safety the crews had put up warning signs there with no lights on both sides that read “BUMP”. Unfortunately this was the first time I had been done the newly surfaced exit and didn’t see the signs and hit the “bump” at full speed. This caused my car to shut off and lights to cut off. Because it is a manual shift I instinctively engaged the clutch, and coasted for a time. I believe I down shifted to fourth or third gear and ensured my key was “forward” and dumped the clutch. Car comes on but lights were still out. Rolling down the ramp with no lights I flipped on my brights to get home. From that time at night I would have to flip on the brights to drive at night.
Being somewhat mechanically inclined, I know some basic things to look for and over the next couple days I checked a number of things. Fuses, relays and bulbs were all in working order. So after some time I run my ride up to a local shop to have it diagnosed. At first they believe the multifunction switch is the culprit. Unfortunately this is not the case. They believe that the issue is the Body Control Module. The BCM is the device that tells the car which relays to activate and which lights to come on and so forth. Unfortunately if you have it replaced it must be programmed by a Chevy technician. So off to the dealer I go.
I explain the whole situation to the service consultant but I am mainly interested in getting in line to have my ignition replaced because I am really concerned about getting that done. I know parts won’t be available for some time so I need to get in line. When it comes time to discuss the lights issue I explain what the other shop told me and that I wanted to know what BCM would cost to replace. He quotes me $600.00. Not as bad as the 4 digit number I was fearing. He says he can have the part on Tuesday (this was Friday), so I say, “Great! I will see you Tuesday” (conveniently this was the day I got paid).
On Tuesday I show up in the morning and drop off my car. They spend the day working on it and I get a call later that afternoon. The consultant informs me that my car is ready for me to pick it up. I tell him that I can’t make it there in the afternoon and that I will be there in the morning. Before letting him go I asked him if he checked the headlights? He said he hadn’t but that he would.
I arrive the following morning to pick up my car and this is where the story begins to get bizarre. I speak with the cashier and begin the checkout process. I hand her my card as she says that’ll be 388.67 (estimating here from memory) I say, “really? Are you sure? I was quoted $600.00.” She looks over the work report and makes a quick phone call. After 15 minutes or so we get it cleared up and my new total is 550.00 something. The original service consultant comes out and explains the confusion to me. No problem, I’m glad we got it cleared up. By the way did you check the lights to make sure they work right? He explained that he had and everything is ready to go. I deplete my bank account of 550 something dollars and they roll my car up to the side of the building and I head to work.
On the way to work I flip on my lights a few times to see if they work against traffic, but I can’t really see any reflections. Maybe the sunny day is just in the way of the reflections, so I check them when I get to my office. Alas no lights, now I don’t even have brights. Now I am forced to send this car back; without lights, no night time driving. I go in and talk to my service consultant starting off with a pointed conversation about how he checked the headlights. As my trust of this consultant is being eroded I must have lights. He now explains a diagnostic fee. For $102.00 they will diagnose the problem and roll that fee into the labor of fixing it if they fix it. I agree and sign the papers. Out of curiosity we check the lights and now my brights are working again but the lo beams still fail. Later that afternoon the consultant calls me again to inform me the real culprit is now the fuse box. Apparently, there are some relays that are internal to the fuse box and are not replaceable. This job will cost 780 something dollars. No quite disappointed, frustrated, and distrusting I tell them to button it all together and I will pick it up. The next morning (Thursday), I go pick it up with the intention of having a conversation with the supervisor of the maintenance department.
After the pleasantries I start the conversation off with, “I would like to see if there is a way that you can keep me as a customer and believe me I am pulling for you.” I go through the whole story with him and because he is in the dark about the situation he says he will look at the car, talk with the technician and the consultant and see what he can do. Thirty minutes later he comes in and explains the problem is, when I came in I refused the diagnostic fee in the beginning. I retorted with I hadn’t heard of the diagnostic fee until yesterday. He says it was written up in such a way that the diagnostic fee was refused. He tries to assure me that he will get on top of this and speak with the consultant about this for the future, and that he will call me when he finds out what he can do to help me. That afternoon he calls me to inform me that because someone in the body shop had to go home for sick children that he wasn’t able to spend any time on it, but that he would work on it first thing Friday morning and call me then.
That morning his call was less than encouraging. I started off inquiring about this diagnostic fee that I had refused. I explained to him that the first I had even heard about this fee was on Wednesday. I then asked him to tell me that if it had been explained to me when I was quoted the job in the first place why would I have refused? After all (during the conversation I didn’t have my bill in front of me, it was sitting in the passenger seat of the car), there was probably $100 worth of labor in the BCM job anyway. If it would have been absorbed in the labor cost it would be foolish to refuse it. The supervisor doesn’t want to go over it again and I am at my wits end anyway. He says He can get it down to $550 or so. “Button it up and I’ll be down to pick it up.” He says he’ll waive my diagnostic fee.
So now I have paid $550.00 to a Chevy dealership and still don’t have working headlights. In my last conversation I tried to get an idea of whether the fuse box needs to be programmed and whether the technician was certain this was the problem. The tech is pretty sure this is the problem, but I can’t trust this dealership as far as I can throw it. I am going to attempt this job myself.
This saga does seem too surreal but I have done my level best to not exaggerate. Another bit of bad news is I still have this recall to be addressed and the next closest dealership is 20 miles away.
First I recently purchased a 2006 Cobalt SS. I wanted a manual transmission vehicle to teach my children how to drive a stick shift car. I have thoroughly enjoyed the car but it has been plagued with a number of recalls. The most famous of which is a recall of the ignition switch. If the car hits a bump or pothole the key could come out of the run position and rest in the ACC spot, shutting of all power to things like brakes, power assist steering and the airbags. A brutal combination if one isn’t quick thinking. This is sorta how this story begins.
One night I was heading home and travelling down the interstate to my exit. Speed limit in the area is 55 mph and I was travelling approximately 60-65 mph approaching my exit. Construction crews have been working on this expressway for some time, at least 5 years. Recently they had resurfaced the exit ramp and there was about four inches of new surface. They had temporarily finished the junction with a few inches of asphalt creating a very rough transition between the old and new sections. For safety the crews had put up warning signs there with no lights on both sides that read “BUMP”. Unfortunately this was the first time I had been done the newly surfaced exit and didn’t see the signs and hit the “bump” at full speed. This caused my car to shut off and lights to cut off. Because it is a manual shift I instinctively engaged the clutch, and coasted for a time. I believe I down shifted to fourth or third gear and ensured my key was “forward” and dumped the clutch. Car comes on but lights were still out. Rolling down the ramp with no lights I flipped on my brights to get home. From that time at night I would have to flip on the brights to drive at night.
Being somewhat mechanically inclined, I know some basic things to look for and over the next couple days I checked a number of things. Fuses, relays and bulbs were all in working order. So after some time I run my ride up to a local shop to have it diagnosed. At first they believe the multifunction switch is the culprit. Unfortunately this is not the case. They believe that the issue is the Body Control Module. The BCM is the device that tells the car which relays to activate and which lights to come on and so forth. Unfortunately if you have it replaced it must be programmed by a Chevy technician. So off to the dealer I go.
I explain the whole situation to the service consultant but I am mainly interested in getting in line to have my ignition replaced because I am really concerned about getting that done. I know parts won’t be available for some time so I need to get in line. When it comes time to discuss the lights issue I explain what the other shop told me and that I wanted to know what BCM would cost to replace. He quotes me $600.00. Not as bad as the 4 digit number I was fearing. He says he can have the part on Tuesday (this was Friday), so I say, “Great! I will see you Tuesday” (conveniently this was the day I got paid).
On Tuesday I show up in the morning and drop off my car. They spend the day working on it and I get a call later that afternoon. The consultant informs me that my car is ready for me to pick it up. I tell him that I can’t make it there in the afternoon and that I will be there in the morning. Before letting him go I asked him if he checked the headlights? He said he hadn’t but that he would.
I arrive the following morning to pick up my car and this is where the story begins to get bizarre. I speak with the cashier and begin the checkout process. I hand her my card as she says that’ll be 388.67 (estimating here from memory) I say, “really? Are you sure? I was quoted $600.00.” She looks over the work report and makes a quick phone call. After 15 minutes or so we get it cleared up and my new total is 550.00 something. The original service consultant comes out and explains the confusion to me. No problem, I’m glad we got it cleared up. By the way did you check the lights to make sure they work right? He explained that he had and everything is ready to go. I deplete my bank account of 550 something dollars and they roll my car up to the side of the building and I head to work.
On the way to work I flip on my lights a few times to see if they work against traffic, but I can’t really see any reflections. Maybe the sunny day is just in the way of the reflections, so I check them when I get to my office. Alas no lights, now I don’t even have brights. Now I am forced to send this car back; without lights, no night time driving. I go in and talk to my service consultant starting off with a pointed conversation about how he checked the headlights. As my trust of this consultant is being eroded I must have lights. He now explains a diagnostic fee. For $102.00 they will diagnose the problem and roll that fee into the labor of fixing it if they fix it. I agree and sign the papers. Out of curiosity we check the lights and now my brights are working again but the lo beams still fail. Later that afternoon the consultant calls me again to inform me the real culprit is now the fuse box. Apparently, there are some relays that are internal to the fuse box and are not replaceable. This job will cost 780 something dollars. No quite disappointed, frustrated, and distrusting I tell them to button it all together and I will pick it up. The next morning (Thursday), I go pick it up with the intention of having a conversation with the supervisor of the maintenance department.
After the pleasantries I start the conversation off with, “I would like to see if there is a way that you can keep me as a customer and believe me I am pulling for you.” I go through the whole story with him and because he is in the dark about the situation he says he will look at the car, talk with the technician and the consultant and see what he can do. Thirty minutes later he comes in and explains the problem is, when I came in I refused the diagnostic fee in the beginning. I retorted with I hadn’t heard of the diagnostic fee until yesterday. He says it was written up in such a way that the diagnostic fee was refused. He tries to assure me that he will get on top of this and speak with the consultant about this for the future, and that he will call me when he finds out what he can do to help me. That afternoon he calls me to inform me that because someone in the body shop had to go home for sick children that he wasn’t able to spend any time on it, but that he would work on it first thing Friday morning and call me then.
That morning his call was less than encouraging. I started off inquiring about this diagnostic fee that I had refused. I explained to him that the first I had even heard about this fee was on Wednesday. I then asked him to tell me that if it had been explained to me when I was quoted the job in the first place why would I have refused? After all (during the conversation I didn’t have my bill in front of me, it was sitting in the passenger seat of the car), there was probably $100 worth of labor in the BCM job anyway. If it would have been absorbed in the labor cost it would be foolish to refuse it. The supervisor doesn’t want to go over it again and I am at my wits end anyway. He says He can get it down to $550 or so. “Button it up and I’ll be down to pick it up.” He says he’ll waive my diagnostic fee.
So now I have paid $550.00 to a Chevy dealership and still don’t have working headlights. In my last conversation I tried to get an idea of whether the fuse box needs to be programmed and whether the technician was certain this was the problem. The tech is pretty sure this is the problem, but I can’t trust this dealership as far as I can throw it. I am going to attempt this job myself.
This saga does seem too surreal but I have done my level best to not exaggerate. Another bit of bad news is I still have this recall to be addressed and the next closest dealership is 20 miles away.
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Joined: 06-19-11
Posts: 329
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From: Connecticut
good to hear, i was going to say, ive made my own lighting wiring harnesses for my 85 gmc. Taillights, headlights, plow lights, interior lights, lol yeah i had to re do all the wiring anyway, for your headlights not to come is a power issue, ground issue they would work but very sporadically. Makes sence the fuse box was the issue due to the fact every power wire has to go through the fuse box before it can reach its destination. Bummer about the money you had to spend, at least its fixed now my man!
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Sep 26, 2015 12:16 PM