Heading in this morning to tell them how to do their jobs some more...

Donbrew, thank you for all the help, I really appreciate it.

 

Well that was a worthless week - all they ever said about Tech2 codes was that the modules weren't communicating - looked at me w blank stares when I started talking about the stuff donbrew mentioned here. I'm closing my bill today, and just paying for the $95 diagnostic fee. They called me this morning and said I can pay them $985 in labor to open up the dash and keep looking for the problem, w no guarantee that would discover or fix anything. No thank you, what a load of crap.

I'll tow my car back home tonight or in the morning, and start checking on some of these things myself - I have no faith they did much of anything all week.

I talked to my old hometown tech on the phone, and he suggests a lot of the same stuff donbrew suggested, that's where I'll be starting. I have another dealership nearby I might try out if I can't pinpoint anything weird by myself over the weekend. Thanks again for the help, I'll be back within a couple days with more updates.

 

In my city the Chevy dealer advertises for Service Writer "no experience needed" They have a couple of girls that were not hot enough to put on the podium. I learned fast not to expect the Service Writer to know anything.

The one that refused to look at the TSB I brought in with me, then refused to even look it up for himself. Oh BTW, doing the procedure on the TSB fixed the car. I had to make a big enough scene that it woke the Service Manager up to get anybody to acknowledge anything about TSBs.

Your problem MUST be a wire in the steering wheel housing, nothing else was touched.
$95 for what diagnosis?

 

My understanding is that the $95 was to compensate for the time they spent 'trying' to find the problem, that way they aren't doing free diagnoses all day long and not getting paid for it. In any case, they had it for a week, so if they actually did look for stuff, I came out better paying the flat $95 than if they charged diagnosis by the hour.

I'm not bothered by it, I just consider it a fee I paid to learn which dealer to not go to. And I'm glad I won't get stuck with a bill for their failed experimentation.

I agree, the only place that makes sense for the problem I'm having, based on when it happened, is in the steering column somewhere. I'm going to get my trusty multimeter out as soon as I have it back in my parking lot, and just start with the basics - grounds and 12v. With your diagrams and help, there are plenty of things I should be able to rule out now, that I wasn't aware of when I took it to them.