0Stainless Works

Hope it all gets fixed, waiting to hear the solution on this one, feel your pain.....

ccmano

I'm anxious to hear what the solution to this turns out to be. Let's hope all parties decide not to just give up. As an owner of a 2005 this would be important information should the same thing happen at a later point. It would also give us the ability to check our cars before being afflicted in this way.

I have been in the car business for 37 yrs, dealer and factory, much of that time on the service side. I have seen these types of things many times. While generally this is caused by either poor engineering or poor assembly, it remains the responsibility of the dealer and technicians to resolve these issues. From what I have read here in the OP's posts, the original dealer/techs took the lazy way (typical) out and first relied on throwing parts at the problem. They may have switched to at least using the diagnostic logic provided in the shop manuals and is taught in tech training. This logic relies heavily on utilizing computerized test equipment like the TechII. Failing this technicians are rarely taught to break out the schematics and actually think for themselves. This is not a knock on techs, it is a criticism of the system. It's purely a function of profitability. It just doesn't pay either the dealer or the tech to spend this kind of time on a problem. Ironically 9 times out 10, in my experience, had the proper diagnostic protocol been adhered to from the beginning the problem would have been found much sooner.

Let's hope this gets resolved soon.
H

gkloib

Update April 24th:

I've not provided updates for sometime as I've had a number of false excitement updates until yesterday.

Briefly, the current dealer/tech somehow convinced GM to send a field engineer to help out with the car. Ultimately they'd made the determination that the two (2) reverse switches that come off the transmission were bad (the GM engineer has led me to believe that the steering lock short circuit that was replaced in December may be directly related to this incident).

As of today, 4:45 EST, the reverse switches have arrived, have been dropped into the car, everything is working fine. Car is road tested and I pick her up tomorrow.

What is increasingly dissappointing is the following: This forum (I'm unsure whom to thank) had alerted me to the reverse switch problem back on March 21st, I'd sent the posting onto the 1st dealer (Chevy Dealer on Rt 1, Langhorne), but they either ignored the information or due to incompetence didn't try to effectively make the repair.

I'll wait and reserve further judgement, additional comments until I pick up the car, and get the bill for re-assembling the electronics, diagnostics and service until I pick up the car - tomorrow!

More to come, thanks to all for the support, feedback and recommendations. I'll provide a full listing of the billing, service in the next few days.

gkloib

CCMANO -

To your point, the 2nd tech took the time to work through the schematics of the car, zeroed in on where he thought the source of the problem originated, contacted the GM field engineer and from what I was told today, the two of them (the Corvette tech and the GM field engineer) diagnosed the problem yesterday morning.

They'd looped the electronics around the "bad" switches, and all electronics worked fine. Ordered and replaced the parts today, and voila!

Sad commentary is that it took 8 weeks to get the car fixed, the first dealer as you apptly surmized, was through parts at a problem vs thinking through the issue using GM schematics as a roadmap.

1987LC2

Congratulations.
Enjoy driving your car again.

ccmano

Yes, sad commentary, it falls into my 9 times out of 10 theory, had they taken the time originally to properly diagnose the issue this would have been solved in a matter of days. An old friend of mine, a Benz factory special tech as we called them, used to read the techs and managers the riot act when he came across this sort of thing. You can see why. I hope this didn't cost you an arm and a leg for their incompetence?

Congrats on getting it resolved.
H

John Harry

Glad it's (probably) fixed. In my 30 years as a software engineer I saw very similar situations - a problem arises and 9 out of 10 people throw semi-random "fixes" at it in the desperate hope that something works. But there's always a logical process of diagnosis and repair that, if followed, fixes the problem in minimal time and cost.

ccmano

Interestingly on a side note, I recently swapped a 2007 Z06 Trans/diff into my 05' Z51. (a story all by itself) the 07' trans uses only one reverse sensor. I spliced the leads from the second sensor into the single one on the new trans. I have had no issues what so ever. Other folks have done this as well with similar results. Makes you wonder why the engineers went with two sensors to begin with?
H

1987LC2

If techs were paid diagnosis, I'm sure they would try. But the automotive industry sucks for the workers.
Satisfaction of a job well done doesn't pay the bills.

tennblkc6

glad you have it sorted. its been so long i just went back to read your initial post and symptoms.

Boomer111

Electrical problems can leave you with a handful of hair.

Seems like an easy fix now..

JoeDoherty

That is a disgrace! I would get a good lawyer and sue them. To return a car to an owner like that they should have their franchise pulled.

Kad2112

Should the gm techII code reader be able to detect faulty sensors?

exracer28

The tech 2 needs a working data bus and it sounds like the one in his car does not work. The last one of this I worked on had a pushed pin in the back of the car and I had to follow the service manual step by step to find it. Still took a working knowledge of electronics to find it. Lucky for me my day job is EE. Until this is fixed the data bus will not display codes. It is like trying to use your land line to call the phone company about your phone when the phone wire is broken. Nothing will work until the data bus is working. In older cars the basic electrical system was hard wired and easier to troubleshoot. I would ask if the data bus is working.

SUB VETTE

Such a long and unfortunate story. Glad the nightmare is (probably) over for you. You are overdue to enjoy the drive Hopefully you will provide a written critique up the GM management chain of your experience to help improve the GM dealership shop and get rid of the incompetents who make most of us stay completely away from the dealers' service operation. I for one, after taking delivery from a dealer, never returned. But not all have enough DIY skill sets to perform their own maintenance like me. Your feedback can only help those who are forced to subject themselves to the "dealership experience."

23/C8Z

glad it's working out for you. that's tough.. I recently went through this after seeing how a Cadillac Dealer tried to repair my C6 before i purchased it in December 3 TIMES and actually replaced the flexplate assembly 2X and pulled the torque tube (deemed it operating properly) over the course of 3 months..

I can't imagine how that original owner felt? he always had it maintained by this same dealer from (almost) new as the Chevy dealer he purchased the car from closed during the mass chevrolet dealer closings in '08

He was lucky however in that his C7 finally came in so he lived with the problem (a rattling at idle) and then just sold it, at a big discount because of the mechanical issue that should have been diagnosed the first time properly.

There are underachieving techs and careless techs everywhere, even (GM) Dealers.. I blame the management as they can't reign their techs in and have them paid by their production, which forces them to do the fastest "fix" and stops them from properly diagnosing the problem (as well as thoroughly shake the cars down).. I ran a few service departments when i was younger. The best customer service and happiest place i worked paid the mechanics a salary. But "I" was responsible if their time was short, in turn, they would get counselled and 3x, gone... That forced them to stay late (salary) and keep up on their jobs. But it also meant a customer's vehicle was never SHORTCUT to get them their "flat rate"

Worst thing in the world for a customer is a flat rate shop.. period. luckily, most performance shops use the flat rate BUT have a buffer in place due to the aftermarket parts fitment issues and custom jobs.. It may cost you a few bucks more, but the job will not be rushed and done correct (in theory lol)

1987LC2

Like I posted earlier, back in the late '70's to early '80's technicians were paid 50/50 by the dealer to fix fairly simple cars.

Now pay is more like 80/20 with the tech losing and the dealer making a killing, and the cars are much more complicated.

Stop blaming the techs. It's all in the hands of the greedy shop owners.

If techs were paid right, we wouldn't have threads like this.

hdrider1

Out of curiosity, what was the final bill for the repairs from the first unsuccessful shop and from the second shop that actually fixed the problem?