Oct 20, 2017, the 12V battery died in my 2014 Spark EV, taking the negative battery cable with it. It was towed to my trusted Chevy dealer and I was told the parts had to be found first then ordered. Would take a few days. They gave me a Suburban rental to drive. I was told it's covered under warranty.
Couple days ago the technician, who is terrific, by the way, emails me and says "The battery/cable have been replaced. I have a communication issue with the high speed lan circuits. I am still checking hopefully I can update you more tomorrow."
Today, they called and said the Pedestrian Alert Module, located under the front center console, had been unplugged and it caused a short and is not covered under warranty because there is aftermarket wiring under there so the bill is $1900...and they'll eat the $500 rental car bill.
:shock:
The aftermarket wiring is the cable for the bluetooth OBDII module paired to a 7" tablet that runs Torque Pro and the wiring for the rear view camera. I know about the Pedestrian Alert Module because of the discussion in this thread. I was never bothered by the sound so I gave it zero thought. And I never touched it.
The service writer at Chevy took pictures of the unplugged module and sent them to me.
I am led to understand that the unplugged module will throw errors on the dash. I never saw any until I jump-started the car the morning after the battery had died. By that time, we were scheduling a tow via OnStar, because the number of error messages on the dash made it highly unlikely that the car could be driven any distance.
I don't have all the details, yet, such as parts prices and labor charges, but something doesn't smell right. The rear-view camera install was done many months ago; if the module had been unplugged then, should I not have seen error messages?
The last time the car was at this Chevy dealer was for the latest recall a month or so ago. No issues were reported.
Obviously, I'm going to have to go over the repair details with a fine-toothed comb. I don't want to fight with the dealer. I've always had terrific service, there. And I have a rudimentary grasp of Magnusson-Moss; I'm going over that document, now. There's no way in hell a replacement 12V battery + cable could cost $1900.
Something just doesn't pass the sniff test...
Headed to the dealer this morning.
-Bob K.
Update 1147AM 11/04/17: Had a nice chat with both the service writer and the technician. I am satisfied with their explanation and how helpful they have been so far. The Pedestrian Alert Module had somehow come unplugged. It doesn't unplug on its own, and since I hadn't touched it, the only other hands that *may* have touched it would be the shop that installed the rearview camera. What we surmise is that they unplugged it to do something and didn't fully replug; hence, it was only partially making contact and it was a coincidence that the 12V battery and negative cable died at the same time that the module became fully unplugged. The dealership has volunteered to cover the rental car cost ($500!); the service writer spoke with supervisor and said there's no wiggle room on the $1900 bill; however, I can call Chevy Customer Assistance and there may be some haggling that can be done there.
I have to say that Ellis Chevrolet has treated me fairly and with honesty; I cannot ask for more, and they've allowed me one-on-one access to a terrific service technician who takes time out of his busy day to answer all my questions. Erik (technician) and Thomas (service writer) are consummate professionals of extraordinary skill.
