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Mechanic advice needed

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benb61:
As can be seen in my profile pic (though no very well), I own a 2006 Corvette Convertible.  I took it to the dealer (I know bad choice) for Brakes and to have a bad wheel bearing replaced.  While there the service rep noted that I had an outstanding recall notice for "Low Beam Inoperative" that I have been ignoring as my low beams worked just fine.  Anyway they did the recall along with the other stuff.  I went to pick up the car and that is when the trouble started, 1)  I was waiting a long time for them to bring the car to me (that was completed 3 days prior to my pickup).  The yard guy said that it was behind a few cars they had to move, then they needed to jump start it.  I get in and I notice that the dash notification system said "Trunk Ajar", so I get out and sure enough the trunk was open, so I close it and the message was gone.  This is probably why the battery was dead, I later come to find out that the reason the trunk was open was because they locked the fob in the car and had to have a key cut to access the manual door release from the trunk and didn't close it completely.  I then notice 2) the radio display was saying "CD Initializing".  I figured that it was because the battery died and they had to jump start it.  I figured that it would take a few minutes for it to reset so I went on my way back home.  It never reset.  Also every time I slowed for a stop 3) there was a clunk in the trans when the car shifted from 2nd to 1st.  The clunk only happened when downshifting not on accelerating (going from 1st to 2nd) and never when shifting between any other gear (up or down).  The next day the wife and I had a hair appointment about 50 miles from home and we decided to take the Vette since it had new brakes and all.  The CD still had not initialized so we listened to music on the wife's iPhone.  After the appointment we were headed home when 4) the check engine light came on and the dash notification system said "Reduced Power" and the car bogged down.  I was on the freeway and as I was trying to get to the side of the road I tried to accelerate, all that did was cause the car to downshift to passing gear but since I had reduced power it was as if I downshifted and the car slowed even more.  I was able to nurse it off the freeway but whenever the RPM's dropped below 2000 the car would shake as if the engine was trying to run on 5 cylinders.  I have OnStar and once off the road I pushed the button to get an instant diagnostic.  The OnStar rep was awesome and she told me I had a Check Engine situation and an error code P0068 which indicates a throttle control system error.  I immediately tried to get it to a service center but it kept stalling out at red lights or stop signs.  It was hard to restart but I was able to get it to a parking lot.  I shut the engine off and thought it seemed like it was misfiring so I got out, opened the hood and checked the spark plugs and fuses.  Every fuse in the fuse box was not seated properly.  I re-seated them and got back in.  The car started easily and did not seem to be misfiring.  We go back on the road and about 4 miles later, it all started again.  Really long story shortened some, I found just pulling over and waiting 3 to 5 minutes and it started and ran fine for a few miles.  I took it back to the dealer and they had it for 2 weeks and could not figure the issues out.  I eventually got a message from them that the ECM was bad and it would cost me over $700 to get it fixed, at which point I said that it was fine before I brought it to you, what a coincidence that after you do electrical work (they had to pull the fuse box to install a new ground lead for the recall) I start having electrical issues.

Now to my question, does anybody know what would cause an ECM to fail?  I really want them to fess up and realize they caused the problem and that they should pay for the repairs.

John Florida:
  Call the factory and run it by them. This is to close to be ignored. You should have had an engine code from all the fuses not being set. What code did they give you? Talk to the owner at the dealership with the service mgr there in the room and lay it at their feet see what shakes.

patentlymn:
Even if they fried the ECM, how do they know the ECM is bad? Maybe that is just their first guess.

Libertas:
Electrical/computer issues are the worst.  All you can do is keep pressing your case, put it on them.  I had a similar issue with a motorcycle many years ago, same issue as yours, kept killing on me, let it rest, run some more...they could never find anything, so they said, finally made the dealership buy it back.  Good luck!

Weisshaupt:
If the ECB has any semiconductor chips on it - i.e. its a digital control board. (and I assume it is)  then they need to disconnect the battery BEFORE playing with fuses. - Ideally they should probably pull all of the fuses first.

Any reversal of polarity of  a sudden large charge could damage a semiconductor.
In cars there is a lot of voltage spikes and electrical noise, so the Circuit boards tend to be pretty robust.. but at the fuse board, they may be on the other side of a lot of that protection.circuitry.

But sometimes, you just need to reboot. The circuit got into a funny state running on low power and just needs a restart from zero.
Pull the fuse for that board, leave it out for a good minute ( letting any capacitance fade)  and then plug it back in and see if it behaves better.


But otherwise I would complain that they must have shorted something doing the work and that they are the ones who need a new one.

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