Ok, so Saturday morning I took my 08 coupe to the dealer for an oil change. Everything seemed normal as usual, I waited there, they finished the job and I drove home with no issue. About an hour later I hear my alarm going off. Which is strange because I have NEVER heard the alarm go off on my car... I didn't even know it had an alarm... So I made sure no one hit my car and hit the unlock button and then locked the car again. I thought OK no problem maybe it was a glitch... 2 minutes later the alarm goes off again! I unlock and re-lock the car again and it stops for about a minute and then goes off again!
The only way to keep the alarm from going off is keep the door unlocked.

So I call the service writer who has always been helpful to me in the past and he suggested that maybe water got into the door jam and the car think its being broken into (it started raining about 30 minutes after I got home so this made sense at the time) When I get downstairs to the car everything seems normal except the car wont turn on! The only way I could get the car to turn on was to put the key in the key holder. But even then the car wouldn't crank... It wouldn't even try to crank... I call the service writer back and he tells me the car just needs to be jumped.. I tell him everything has full power and the starter doesn't even click when I hit the start button with the brake held down. Also the doors kept locking and unlocking erratically. Finally after a few minutes of turning the car off and on the doors finally stopped being possessed and I was able to start the car. On the way back to the dealership I had no wipers and no turn signals... After the tech looks at it for a few minutes he tells me there was water damage from behind the battery into the bcm in the passenger foot well and gives me a quote for $700!

Personally, I don't believe in coincidences... I'm pretty sure this was caused by something they did but I have no proof. They currently have the car and I am driving a loaner while they "look into it further".... Has anyone had anything like this happen before? Is there any way for me to fight this?

 

Unfortunately there's no way for you to prove the water damage happened during their possession of your vehicle. The only thing I would suggest you do is to put a firm press on them about the issue NEVER occurred prior to the service. Just remember to be nice and don't be demanding because they can easily brush you off. Talk to the service manager and move your way up to the general manager if you have to. Tell them you always have a good and positive experience from them and you refer friends and families but this incident might make you consider otherwise and the service survey might reflect so too. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

Are they 100% sure it's not just a battery going bad? These cars can literally go nuts when the voltages get low.

Also, what caused the leak behind the battery? Has anyone done any work in that area?

 

Did you purchase this vehicle new at this dealer or was it a used vehicle purchased elsewhere?

Telcoman

 

I purchased it used from a different dealership a little over a year ago. But they were the only dealership to touch the car since I bought it.

 

They showed me a grommet that they said was loose where the harness goes into the car behind the battery. But In the year I owned the car I have never had a problem with that and I've driven through some pretty bad rain/snowstorms....

 

Update:

I went back to the dealership because the service writer wanted to show me the water damage. There was some minor oxidation on the plug but nothing like what he described. What was really surprising to me was that the bcm was out and at no point did they remove the negative battery cable.... I brought this up to the service writer who insisted that the bcm does not get power when the car is off. At this point I realized either he doesn't know what he is talking about or he thinks I'm stupid. I mean, it controls the alarm and door locks... it has to get power when the car is off...


I told him that this was not a good sign of the kind of service that they provide and he instantly started backtracking and told me there is a chance the bcm might still work if they "clean it up and plug it back in" I asked him to please disconnect the battery before they do that... I'll find out today if it works, I agreed to pay an hour labor for the cleanup and reprogramming of the bcm but I'm definitely not paying for a new one. Especially not after they yanked it out like amateurs.