Repair shop problem, major problems!!

[mets1986]

Took my truck to the shop to get oil change, inspection, and to repair heater(heat was not coming out of floor). brought the car in Saturday morning. need for inspection it needed new front brake pads, new rear brake pads and rotor, and 2 new rear axle seals.they got tall that done, but They had to order the blender motor for the heat, so had to leave it there as they had the whole dashboard remove, then Monday they said the part came in to late to fix that day(said it takes 4 hours to replace blender motor. So Tuesday comes, said the ran into a problem had trouble getting the motor in it was not lining up, worked on it all day but could not get it done. Finally Wednesday comes and they get it done. Picked it up, drove it home( 1 block), breaks, heat fine, thought all was ok. Next morning the remote starter did not work, and while driving to work I noticed the speedometer and rpm gauges were way off. Speedometer was saying i was doing 110 while I was stopped and was off the gauge while driving, as was the RPM gauge. Then I noticed the 4 wheel drive was not work(all of this stuff was working fine the day I brought the truck in). Brought it back to the shop First they guy says it is because of the very cold weather that all those things are not working. He then tried to get the gauges back to normal and could not. Said if it is not working in a day or 2 bring it back he will have to take the dashboard off and check the wiring. If the remote starter and 4wheel drive is not working he should fix it at no charge,right? since it was something they did that made them stop working correctly.

I will be bring the car in tomorrow morning and am going to tell him that it should be no charge to fix the problems since was working fine the day i brought it in and it is obvious that something you did caused the problems.

[Schurkey]

First Guess: Speedo and Tach have defective stepper motors. Common as dirt. All six gauges in my Trailblazer dash are powered by stepper motors. The fuel gauge quit first. I took the car in to get tires put on, as I backed-out of the garage stall where they did the work, the temp gauge pegged.

No, the tire guys didn't screw-up my temp gauge. The gauge was simply ready-to-fail at that moment.

Six fresh stepper motors soldered into the circuit board, and the guages have been fine ever since. Easy D-I-Y project if you can do electronics soldering, the instructions may be on this site, but I found 'em at www.trailvoy.com.

http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=48886






I can't help you with the remote starter. Far as I'm concerned, you should have been charged extra to do the original work because of the presence of aftermarket electronics in the dash area. The 4 wheel drive they should fix for free...if it's a dash wiring/switch problem.

[j cAT]

I disagree with what your saying with his issue. when they took out the dash and all these dash type issues pop up it is not a stepper motor issue. I would guess that they did not connect or properly connect a connector then you have grounds under there... remote start / more than one dash indicator / 4wd ... I would be in the shop as they drop the dash to determine what they F"d up.. he paid a big amount when his dash is removed...

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by j cAT

I disagree with what your saying with his issue. when they took out the dash and all these dash type issues pop up it is not a stepper motor issue. I would guess that they did not connect or properly connect a connector then you have grounds under there... remote start / more than one dash indicator / 4wd ... I would be in the shop as they drop the dash to determine what they F"d up.. he paid a big amount when his dash is removed...

I agree that the shop needs to inspect their work. If the cluster had ground problems, I'd expect all six gauges to have problems, not just two--but I suppose it's possible. Mostly, I was offering a different scenario than the "shop is at fault" mentality, because I had a stepper-motor problem instantly after service work (tire replacement). The timing of the stepper motor failure is--maybe--just coincidence, as it was with me. We will find out when the original poster hauls the vehicle in; and the shop has a chance to diagnose.

The ONLY question asked by the original poster was:

Originally Posted by mets1986

If the remote starter and 4wheel drive is not working he should fix it at no charge,right?

The rest of his post was either background info, or a description of how he's already convinced that the shop is at fault, and he's going to take it back for them to fix.

Allowing the shop a chance to inspect their work is admirable. If it is the shop's fault, then sure, they fix it free, and they provide a loaner-car while they work on it, and an apology. My expectation is that the 4WD malfunction (what ever it turns out to be--description of the 4WD issue is non-existent!) and the remote start will be repaired free--the gauges too, if there truly is a wiring problem.

Realistically, I'm betting on stepper motors for the gauges, and shop screw-up for the 4WD and remote start. But I've been wrong before.