i recently had a new trans put in my car from the dealer. i was heading to work when all of the sudden the car just died on me. i could not get the car to start or even have power to raise the windows. i checked all fuses and none of them were blown. had the car towed to dealer and they spent 4 days on it trying to diagnose it. they came back to me saying that my remote start and my grill lights for my local fire department cause an extra flow of power to go through the ignition fuse causing it to blow and buzz a 40 amp breaker and melt test leads. this was the second case of new start no power. the first case was wen i went to pick it up after the trans was put in. the mechanic said that he had to reprogram the trans code. i am wondering if it is at all possible for a remote start and grill lights that are rated and like 3 amps could cause the car to shut off while driving and not allow me to put the car in neutral to put it on a flat bed with out releasing the emergancy shift lock.

 

My guess is that your problem could be diagnosed fairly easily by a good independent auto electric shop.Do yourself a favor andbypass the dealer.......for everything! Most dealers can't find their collective asses with both hands and don't care to try. I worked for one and had dealingswith many others while in the car repair business. Frankly, most of them should be prosecuted for fraud and deceptive practices and people should avoid themlike the plague they are. Save yourself a bunch of money and frustration and find a good independent shop.

I harp on this all the time (my apologies to the regulars on the forum) but I've yet to see anything that would change my mind.

Good luck!

 

I mostly agree and tend to only go to the dealer for clearly warranty related things (like my recent fuel pump replacement after some CELs came on). I have met a couple of dealers over the years who are awesome though.

I don't know much about the remote start wiring so I can't comment too much. Was it the OEM remote start? If so who installed it?

Couple questions about the lights. Are we talking self-contained units or auxiliary ones with a controller (strobe pack type thing)? How were they wired up/where was the power coming from? With either way they were just going to power/ground so we're not talking real fancy wiring here. Assuming you weren't running the lights at the time of the incident unless they were pulling power from an odd place (the ignition circuit?) or were wired improperly I don't see how they could have blown a 40a breaker. I had lights in cars for years and helped several friends install theirs and it's all pretty much idiot proof. 12v power to the switch with an inline fuse, ground the switch/lights, power/ground to the lights. Oh I'll add that as my last light related question. Did you have an inline fuse on the lights, and did the remote start have a fuse in it's control module (or somewhere else)? If so did either blow? If you did have fuses on each thing and they supposedly drew enough power to fry a 40a breaker then I imagine they'd be toast as well.

Last questions when were both systems installed, and was this before the previous "no power" situation? What did they determine was the cause last time, and did the same breaker blow? And to finish did they actually prove that the aftermarket parts caused this problem or did they just see a/m electrical stuff and automatically blame it? If you're not familiar with it read up on the Magnuson Moss Act just so you know what your rights are.

Oh and like Mazdatkb said get an independent shop to give you a second opinion esp. if they're looking to void your warranty.

 

lights had a flasher pack. everything was wired into a fuse nd the lights were wired so the car had to be on for me to turn them on. the trans was a warrenty replace. both the remote start and lights were installed at a performance shop. no i was not running the lights at the time i was actually heading into work. the fuses that they were linked to were not blown neither were any main fuses which had me concerned along with not being able to put it into gear. they light nd remote start had been in the car for about 6 months at least before this happened.

 

Hmmmm sounds fishy. Definitely get a second opinion.

Oh another question. When they replace the breaker is it automatically blowing again (i.e. the same problem still exists)? If so does it work fine if the two a/m systems are disconnected?

 

the ignition fuse/breaker never blow. it was a 40 amp test breaker that the mechanic had that it was apperantly buzzing nd melted his test leads