I forgot to mention, that call from 909-237-0077 was not an automated message asking me to press some stupid number on my phone. Its a live person, I think the other blogger had them mistaken for the other guys. I ended up calling them back up and they faxed over their insurance policy and everything. They sent me over a couple testimonials from high schools and the crystal cathedral in orange county. But I do agree, lets go after those message machine tyhpe people.

Thanks for writing about it.

At the recommendation of a friend, I brought my issue to Automotive Insanity on The Awful Forums. They gave a couple good suggestions. Ultimately I didn’t go by their advice but here are some snippets from the conversation.

from me:

Thanks very much for the responses. It certainly looks like the right thing to do is dive in with a multimeter, wire cutters, and spade connectors. This will be my first attempt at a makeshift car repair… I’m telling myself that it will be fun.

It’ll be a nice accomplishment saving my car from the forces of the dealership.

Thanks! And of course, any other feedback is welcome.

from me 1-29-10

I spoke with a new mechanic, call him mechanic #3. He suggested going around the faulty wiring harness and installing new throttle position sensor electronics. I asked about the difference between “throttle position sensor electronics” and “throttle position sensor” and he’s saying they are different parts… ok, whatever.

It took 2 days for the dealer to to come back and say, “Ok, yeah, your car is only worth $2,100. We can replace the wiring harness for $1,100 instead of our original $1,800, because we like you.”

I just spoke to the dealer and they won’t try the workaround. “Doing the work for going around the wiring harness will cost almost the same as just replacing it. Our mechanic doesn’t know what he’ll find when he goes in there (implying that fiddling with the harness might break other parts)”

So now I’m going to pick up the car and try working on it myself. And then maybe take it to mechanic #3.

And mechanic #3 says that I might be able to get $500 smog car-repair credit for my first repair AND the second repair (total $1000), even though it’s the same problem. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you informed.

I thank each of you that has offered constructive comments! To those that have offered nasty comments, please, they are not helpful.

from me 1-31-10

I got the car back today. Here is what’s written from the mechanic. This is the dealer mechanic writing. Recall that I brought the car in earlier this month and when I left the dealer with the car after the first repair, the Check Engine light came on within 20 minutes.

—- Start of Snippet —-
cust state was just in for ck engine light on as soon as he picked up light came back on ck and advise (ro#49486 1.11.10 #59)
verified compliant, found code p0122 set in pcm. same code reset from previous repairs. verified intermittantly tps voltage dripping to 0 volts while transmission is in reverse. verified movement of engine in reverse causing intermittent open circuit in wiring. unable to iosolate point of failure in wiring harness. recommend replace engine wiring harness and recheck
p&a
declind repairs
—- End of Snippet —-

The dealer refunded me about 1/2 of the amount of the previous work. I had paid about $500 to replace the throttle position sensor. They gave me back about $250 since the problem isn’t fixed. That makes me as happy as I can be with them.

The next action I will take is looking under the hood myself. Then I might take it to my “mechanic #3″ that I previously mentioned.

I drove it 30 miles today and the Check Engine light hasn’t come on yet. We’ll see!

I’ll be away on business/pleasure from Feb 4-19th so all this may have to wait.

from me 3-4-10

You’re gonna love how this resolved…

After getting the car back from the dealer, the engine light never came back on. I got the car inspected and it passed. Evidently, when the dealer took it apart to test it and then reassembled it, that fixed it, at least for the last 20 hrs of driving anyway!

Or maybe the mechanic cleaned a contact or straightened a pin or similar. I’ll never know because I never spoke directly to the mechanic at the dealer and I’m afraid if I tell the person at the service desk and I might get response from the mechanic like “Oh yeah, I straightened a pin and saved you $1500″ and then the mechanic will get in trouble with the dealer for not overcharging me.

John O’Connell

I like your blog–very nice. I was wondering if you knew how to replace sidebar widget titles (i.e. pages, categories, recent posts, etc) with png images?

please let me know if you have any clue how to do this.

thanks much,
Jess

For a more complete discussion of nail fungus products, take a look at these posts on my blog (sadly, I don’t have a cure-all answer for you)
Fungisil is a Scam – Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 2 – Fungal Nail Infection Treatment – Nonyx Nail Gel

Here is the text of your original comment, the comment I thought was spam. Sorry.
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