ECM (ECU) messed up by Dealership!!!

[lakers777]

I took my '06 Altima to have the recall procedure and they F&*^ED up my car and will not fix it!!!!! This is what the report states: RECALL PB023 QR25 ALT-SER MYO6-082 UNABLE TO PERFORM CAMPAIGN. DURING CAMPAIGN PROCEDURE OF CRANKCASE PRESSURE RECALL, ECM DAMAGE OCCURRED DURING REPROGRAMMING OF ECM. ECM DAMAGE OCCURRED DUE TO BATTERY FAILURE DURING ECM REPROGRAM PROCEDURE. ECM REPROGRAM PROCEDURE WAS FOLLOWED TO NISSAN SPECIFICATIONS AND GUIDELINES. ALL VECHILE ELECTRICAL LOADS WERE OFF AND BATTERY CHARGER WAS INSTALLED. DURING ECM REPROGRAM BATTERY WENT BELOW SPECIFIED VOLTAGE. NOTE:VEHICLE HAS SIGNS OF IMPACT DAMAGE; FRONT FENDERS AND HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLIES HAVE BEEN REMOVED.

I spoke to Service Manager and General Manager and they both told me that it's not their problem and they will not fix it and if I want them to fix this, it would cost me 925.00 or have the car towed out. Now I have my car sitting in my driveway completely DEAD!!!

I took the car in while driving and asked them to put the car back in that state and they refused that it's not their problem because I had an after market battery in the vehicle which caused this.

Can someone please advise me as to what my options are? Contact BBB? Call Nissan? Who is above the General Manager of a dealership? Guys, please help me as I've got limited options here...Thanks in advance!

[NISTECH]

If you car has under 70k miles on it and it is california certified.And it is not a salvage title. Tow it to another dealership and tell them it wont start, nothing more. The ecm on california sold cars is at least 70K. When your done you should end up with a free ecm. It would be best to put your car back together before so they wont give you any flack.

[lakers777]

Okay, so should I replace the battery with an OEM before I have it towed? No, it's a clean title and I have it in my hand. The car only has 7,000 miles. Do you happen to know if warranties cover for towing service?

[NISTECH]

No just make sure its ok. Take it out and run it down to where you bought it and have them test and charge it. You are not obligated to buy a factory battery if you ever have to replace it while you own the car. The only requirment is the battery must meet the requirments of the vehicle in which its installed. Pretty much means it needs to be at least 550 CCA.

[NISTECH]

No warranties do not cover towing. That falls under your responsability but a good dealer will sometimes get it covered, it will be entirerly up to the dealer, but it doesnt hurt to ask. With the car only having 7000 miles on it you may want to contact nissan on this incident.

EDIT: I may have misunderstood your first post. Are the headlights and things mentioned on the repair order currently off the car? Or are they mearly stating it looks like they have been removed and replaced? If the car is fully assembled and looks like it did new then you need to do nothing but verify the battery is up to par.

[lakers777]

Okay, Thanks for your advice! The car was towed to my house last night and I didn't even look under the hood to see if they put it back together. I'll call another dealership and see what they have to say after replacing the dead battery. Man, I took a perfectly running car into a dealership and look what happened! Crooked world we live in today.

[NISTECH]

Understand this though. Just like independant shops dealerships are privatly owned and not appart of the nissan corperation. They are only required to follow nissan guidlines for selling cars and must have a shop available to perform warranty repairs. These repairs are the only repairs nissan governs.

Just like independant shops there ae some dealers that can perform less then spectacular work and policies.

I will state this though I dont know the condition of your car as I havent worked on it so maybe they caught something fishy. Based on what you have posted thus far I dont see any real reason for condeming your car as not warrantable. Even if your battery was weak the carger should have kept it alive to perform the reprogram without total loss.

Try something for me before you have it towed back to the dealer. When you get back from having the battery charged and tested , put it back in the car and try to start it. If the program didnt get to far into it your ecm MAY revert to the old program and run again. Its a long shot but worth a shot. I have had a few cars drop out of programming on me early in the program so I removed all power from the system, disconnected both battery cables and touched them together to disapate any voltage in the system and reconnected the battery. This recovered the system and allowed the car to start again. However I never attempted to start the car after the program dropped out. I waited to attempt it after I reset the system. Its suppose to destroy the ecm if attempted to start when the program fails. I suspect your car has had numerous attempts to start since the failure.

[Q45tech]

Why was there an aftermarket battery at 6k, a wreck?

In theory your selection of a battery caused the reflash to fail, however Nissan requires a external battery charger to be used to protect against this occuring...............sounds like somebody messed up in the proceedure or those 1 in a million ecu defects occured.

[NISTECH]

Why was there an aftermarket battery at 6k, a wreck?

In theory your selection of a battery caused the reflash to fail, however Nissan requires a external battery charger to be used to protect against this occuring...............sounds like somebody messed up in the proceedure or those 1 in a million ecu defects occured.

My thoughts exactly Dennis.

[lakers777]

I bought the car used at 4,500 miles and I am not aware of any wrecks, even 'IF' there was a wreck...I have a clean title in my hand and it's not Salvaged. To me it sounds absurd that a battery would be the cause of an ECM frying. How can I prove that it was the Tech who caused this? Do I need to contact an attorney? I have went above the service manager and spoke with the general manager to no avail. The are adamant in stating that their "Highly" qualified tech's know what they are doing and the GM offered to call Nissan, but he stated the Nissan would tell me the same exact thing as he is telling me, which is that it's my fault for putting a NON OEM part in there.

[NISTECH]

Contacting your attorney would just be a huge cost of time to ya. The easier way out is to try to get this handled at another dealer without leading them on to your prior experiance. If you did, you dont know weather they will side with the other dealer or you. The easiest way out is to just move on and try another dealer. It will likely be handled much faster that way.And you can put this behind you with the lesson not to use that dealer in the future.

Why there is an aftermarket battery in such a new car is a questionable as the original battery is covered for 3/36, free for the first year 12K and prorated there after up to 36k. I dont know the circumstances that led to an aftermaket battery being in it but it is suspicious. However even so you are not required to buy an OEM battery but the battery is required to be of oem spec or better as I said earlier. If you had a motorcycle battery in the car then yea I too would not recommend warranty on the ecm but then again I would not have attempted to perform the reprogram on the car untill it had a car battery in it.

BTW with the notes on that RO you would be hard pressed to win a case against them.

[lakers777]

**Update**What a difference a Dealership makes! I went and bought a brand new OEM Battery and installed it this morning. Called my friend who has AAA and had the car towed to another dealership 18 miles away and they were so courteous and professional. Within an hour they diagnosed that the ECM was bad and that they ordered another one, however, it would take at least till next Wednesday or Thursday to receive it. Service writer advised me that for some reason the ECM was shorted and that they will take care of the problem Very very nice people over at this dealership and I am going to write a nice long THANK you letter once my car is up and running. They will even perform the Recall after it's operational. Thank You NISTECH and all of you guys for wonderful advice. Just curious, if the car is under warranty who pays the bill?

[NISTECH]

Nissan picks up the bill.

[vancouverbc]

I wonder why a dealership would refuse to warranty the ecm since Nissan pays. The dealership might even make a bit of commission on the transaction.

[lakers777]

That was the thing which was mind boggling to me. As is I don't believe dealerships get much work on non-warranty work, because most people can't afford their high prices and take their cars to local shops. Well that dealership not only lost this customer for service work, but also sales.

When I took my car into another dealership, the service advisor asked why I didn't take my car into the one that is 4 miles from my house and I informed him that I was not happy with their service level. To my surprise he told me that I was not the only one who he heard that from.

Guys, should I still file a complaint with BBB and Nissan about my experience or should I just let it go? If the charger was hooked up to my car why did it fry the ECM? Is it worth it to pursue this or just let it go and move on with my life? I just don't want another innocent customer to get bit by this dealership and be forced to pay out of their pocket.

[NISTECH]

I explained this once on here in general forum. Although nissan picks up the bill there is scrutiny on how warranty claims are made and the dealer has to be carful to avoid an audit by nissan. Several thousands of dollars generally get charged back to the dealer in an audit. There is a more indepth explination somewhere in nissan general forum but basically this is why a dealer may refuse a warranty claim.

When you get your car back I definitly recommend you contact nissan as your car is so new. Just to let them know. They may research the problem with that particular dealer.

[NISTECH]

Ahh A little search and I found it.

zer...04920

[lakers777]

BTW with the notes on that RO you would be hard pressed to win a case against them.[/QUOTE]

So, you don't think that due to their neglegence this problem arrised? They can make any claim they want after the damage was done, but how can in theory this problem occur if they claim to have hooked up the charger while performing this procedure? I am no where near knowledgeable as you when it comes to these matters, but why should I have to pay them 925.00 for something I didn't cause, because I drove the car to them and when they got done with it, I had it towed out of there. Yes, I signed the contract to have the service done with them, but whose to say that the procedure was performed to Nissan specs?

[NM50]

A battery service machine is sent to dealers as a necessary tool.Using this machine is required when perfoming a reprogram.Abattery charger is not the correct way to maintain voltage during the procedure.Please dont slam the dealer who did fix your car if you recieve a survey from nissan.This is an impoprtant "report card"for dealers.Definetly call Nissan consumer affairs about the store that botched the first attemt and left you hanging.

[lakers777]

A battery service machine is different from a battery charger? Please explain how it's different and why would the dealership use a charger instead? That is an interesting point, which basically solidifies the first dealerships negligence in frying the ECM and blaming me for it!

I hope you are correct about the battery service machine.