Emergency advice needed about trans CEL after tire

[horse123]

Tire change at discount. Get it back, battery is dead. Get jump, 2 CEL codes. P0700 and p0966. I drove back into the lot immediately and the best they said they can do is turn off the tpms light that also won't turn off. What should I do at this point to make sure I get them to fix whatever they obviously did?

Update: car will now absolutely not start. Not with jump or anything.

 

[AandPDan]

All they did was change tires?

The two codes are related to a transmission problem, "pressure control solenoid B control circuit low."

Did they do anything to the battery?

 

[horse123]

The battery positive terminal cover was flipped across the engine bay which makes me think they did something to it.

 

[eljefino]

Is it the same battery you used to have?

 

[J611]

Sounds like you need to have a word with the manager ...

 

[Roadkingnc]

Maybe the battery died on their lot and they had to jump it. I have had batteries fail without warning.
They may have killed the tpms sensors though.

 

[JHZR2]

I'm not connecting all the dots here... Battery dead, I can see that. But what could they have done to cause the rest?

What makes it seem related is that it's a trans issue. If it were some internal engine problem, Id guess it was just a fluke. But a Trans is just too close in relevance.

 

[horse123]

What a weird thing... I think it was just corrosion between the battery terminal and the wires. The codes self cleared after I cleaned the terminals and it started right up.

Could something in the transmission have needed the battery to operate properly and when it resolved, it cleared itself?

 

[Kira]

Hello, Does your battery's positive cable have a smaller gauge wire in the clamp with the large one?
My pal had a clamp which was full of corrosion beneath the swag. It resulted in bad, interrupted voltage to the vehicle's computer.
That can effect any system in the car so you may be spot on in your diagnosis. Kira

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: horse123
What a weird thing... I think it was just corrosion between the battery terminal and the wires. The codes self cleared after I cleaned the terminals and it started right up.

Could something in the transmission have needed the battery to operate properly and when it resolved, it cleared itself?


Yes, electronics are sensitive to voltage and current variations and so if a bad connection is being made, phantom codes are often the result, along with strange behaviour.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: horse123
What a weird thing... I think it was just corrosion between the battery terminal and the wires. The codes self cleared after I cleaned the terminals and it started right up.

Could something in the transmission have needed the battery to operate properly and when it resolved, it cleared itself?


I wonder if the tire shop boys pulled a battery cable as a quick way to reset your TPMS system, and brought the corrosion into play? I have a hard time with coincidence.

 

[ragtoplvr]

The common tapered lead posts most batteries used are very susceptible to corrosion. A good cleaning and then coat in grease usually fixes the problems. Same for the connections of the ground leads to the engine and chassis. They often get corroded and fail. While you are at it clean them.

Rod

 

[Ram01]

Sounds serious

 

[horse123]

They actually said they had to jump it to get it into the shop which explains why the terminal cap was flipped across the engine bay. It was a metric assload of corrosion, mostly from the previous battery that I never got to clean off. It took like 45 minutes of scrubbing with a toothbrush in a super saturated baking soda and water bath. Then I put vaseline on the terminals fairly thickly. In either case it seems fine now. If it comes back I'll drop it at the dealer for them to figure out what the deal is with the wiring.

 

[friendly_jacek]

in a 2012 impreza?

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: horse123
It was a metric assload of corrosion, mostly from the previous battery that I never got to clean off. It took like 45 minutes of scrubbing with a toothbrush in a super saturated baking soda and water bath.


This story is why I hate running a shop. People don't perform basic maintenance or don't pay attention to their slow-cranking car. Then, either through synchronicity or the fact that the car isn't being driven every day while it's in the shop, the battery takes a [censored]. Then come the cries of "You touched it last!", as if vehicle maintenance were a game of Hot Potato.

 

[horse123]

Thanks for your super useful post, keep making more like that I can tell you that you won't be welcome here for long.

 

[friendly_jacek]

sounds like threat to me...

 

[asand1]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Thanks for your super useful post, keep making more like that I can tell you that you won't be welcome here for long.


Ethan1 has a point. Too many people neglect their vehicles and then blame the last shop to touch it. You yourself admit that there was a lot of corrosion due to your own laziness. Automatic transmissions dying after a fluid change are also a prime example.

At 151 posts I don't think your qualified to speak for BITOG.

Pretty sure an experienced shop owner will be more welcome here than another malfunctionprone.

 

[1 FMF]

P0700 which is a general transmission computer fault, can often set when you have a weak battery and low system voltage when starting the engine.
it will occasionally trip when i start my truck in cold weather where system voltage gets real low during engine cranking and then for that 1/2 second after the engine fires before the alternator fully kicks in, is what causes the code to trip.
P0966 same thing, solenoid circuit low as in low voltage.

unmaintained vehicles by the owner or plain old fraud by the repair shop, it goes both ways. i would say however a good shop would inspect the battery and connections, either do the extra step and clean the corrosion and make sure good connections and put a charger on it while they work so the customer gets it back without a dead battery and is happy, or call the customer and inform them of the problem so it's taken care of properly.
rather than look the other way and give the vehicle back to the customer having a dead battery, that's just bad business. doing that extra 5-10 minutes of battery service is not complicated, it would be like giving them back the vehicle not having noticed a tire having only 10 psi of air... and then say oh well that's not why you brought the vehicle in so we didn't touch that.