[kimmied87]

Saturday, I took my xB in to have a remote car starter put in. At that point, the only light I had on was the one for the TPMS. When I picked up my car my check engine light, traction control light, and a flashing VSC OFF light were all on. The owner of the shop hooked it up to his computer and it kept saying there are 3 transmission codes. I took my car in today (Tuesday) because they my steering had a lot of resistance, plastic was rubbing, and there was a large gap under my ignition. They fixed the steering issues and the gap today, but the lights are still on. They insist that nothing they did caused those lights to come on; yet my traction control was working fine before taking it in to them. The traction button is also dead, when it is pushed nothing happens, it doesn't click at all like it used to or anything.
The owner of the business has offered to reimburse the cost of fuel and meals because we have to travel out of town (2 hours 1 way) to get to a dealership that will work on it... BUT only it if they can prove that someone at his shop caused the problems.

So, my question is... is this a case of complete and utter coincidental timing for my transmission to be throwing 3 codes, and they genuinely aren't at fault? Or, could there be something else that happened and no one is saying anything? Any ideas what could be going on?

I have included pictures of how my ignition looked before today, the lights that are on on the dash, and the damage they did as they pried my dash apart.

Thank you.

 

[GregS]

It is possible that they tapped into the wring wire when doing the install causing the issue, but it is also possible that it is unrelated and showed up at the time of install. Having run stereo and alarm install shops for 10 years in a previous life I've seen it happen both ways. An easy check I would have done would be to have removed the remote start to see if it went away. Also pulling the lower dash panel and making sure the traction control button is plugged in. Aside from that they are doing what should be done by having it checked at a dealership. And yes the dealer will need to show that what they installed caused the issue, not just say it caused it but actually document how it caused it.

The fact that you have transmission codes showing up would make me lean toward it not being related to the remote start install. As for the traction control not working, that is completely normal when the check engine light comes on. All three light always come on whenever there is any code stored in the ECU and the VSC and traction control turn off.

Maybe have them try the two items I list above before taking it all the way to the dealership just in case.