Subaru trying to deny my warranty please help!

[justatroll]

My guess:


The tint shop was struggling with the side window auto-down feature., so they disconnected the battery.


Hooking it back up either messed up the ECU or it came back up in an indeterminate state.


Unhook the battery and wait 10 minutes & hook it back up.
If the car doesn't start THEN, have it towed to another dealer.

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by FRSBRZGT86FAN

They don't have a way unless they truly owned one that was tuned for quite some time then you could tell a difference in sound or idle.

If it's a rom it's essentially hidden from view also our cars have no flash counter, and it's essentially at it's core just an edited stock tune file. To find it the ecu would have be sent to japan or the like to have a serious investigation and tear down of the code done. Techstream or the Subaru equivalent can't even begin to look into it.

If its an ecutek tune, the ecu is locked, and they wouldn't have been able to read jack shit including those 0 values or cal id.

Are you a dealer or Subaru technician or is it just your own opinion? Even the guys at COBB Tuning are a bit careful on such statements, especially with the later CAN vehicles. You can read here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...7&postcount=23

I would be happy to read that you have evidence that they cannot trace anything.

Originally Posted by FRSBRZGT86FAN

You're not being very helpful in this thread, you may be out of your depth.

Anyone here is trying to help the car owner and there are different opinions. What we are saying is based on the facts we were given by the owner and by the dealer. Maybe the dealer was trying to outsmart his customer, maybe not. We should not exclude any possibility. So, I am not sure why particularly me I'm not helpful in this thread.

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by justatroll

My guess:


The tint shop was struggling with the side window auto-down feature., so they disconnected the battery.


Hooking it back up either messed up the ECU or it came back up in an indeterminate state.


Unhook the battery and wait 10 minutes & hook it back up.

Good point

[Jordan Silveira]

@nikitopo I appreciate the constant responses and sentiment that it get's fixed. Believe me this has been nothing but a nightmare for something I am being wrongly accused for. As for whether or not tinting the windshield is illegal in the U.S. I cannot confirm. However, I know that in California any level of tint in the front two windows and windshield is illegal.

@steve99 thank you Steve for your knowledge on the matter. I'm glad you have some of the technical knowledge that unfortunately I do not have to fight the dealer on this. As I said, the Service Manager claimed COBB accessport and 2015 STi profile and then hours later called me to say it was a 2015 BRZ profile. As for your techstream photo thank you! The service manager is saying that despite the "0" readings there's no way the ECU could have been affected by a flattened battery, or malfunction, etc. Rather it has to be a "tune/flash". As per your post however, It seems that even if my battery flattened, a jump start or something else would have brought the car to life before the alleged tune or flash the Service Manager is claiming.

@specCWanabe I did have the windshield tinted. Could you elaborate with maybe pictures on how and where the liquid could have ruined the ECU. I think your hypothesis may be spot on but not the question is how to get that proven? I don't see how to convince the dealer to look for evidence of the ECU shorting because of liquid/solution without seeming like I'm on some wild witch hunt to disprove the tune/flash allegation.

@Braces I agree. There is no plausible reason why a tint shop would flash my car. And as I have previously stated there was nothing in the surveillance footage that would lead me to believe otherwise.

@BRZnut There's no way I can absolutely say the battery was perfect but the key on dash would turn green when I pushed the clutch in. All electronics came on (audio, alarm, horn, lights both interior and exterior, and upon trying to jump the car nothing happened.

@FRSBRZGT86FAN Thank you again for the constant responses and help. After reading your post, I just don't know how the Service Manager came to that conclusion. My feeling is that upon diagnosing the issue, the easiest approach was to just stop at step 1 and tell the customer it's his fault, see if he owns up to it and have him pay for a replacement ECU, rather than going deeper than that to see if something else would trigger this.

@Side Exactly! I did the same thing. Just wanted UV protection for the sake of protecting the dash a little more than if it had nothing on the windshield.

@justatroll I wish I would've tried that before towing it but now that the car is at the dealer's nothing much I can do on that front but nonetheless thank you for the input. Any and all help is appreciated!

[Summerwolf]

What would hypothetically happen if he went in with an oft and actually flashed it?

[krayzie]

Once the car is in proper hands see if it's throwing any code when trying to crank the engine.

One time my battery was going flat on my old Golf and I went to start the car, all the electronics still worked however I couldn't start the engine nothing happened didn't even choke and no CEL. When I hooked up VAGCOM/VCDS with my laptop, the ECU was actually throwing a fault that read something like "battery voltage below threshold of 9V, engine start prohibited". I ended up calling Roadside Assistance to my house and jump started the car.

OP did try to jump start the battery already?

As for the flash, can't Techstream just read the file checksum to see if it's authentic? No need for a flash counter lol!

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by krayzie

Once the car is in proper hands see if it's throwing any code when trying to crank the engine.

One time my battery was going flat on my old Golf and I went to start the car, all the electronics still worked however I couldn't start the engine nothing happened didn't even choke and no CEL. When I hooked up VAGCOM/VCDS with my laptop, the ECU was actually throwing a fault that read something like "battery voltage below threshold of 9V, engine start prohibited". I ended up calling Roadside Assistance to my house and jump started the car.

OP did try to jump start the battery already?

As for the flash, can't Techstream just read the file checksum to see if it's authentic? No need for a flash counter lol!

Hey Krayzie, the car was attempted to be jumped by the tow man before it finally was towed away. Nothing obviously resulted from the attempted jump start.

[kberkel]

Originally Posted by justatroll

My guess:


The tint shop was struggling with the side window auto-down feature., so they disconnected the battery.

Yikes, I'd love to see which tint shop would do that.

Every shop I've been to.. they have C-clamps that they pinch in the door sill to activate the button. It's not rocket science..

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

What would hypothetically happen if he went in with an oft and actually flashed it?

If the ECU failed from a reflash, you're SOL. But that's the risk you take. Just muster up and take the hit.
If he reflashed it to stock and towed it, they would know it has 0 miles from the last flash (correct me if I'm wrong?). I don't think he can even reflash if he had the choice, IGN won't switch to Accessory

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by kberkel

Yikes, I'd love to see which tint shop would do that.

Every shop I've been to.. they have C-clamps that they pinch in the door sill to activate the button. It's not rocket science..

That's what it looked like per the surveillance footage. The hood was never opened during the process.

[kberkel]

Maybe I missed something.. someone mentioned the 0 values are improbable per the scan report.

Could it be a defect with the immobilizer?
Not sure how the tech found anything related to a Cobb Tune.

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by kberkel

Maybe I missed something.. someone mentioned the 0 values are improbable per the scan report.

Could it be a defect with the immobilizer?
Not sure how the tech found anything related to a Cobb Tune.

Well that's why my initial thought was that they were just taking shots in the dark hoping I'd own up to something I didn't do. Than later in the day he called me and said he misspoke and that upon speaking with a SoA technician further, it was a 2015 BRZ profile and the calibration numbers/ID's were off. As for the immobilizer I have no idea. At the end of the day I would pleased if they could get my car running and nothing with my warranty was affected such as a red flag or anything similar. As far as I'm concerned I have been treated like some punk ass kid by PHS but no harm no foul if what I mentioned above happens.

[Summerwolf]

I highly doubt anything relating to a COBB tune was ever "discovered" and this dealer doesn't want to trace an issue they're not familiar with.

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

I highly doubt anything relating to a COBB tune was ever "discovered" and this dealer doesn't want to trace an issue they're not familiar with.

That's exactly what has happened they're too lazy to finish the diagnosis

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by nikitopo

Are you a dealer or Subaru technician or is it just your own opinion? Even the guys at COBB Tuning are a bit careful on such statements, especially with the later CAN vehicles. You can read here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...7&postcount=23

I would be happy to read that you have evidence that they cannot trace anything.



Anyone here is trying to help the car owner and there are different opinions. What we are saying is based on the facts we were given by the owner and by the dealer. Maybe the dealer was trying to outsmart his customer, maybe not. We should not exclude any possibility. So, I am not sure why particularly me I'm not helpful in this thread.

I'm an amateur tuner and I know this for a fact, many people have proven this, the post your are quoting once again is for the subaru wrx sti. FOR THE LAST TIME COBB DOES NOT DO ANYTHING ON THIS CAR THERE ACCESS PORT CAN'T EVEN INITIATE THE FLASH OR ERASE THE STOCK FLASH. It literally would read the vin and realize it's not in the range of vehicles it can flash, also flash files aren't stored as a .bin like oft on the cobb there a different format entirely. COBB Tuning hasn't touched this ecu at all, they even said they would only be focusing on force induction applications.


I have literally had both dealer tools to my disposal several times including techstream and subaru ssm, what you see running those tools is what the dealer sees word for word value for value