thanks frank -- bah, i didn't even think of temp sens. you're probably right -- i was hoping like hell for a fuse/capacitor. pics attached; i was referring to the red guy in the center.
here's the thing: i had a fluke short of two wires (YR, Blk) of the giant harness (B21?) care of the turbo oil feed. when the two ultimately wore through enough to short, it was taking F/B#12 out instantly @ 'on' key turn iirc -- being a 20* evening, it activated my AAA card, lol.
so as i see it, the #12 fuse did its job with the direct short, but it appeared that the YR wire had been exposed far longer than the black, and as i understand the pinouts this wire is a very heavy fellow with regards to the 5eat and may have seen some intermittent (-) contact, again via the oil feed which i imagine must carry some ground.
i may be jumping to conclusions, but my mind can't help but to tie my long-standing P0700/740 (tcc sol) to this unfortunate sneaky situation; i just think that if it were something more mechanical like worn clutches (as some others have reported with this code), i'd have certainly seen a failure by now. i have no slipping whatsoever, and i get the sport flash on proper cue (in M2+ on slight incline @ 1/8 throttle or so [mostly M3+]) to suggest procedural vb replacement.