How to Negotiate w non Sub mechanic - fix fuse in wiring harness

My 2005 GT just stopped in the middle of driving on a busy road, giving me Err SS.

 

I had it towed to the nearest AAA dealer, not a Subaru dealer, who has apparently spent the last 3-4 days trying to find the blown fuse.

 

The garage has not given me any sense of what it might cost, no matter how many times I asked them for a sense of hours, at $100/hour, and I am beyond worried that I'm going to get supremely screwed.

 

Can anyone offer up a decent way to negotiate with the garage once they get back to me (they assured me they would get back to me today) about how much money this fix will cost?

 

I am not a car person (though I really really love driving my GT), and am female, which may or may not be a disadvantage. You never know.

 

Anyway, any advice about this greatly appreciated!

I'm not familiar with that code personally, but someone will be along shortly. Where are you based? A good independent shop is key to maintaining these cars.

Just outside of Boston. I had a pretty bad experience with the local Subaru dealer, and it was outside of the 3 mile radius AAA gives me to tow anyway, so I didn't bother going to them.

 

The best dealer is on the North Shore, really far from where I am. They are awesome.

 

I am kind of thinking I should have just eaten the cost to tow to them ...

+1 for motive, they are in Woburn. Alberto will get you taken care of.

Thanks for the rec.

 

Well, I'm going to have to pay up first before I can move the car anywhere, right?

What can something like that cost, if done by someone who knows what they're doing??

If it's just the speed sensor, it's about a $50 part from a dealer (I bought one for my rear-left wheel from Cityside Subaru in Belmont), and takes about 15 minutes to install, including lifting and lowering the car. I'd imagine that should be a pretty cheap job ($100 or less) at a reputable shop like Motive.

For starters, to get an accurate answer here you're going to need to get more detail on what the actual repair was.

 

If it was something simple like a sensor, I'd probably cede and write a lot of my time off as a learning experience. HOWEVER, if it was a true electrical system problem where I had to spend time chasing wires to find a short or break there is no way I'd back off on my charges. Electrical problems can be challenging to find, and regardless of whether a person is an experienced subaru mechanic or not it can consume a lot of time.

 

When dealing with electrical problems many shops just charge by the hour and however long it takes is how long it takes.

Thanks so much for everyone's input. Really, really helpful.

 

Just spoke to the mechanic who told me that it was a pinched wire coil in the ignition. The last tune-up I had (mechanic in another state) must have done it, though this was in May. And I had no trouble until now.

 

So the pinched wire caused the ignition fuse to blow, causing my car to stop mid-traffic. They told me it was all labor, and since I was thinking that 4 days of labor would cost me well over $2K, I'm kind of ok with the $755 they quoted me.

 

A learning experience, to say the least. And I am definitely going to go to Alberto at Motive. Thanks again to everyone!

For starters, to get an accurate answer here you're going to need to get more detail on what the actual repair was.

 

If it was something simple like a sensor, I'd probably cede and write a lot of my time off as a learning experience. HOWEVER, if it was a true electrical system problem where I had to spend time chasing wires to find a short or break there is no way I'd back off on my charges. Electrical problems can be challenging to find, and regardless of whether a person is an experienced subaru mechanic or not it can consume a lot of time.

 

When dealing with electrical problems many shops just charge by the hour and however long it takes is how long it takes.

 

this is the correct response.

Not sure if this is the same exact procedure on an '05 but for my '06 I can use the Headlight Switch and Odomoter Button to utilize the built-in code reader. It will tell you which Speed Sensor(s) are having the issue I have the same thing on my '06 ERR SS. It gives me two codes one for the RIght front and one for Right rear sensors. Havent gotten the $ to fix yet.

 

The Procedure

 

Starting condition: key off, headlight swtich.

 

Steps 1 through 7 must be performed within 10 seconds.

 

1. Turn key to ON position. This is the normal running position, the click just before starting, when all the lights on the dash come on, but before you twist to START. Don't start the engine!

 

2. Within 3 seconds, turn the headlight switch ON.

 

3. Press the Trip/Odometer button 4 times.

 

4. Turn the headlight switch OFF.

 

5. Press the Trip/Odometer button 4 times.

 

6. Turn headlight switch ON.

 

7. Press Trip/Odometer button 4 times. At this point, the DTC display will begin.

 

8. Turn headlight switch OFF. Not necessary for the procedure, but your display may be dimmed and hard to read in bright sunlight. Besides, why drain the battery?

 

The DTCs for each module will display in order: ECM, TCM, ABSCM/VDCCM. Press the Trip/Odometer button to cycle between modules. The FSM states that the display will cycle between modules automatically every three seconds if the button is not pushed, but that did not happen in my car - I had to push the button to cycle the display.

 

For each module, there are three display states:

- Receiving DTC from module (blinking "P" or "C")

- DTC detected & displayed ("P" or "C" followed by 4 digits)

- No DTC found ("P" or "C" followed by "----")

 

If there is a CAN (Controller Area Network) bus communication error, you will see only "----" in the display. Basically, that means that the network in your car is broken. That will need to be repaired before anything else can be done.

 

See the table below that applies to your car, depending on which type of display you have.

 

 

Notes

 

- TCM error codes will not be displayed for cars with manual transmissions. The TCM display state will remain in "Receiving DTC" (blinking "P" on display). In my case, my car is an automatic, but the blinking "P" remained, possibly because I have no codes set.

 

- To cancel the DTC display, turn the key to OFF.

 

- If the engine is started, the DTC display will remain until the car starts to move. (I did not test this)

 

- Past DTCs that have been repaired will be displayed until the engine is started 3 times. (I did not test this)

 

Here is a good resource once you have the C### code(s)

http://www.seccs.org/tech/2005%20Leg...ble%20Code.pdf

Interesting. I'm going to try this once I get my car back but what's up with all the headlight switch off anchor links? Is it just to say "headlight switch off"?

Ya sorry about that I copied this info from another post and didn't notice them, also your codes will be 4 digits long and after looking I didn't put all of them in the post. I cant remember wher I found the codes but they should be something like c0101/c0107 those are the ones I have right now. If I can find a link to the DTC codes I will attach it the ones above probably wont be relavent.

Here is a good resource once you have the C### code(s)

http://www.seccs.org/tech/2005%20Legacy%20GT/Service%20Manual/12%20-%20Brakes/ABS/ABS%20Diagnostics/12%20-%20Diagnostic%20Procedure%20with%20Diagnostic%20Trouble%20Code.pdf

5th Element -- those steps didn't get me any codes on my '05.

 

Update: I guess the earlier comment about the mechanic not knowing his elbow from his other body part is apt. Drove the car to the Canadian border, with everything working fine, and now a steady Check Engine light, along with the cruise light flashing. Good thing I held off on making a comment on Yelp for the garage that 'fixed' my car.

Did you get gas recently, before the check engine and flashing cruise came on? Not tightening the gas cap enough times can cause that to happen sometimes.

I read about the gas cap issue in the subaru manual, but it's hard to tell. I got gas 3 hours prior to the engine light going on, but I was driving almost the whole way through.

 

Oh wait, that's something I can check right now. <head against desk>

The gas cap was slightly loose - so here's to hoping that that's what caused it. I am currently far from Massachusetts but I have a decent mechanic here who can reset the engine light. Should I go for it, or just keep the light as is? The subaru dealer in this town is the worst of the worse.

You can reset the CEL yourself, just pull the battery connection for a little bit. There's a fuse or two in the engine bay you can pull as well, if you don't have the tools to remove the battery connection. I don't remember off the top of my head, but they should be labeled something like BIU, ECU, IG or something similar. I think they are 15A or a 7.5A fuse. Pull the fuse, wait 30sec, put it back in and then turn the car back on. Your CEL should be cleared if it was something that tripped it once (and not a persistent issue).