RANT - Dealer blames Tune for an Alternator Failure

[Speedmaster747]

Did a Tune on a 09 G8GT with simple boltons the other day.
After the customer picked up the car, the dreaded alternator light came on. After driving for a while it went into battery saver mode, and lastly with about 6 volts on the dial, it finally stalled out.

Customer told me he got another battery, and drove the car to the dealer, since he had purchased extended warranty, he was going to try to get a new alternator done.

I think where he screwed up is when he told the service writer, he had just had a tune done.

Immediately, they jumped into the conclusion that the tune was screwing up with the charging system.

I'm patiently waiting to hear from him to see the nonsense they will try to tell him, not to pay for the repair. I even think they might reflash the car back to stock :/

23 years as a Master technician, 18 years doing performance, butt loads of tunes, all happy customers, I've never heard of a tune jacking with the charging system????

[GHuggins]

Hi Lewis, unless I'm mistaken are we even given the ability to change the alternator outputs? I'll have to look back through one and see, but last I checked most platforms wouldn't allow us to do so? Now if an under-drive pulley were installed or something - OK, it won't charge as good, but still won't kill the charging system

Everyone just immediately looks for a way to not cover their defective parts anymore... I've had to fight tooth and nail with some pretty big name companies as of late to get obvious part failures covered...

Hope all else is going good for you...

The AOD laying in the floor by the table when you came by the shop was a prime example

[schpenxel]

Not really. The BCM controls alternator output with some sort of signal that it sends to the alternator. The ECM can override the BCM signal temporarily if voltage is too low, but some OS's don't even have those parameters added. I argued with some people on corvette forum about this.. basically the BCM is supposed to do it all, ECM can override if it has a reason to, though it's supposed to be temporarily.

System-->General-->Alternator

[Jon S.]

It is always unpleasant when things go wrong.

Like it or not, altering the programming of the ECM (or any module) with non-GM software, will void the GM warranty.

In the case of the G8, the BCM does indeed control the Alternator. There are a few models where the ECM controls the Alternator (Corvette, TBSS, Express, and a few others).

[2xLS1]

Going to a dealer for warranty work and telling them you just had a tune done is, well.......................

[jtrosky]

^^Exactly... In this case, I would blame the owner of the car! That was just not a brihgt idea... If he wouldn't have said that, I'm sure that they would have replaced the alternator without even thinking about it....