MBW - Thanks for the visuals showing some of the capabilities of the IID tool. I have one, and I'm now even more aware of how little of its potential I use.
Well, I've been putting this off because its quasi-embarrassing but I got towed to a local shop today and they called me back very quickly. You guys won't believe what the issue was... the
POSITIVE clamp on the battery was loose. Not so loose that I noticed it :Wow1: but just loose enough that the power was intermittent. Hence, when I used the MicroStart, those clamps tightened it enough to crank. They said the nut was tight. but that somehow the clamp had loosened. I asked if they remove both the (+) and (-) when they replaced my alternator just a few weeks ago and he said they only remove the negative. If that's true, I have no idea how the + clamp got loose. Whatever, they didnt charge me for anything which was nice. Or maybe its their way of "making it right"? who knows. I'm just grateful that it wasn't, at least for now, something more serious. That was the good news of the day.
Bad news is I should probably just stop tinkering with stuff. Back in the summer we got a torrential downpour one Saturday afternoon, and like a knucklehead, I left the sunroof half-way open. It was normal practice for me to leave it slightly tilted during the hot months, but never open like that day. Big mistake. The center console/gear selector/terrain knobs all got soaked, and I mean soaked. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this for many hours as when it started raining I just assumed it was tilted like normal. The aftermath was that CommandShift no longer worked, as well as the toggle switch to drop to access height. I could still raise it to off-road but not drop it (obvs not counting the speed drop). Niether issue was a huge deal, because I don't use either CS or Access height in my day-to-day driving. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted CS fixed so I had the same shop quote that repair 3 weeks ago when they were doing the alternator. It was around 600-650 for the CommandShift/transmission fix, and another 400 for the ride height switch/harness. After doing some googling, I thought I would tackle taking the center console out and cleaning up any corrosion I could find on the wiring harnesses. Specifically, the one that comes out of the back of the gear selector box. When I got done putting it all back together and turned the car on, I now have a Transmission Fault
Code P0928 - Gearshift lock solenoid - circuit/open
A quick google search tells me this COULD be all kinds of issues, but I think its safe to eliminate some of those given I didn't have this issue before I messed with it today. I used the emergency release to get it out of Park and went for a little drive around a couple blocks. The shifting profile seemed normal, no jerkiness or anything. When I got back, I made sure to activate the Parking brake and release it, no issues. And yes, I turned it off and back on after clearing fault and it came back.
Two questions:
1. What risks do I run to drive it with the fault still active given it all seemed normal otherwise? I left the small console piece pulled up for access to the emergency release tab.
2. Potential repairs I can make to to resolve the fault? I'll end up just paying to get the CS fixed I suppose.
Thank you guys for all of your ideas on this thread and for your support from afar. It is VERY much appreciated!
