Took my '00 convert in to the dealer today to get the column lock service done (prior to my installing the bypass). I asked them to also check the fuel gauge while they had it. First surprise - "we need to order a part for the steering column lock so you will have to bring it back" - was I expecting too much that they would have the parts necessary for a recall in stock when they scheduled the repair?

Second - they wanted $175 to do a PCM flash for the fuel gauge. Does that sound appropriate? I had earlier seen this quote here:

"There seems to be a lot of causes [for fuel gauge problems]. One of them is spikes from the sending unit which confuses the PCM. The new software upgrade seems to deal with that problem quite well. Mine was chronic until I got the PCM flash from the dealer (free) and I haven't had a problem since."

Was that owner getting an unusual freeby, maybe for being a good customer, or was I getting hosed? Since $175 for 5 or 10 minutes worth of work seemed a bit high, I decided to decline it for now. And then they still billed me $85 for checking, so I suppose I should have paid the $175 and been done with it.

What do the rest of you think? I'm not used to dealership repair costs as up until now I have always done my own repairs, but I knew stepping up to the Vette would change that. I don't mind paying for actual repairs, but this seemed a tad high. Am I just out of touch with reality?

 

Not a good thing. Change dealers and report them to GM. If it's under warranty they should be taking better care of their customers. My .02

 

I don't think my nearly 5-year-old car is still under warranty. As for changing dealers, its a small town and the next closest Chevy dealer is 40 miles away. I would have accepted a reasonable charge for the PCM flash, but $175 seemed extreme. And I went in telling them I wanted that done, so don't see how they justified the $85 fee to tell me that was indeed what it needed. I had the distinct feeling that it was a case of "Corvette. This guy can afford it." which in my case is not necessarily true.

 

$175 seems high to me also. But, if I read your post right, they did perform a service of checking out your car as you requested. My guess is they billed you for an hour's labor, which is common for diagnostic work, at least around here. Don't know what the hourly labor rate is in your area, so the $85 may be high also. May want to speak with the service advisor and get a better explanation of what they did and why the high cost. Good luck.

 

The PCM flash that is done for the column lock recall will have the code in it to "fix" (I don't think it will completely fix it) the fuel guage problem. The service advisor at the Chevy dealership that did my column lock reprogram told me that the fuel guage code was in there. I think it makes sense that they would flash the entire memory, and not just the part that contols the fuel flow for column lock, since as with most code it "grows" and they would most likely overwrite other control code when not updating the entire memory.

You should contact GM Customer Service about the fact that they charged you for any reprogram related to the fuel guage problem. There should be a number in your owner's manual to call.