PZEV Recall

[Jeepis]

No need to, it is your car, not mine.

 

If you wouldn't mind, I will disagree with Blackfang here. If you do have problems with your car because you didn't respond to a free 45 min recall service, please post up. I'll sit back with some popcorn and watch the flaming begin.

[blackfang]

If you wouldn't mind, I will disagree with Blackfang here. If you do have problems with your car because you didn't respond to a free 45 min recall service, please post up. I'll sit back with some popcorn and watch the flaming begin.

That is cool. I am just saying that if someone has a recall that can fix a potentially expensive part and they refuse to do it because they can't make any time in their day, and they have been told and don't care to address it, that is not my issue. They can post all they want if something bad happens and I just sit back and laugh and watch people tell him how much of a fool he was.

 

I know how hectic it can be. I work 65-70 during a 6 days a week and also juggle a family and a Military Reserve career. I get 3 days off a month.

 

I doubt that will occur, but I won't gamble on a $2500+ repair.

[Jeepis]

Yeah, I was being sarcastic. If someone can't afford 45 min to avoid a potentially costly repair then they're not thinking straight. I can't think of anyone that is so busy that they can't do this. Recalls are just a necessary evil of owning and maintaining a car. I firmly believe that if you don't have the time or resources to properly take car of something, you shouldn't own it, whether it's a dog, car, house, etc etc.

[DaveLang]

Had the re-flash don earlier this week. Driving off the dealers lot, I noticed the shift points felt a little goofy. After a couple hundred miles, I believe that this has corrected itself. It feels good now. I'd have to say that there's no difference now compared to before the flash.

 

Fear not the flash.

[aigochamaloh]

Had the flash done Friday. No difference at all. The dealer told me the car may stall itself while it learns my driving again, since I have a MT. I was like, uh ok, thanks?

[blackfang]

Had the flash done Friday. No difference at all. The dealer told me the car may stall itself while it learns my driving again, since I have a MT. I was like, uh ok, thanks?

 

They are just being courteous. When you re-flash the vehicle it may drive/act differently until it re-learns. They were just informing you of this so you do not call back and panic saying "you re-flashed my car, now it stalls and broken, what did you do?"

[aigochamaloh]

I have no issue with that. It's not new to me. The car stalled on me once when I had just bought the car. It died while downshifting and turning onto the freeway entrance once. That was strange experience, and I thought rather dangerous as I lost power steering and etc while getting onto a freeway, but never happened again. I attributed it to the ECU learning still.

 

Which is precisely why out of the dealership after the flash, I drove the car hard, redlining and etc, to get it to learn my driving faster!

[gary_gnu]

I took my car to the dealer and had the PZEV reflash done about 6 months ago. I had no warning codes or anything, only got the letter in the mail. Now I'm getting the Check Engine light and code P0420. I cleared the code and it came back about 20 miles later. Is my cat probably dead? I bought the car used a few years ago and it had no warranties. Does the cat recall issue mean a new one would be covered by some kind of extended warranty?

[blackfang]

The cat is most likely failed or it could be an a/f sensor. How many miles is on your vehicle and what year?

[naimouasta]

i got mine reflashed last week for the pzev. drives a lot better now. i had issues with the idle dropping and the engine revving by itself when coming to a stop before. it totaly fixed these issues, along with the pzev issue i guess.

 

also i don't know if this is related or not, but after the reflash; in the morning when i warm up my car in my driveway, i get a burning smell in the cabin when i return. i figure it is just the exhaust fumes being sucked back in the cabin, but it doesn't smell like typical exhaust fumes. its a burning smell. i also got a gasoline smell the first couple times. smell goes away after some driving. i got to see if the smell remains if i idle after driving.

 

blackfang?

[blackfang]

I couldn't tell you what it is.

 

I am not sure if anything is touching the exhaust and/or it is coincidence being a reflash only requires them to plug in the SSM to the port under the drivers side knee bolster area.

[gary_gnu]

The cat is most likely failed or it could be an a/f sensor. How many miles is on your vehicle and what year?

 

It's a 2005 2.5i with about 92k miles. I just dug out the letter they sent me back in June, and it says my car has the PZEV emission system and that they'll extend the warranty on the front cats to 100k. Would the a/f or 02 sensors be covered too?

[blackfang]

No they would not be.

[bitz]

Because of this recall do you know if they are extending the warranty of the cats? Since we've been driving around damaging these until we do the reflash. So I've put 60k miles on them while they weren't right now they did the reflash but what about the damage it has caused all along? If it fails at 75k I would have to pay to fix it?

 

Thanks for your help,

Adam

[blackfang]

I don't see them extending the cats coverage, but who knows. All cats are covered up to 8/80k unless you live in a state that has adopted California emissions like PA, Maine, Connecticut, Mass, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Vermont then it is either 8/100k or 15/150k depending on the model year vehicle you have as it changes for model.

[laz]

I got the reflash done yesterday. I got a phone call instead of a letter last week. I did not know my car was a PZEV.

 

Good thing it is done.

 

X

[D_J]

Had the re-flash don earlier this week. Driving off the dealers lot, I noticed the shift points felt a little goofy. After a couple hundred miles, I believe that this has corrected itself. It feels good now. I'd have to say that there's no difference now compared to before the flash.

 

Fear not the flash.

 

Same here...my 2009 PZEV drove very odd on the freeway in heavy traffic after I had the re-flash done today. It was stalling and not accelerating properly.

 

Then after I shut-off the engine, went to Target, and got back on the city street driving about 50 mph in light traffic it started running normal again. Maybe it fixed itself after learning I can't drive slow.

[gary_gnu]

For anyone following my saga, today the dealer diagnosed my P0420 code as a dead catalytic converter (or converters). They ordered both the left and right exhaust pipes, for a total of $1600, which supposedly will be covered by the recall's extended 100k mile warranty, since I'm at almost 90k.

 

I had no indications that the converter was going bad. No funny smells or smoke or loss of power. I had the ECU reflash done a few weeks after I received the recall letter in June. The car has never had many long driving sessions (more than an hour) in the 2 years I've had it until last month. After driving about 1000 miles in a little over a week with intense driving on interstates up and down mountains at 70mph, that's when the check engine light came on. According to the letter I got in June, that kind of driving supposedly damages the converter if you don't get the reflash. But in my case, I'm guessing my converter must have been pretty far gone by the time the ECU got reprogrammed, and my hard driving last month pushed it over the edge. I'm lucky it happened now and not 10k miles down the road.

[blackfang]

I have not seen anything that extends the cat coverage to 100k. I have goodwilled a cat that failed a few months after we did a reflash on an 05 car.

[gary_gnu]

I don't think they're just goodwilling it. I told the guy I had a letter saying it was covered to 100k and he didn't question it. I even had the letter in my pocket just in case he asked to see it, but he didn't. I just scanned the recall letter, so I'll post it here. The first paragraph states that I have a 2005 with a PZEV and the last paragraph says it's covered 10yr/100k.

[blackfang]

Ok that is a different recall WVI-19. The WVM-23 doesn't have an extension.

[gary_gnu]

Ok that is a different recall WVI-19. The WVM-23 doesn't have an extension.

 

 

You're right. I just looked at the first post in this thread and realized it was for the newer recall. I didn't realize there were two separate recalls. Sorry if I confused anybody.

[blackfang]

What dealer were you using? Bob Wade or Staunton?

[gary_gnu]

What dealer were you using? Bob Wade or Staunton?

 

Bob Wade. This is only my second time dealing with them. The first time was the reflash this summer when they also replaced a bad wheel bearing that was also covered by a recall. They're fast and friendly and I've heard good things about them from other suby owners. Is there anything I need to know about them?

[blackfang]

Not that I am aware of. I have heard good things about them and Staunton and gone to training with one of the Staunton service writers.