It would be interesting to know how this trouble started. If what the dealer stated about the corrosion was really true then I would suspect that the starter for the car would have trouble working and there would be other signs of a bad battery connection in the electrical system like dim lights. Voltage spikes that kill electronics usually come from things mentioned in the TSB but not from some corrosion on the battery connector which was most likely just on the outside of the connector and not the contact area. I assume you purchased the car from this dealer and they would be the logical ones to warranty the part.
I doubt any testing was done to prove what the are saying is true and are just trying to let you hold the bag, sort of speaking. You should follow this up to the next level if they won’t work with you even if you have to go to small claims court where they would need to prove what they are saying is true.
To make a long story short…
I was driving my car and then all of the sudden it wouldn’t let me accelerate. I pulled over and tried to restart my car. It would crank ,but would not start. I called my father and neighbor (both mechanics) to tell them what was going on. Neither of them thought it was the battery. I towed it to the dealership the next morning and after telling them what had happened, they told me it sounded like the battery. They called me a few hours later only to tell me that my computer was fried because of corrosion in the battery. Then they told me that I would have to pay for it because it was my fault due to poor maintenance. They told me that I hadn’t had it serviced since 2009. I told them that I had been taking it to a different garage because they took to long at the dealership. I ended up speaking to the GM and he refused to listen to me.
I ended up talking to another dealer,s GM and he agreed with me that the part should be under warranty and that corrosion could not cause it to fry. I also spoke to a lawyer and called headquarters as well.
I ended up going back to Nissan to tell them that I spoke to all of these people and how headquarters would be contacting them with a case number. He told me that I could do all I wanted and that it wouldn’t help. He said that they had lots of lawyers as did Nissan. I told him that it was wrong for them to punish me for not taking my car to them to get service and told them that there was no law that stated that I had to go to them. I told him that the reason I CHOSE not to go to them was because they were to slow. I need my car for work because I travel between 3 different schools to teach. I had taken my car to them twice where I ended up picking it up at the end of the day being untouched!
He told me how sorry he was and that he wished he could do something for me, but that it wasn’t up to him. I told him that was a lie because Headquarters told me that it was up to the dealer as far as what they would write down for the cause. He told me again that I they had plenty of lawyers as did Nissan. I then told him that I had a lot of students over the years with parents who are lawyers. I told him that I had spoken to several already and that they were ready to help me out if I needed them to. I ended up getting a call the next day that my vehicle was ready and that there was no charge!!!
I just want to thank everybody for your responses. They really did help me out!
Your electrical connections have EVERYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ECU…to think or even ponder otherwise is foolish. You MUST have clean and greased batt terminals and clamps…you dont want youe ecu to have to “hunt” for a proper ground connection EVER…YOu can do any number of horrible things to the ecu with bad batt connections.
IF you suspect that you fried your ecu…which is not too common…go to a salvage yard and install it yourself…MAJOR money saved there…and you can do it yourself with little effort…FORGET the dealer.
The story is a bit murky to me as it’s unclear if this problem was intermittent. The vehicle was towed in and apparently was dropped off and picked up twice with no repair being performed. Does this mean it only quit once? It’s very hazy but some points for consideration could be:
No repair was actually performed and the OP is the victim of a placebo job.
By the dealer’s logic, this would mean that every car entering the shop no matter the age and mileage should be getting a battery terminal service. Does the dealer do this?
About as likely as a snowball in hxxx.
If the ECU is legitimately faulty then the dealer was stupid in my opinion for allowing this situation to develop like this. It’s very easy to “fix” an ECU before submitting it for warranty purposes so they should have just changed it out and been done with it. I’ve had a factory rep tell me that on iffy things like ECUs, various modules, etc. to make SURE they’re bad before submission.
That’s what a 110 volt electrical cord with a couple of alligator clips is for; to remove any and all doubt about the condition of the item in question.