['63GENIII]

Just an update on this because this is a problem that became worse over the last 9 years of owning the car. It has been the most difficult troubleshooting job that I have ever come across due to the intermittent nature and symptoms. To be honest, I almost admitted defeat several times and just wanted to get rid of the car. My wife really loves this car and I can't bear to hear "remember that one car that you couldn't fix? Man I really wish we still had that car still" being said by either her or my kids that think I can practically fix anything. Lol.

So three weeks ago, she came home from work saying that she had to get a jump from her co worker. She had thought that she had turned off everything in the car like the radio, AC, dome lights blah, blah, blah. I didn't doubt her. Its just that for the past several years, we've been driving it around nearly paranoid that we won't be able to start it after it sits for a couple of hours. I told her I'd look at it that night again which I did. I know this routine right? Run it for a few minutes, connect my inductive Fluke DC Amprobe, watch it for 2 hours, maybe disconnect the battery and viola' its fixed until the next time right? Wrong.

I went though my routine, watched the parasitic draw drop to .4 amps after 2 hours. Too much. Disconnecting the battery seemed to work though. I put a good charge on the battery (Megatron Plus) and put the probe on it again. All good.

Next morning, I'm at work laying out the job for the day and I get a call at 7:45 from her. She's in tears, freaking out. She explains that while taking the kids to school on a pretty steep, uphill and narrow 2 lane busy thoroughfare , the "battery not charging" warning came on (which has never happened) the car slowed down and died in nearly the middle of the road. This is a road that every soccer mom in a Burb takes their kid to school on, construction trucks on their way to work us and let's not forget that it was also garbage day for that street.

I told her to get herself and the kids out of the car and to a safe place, call AAA and I was also on my way. Luckily a couple of friends came and got the kids to school as they were driving by. At this point, she is not driving this car again until this is fixed.

I got there before AAA, jumped the car with mine and drove it 3 blocks back to the house. It sat for the better part of December.

Im not a guy who likes to or can afford to throw parts at cars or anything for that matter but I was desperate. I ordered a replacement AC Delco BCM off of Amazon for 120$. It showed up on Xmas Eve so I figured Id take the car to the dealer on the next Monday. The wife would have to just drive my little beater CX and I would drive the '63. Monday came and I took it to the dealer only to find that I needed an appointment for them to flash the new BCM. They gave me a 9:00 slot on NYE and said it would be done before the end of the day. That worked for me as I figured it would be the end of my troubles.

At 8:00 on NYE, I brought the car down, explained everything that I could recall about the car to the service advisor and how I just wanted to swap the BCM and have them flash the new module. His response " we can't let you perform any work on the property and I can assure you with almost 100% certainty that its not the BCM and more than likely an aftermarket electronic device that was installed by me. We will need to perform a parasitic draw test first, then we will install the new BCM and flash it according to your VIN". Alright at this point, i get the liability issues and that they need to verify that the BCM is actually bad. Fine. I ask how much. 500$ is the estimate. I almost passed out. I was really thinking more like 100 - 150 for the programming but now I'm over a barrel. I give him the go ahead and take a little comfort that the car should be done by 4:00 p.m. that day.

At 2:30, the advisor calls me (and I'm thinking woo hoo it's ready early) and drops a bomb on me. They got swamped after I left and were not going to be able to touch the car until Monday. Im getting that "over the barrel" feeling again. It's NYE, we have people coming over and this is not the hill I feel like dying on today so I say alright. "But it will be done Monday right?" I ask. He replies " absolutely" but also said that he didn't think it was the BCM.

Today at 2:30, after calling a few times and getting a voicemail each time, I get a call from the service advisor. The car was ready to pick up! I picked up the wife and shot down there. This time a different SA helped us and explained that not only were they able to replicate the current draw that I had, they were not able to use their scanner to get the BCM to shut down any of the loads and said that it had mechanically failed. They installed the new one, flashed it and rechecked the current draw - 60 milliamps which is within spec according to them. The charge for the work 300$ which was 200$ less than quoted, Im happy, the wife is happy and Im hoping that this problem is a done deal. Time will tell.

Lesson learned. Trust your instincts.