More updates...
Brought my regular OBDII scanner down here and pulled the codes.
It's been sitting all night with the battery disconnected and the terminals shorted.
Got in, turned the key, and cranked right up, although with the transmission fault on the info screen...
Turned if off, and back to not starting...
Pulled the codes, I had an P0441 from a while back that was gone, had one MAF code, but I had just cleaned the MAF and forgot to plug it back in when I turned the key on the first time.
Poked and wondered for a while and got on the phone with my cousin who is a mechanic to talk to him about it... Pulled the instrument cluster to make sure the cable back there wan't loose... Looked fine.
HOWEVER, I did notice something relally interesting. I also have a mongoose that I use from time to time, whenever I have plugged it in, I always get some weird stuff out of the car... The doors unlock 3 times, the hazard lights start flashing and the center dome lights come on and wont turn off. I decidec I would try the key without the instrument cluster hooked up, put the key in and turn it to position 2, and get the exact same behavior that I see when the mongoose is plugged in... So, hooked it back.
While i'm on the phone with my cousin, I hear the little DING of something going wrong (left the key in and on pos 2) and look to see the transmission fault is back on the screen... And it starts right up.
So, I pull the codes again, and low and behold there's a TON of them...
U0100 from mod $18
U0102 from mod $10
U0126 from mod $10
U0138 from mod $10
U0121 from mod $10
U0300 from mod $10
U0102 from mod $10
U0167 from mod $10
U0155 from mod $10
and U2023 from mod $18

So, it start's and runs whenever it think's there's a transmission fault, and wont run otherwise.

Any thoughts on that mess?

 

No washing of the engine compartment... But I did go through a really bad rainstorm on the interstate the weekend before it started acting up...
Full disclosure there, I did have an unrelated(hopefully) issue coming back from that trip. I lost 2 bolts off the front drivers side break caliper. The big one (top) that holds the caliper bracket on and the top bolt that holds the caliper to the bracket.
Got that stuff replaced, and the next day this problem started.

I went ahead and pulled the ECM out and looked at it, pins and connectors seem to be in pretty decent shape, no obvious damage or corrosion. Also did a hard reset (shorted the battery cables) since I had the battery out of the way to get to the ecm.

The most interesting thing to me is that it wont start, but if I leave the key in and turned to POS 2 for 7 to 10 minutes(haven't timed it exactly) the transmission fault comes up on the screen then it start's right up no problem, other than being stuck in 3rd gear...

So, it's obviously some sort of COMM issue between the controllers, the question is, how do I track down which one is the bad one? Or if it's an electrical issue rather than a bad controller?

Just seems to me to almost have to be a controller problem because of the weird delay then the transmission fault then it will start and run.

 

Alright, so after 2 weeks at the shop they finally figured it out...

Turns out it was the MAF having a ground fault...

All of that weirdness just because of the MAF sensor!

Anyway, were up and driving again!

 

Crazy...

 

@aBs0lut30

did you just replace the sensor or fix the actual ground wire? I am having similar issues.