it's finally fixed...3 weeks after it was taken into the shop. Everything checked out at first and (they said) they checked all connections and wires but obviously not all of them because it finally acted up for them and they discovered that one of the wires was indeed corroded at the end so they cut off the bad end and soldered on a new one and so far it's been working perfectly...maybe even better than before. all in all it was $55 fix.