Passlock System

[Hoppy2]

It worked, thanks kindly, Now the remote starter! Uhggg

[ponchonutty]

Well, that's not too bad except having to do most of the wiring behind the radio! Other than that, it's a fairly easy car.

[Hoppy2]

Any tricks to disconnecting the ignition harness from the switch? Can the harness get pulled down far enought under the dash to do the wire hookups?

[ponchonutty]

I've never tried to do that and I doubt it can be done. I've just did all of my work behind the radio.

[diavolos]

Hi all, I've had the passlock system problem also, and read alot on here which was a huge help. I read on here alot that one alternative fix is to get a remote starter. The only way getting a remote starter will help is if you plan to use it every time you start your car if you are experiencing passlock problems. Reason is, if you get a remote starter, the passlock wire "trio" gets wired into an alarm bypass module, which bypasses the ignition "chip" for the alarm when you use the remote, thus starting the car even if you are having passlock problems. This in no way has any effect if you use the key to turn the ignition manually, because now, you are once again turning the tumbler and using the faulty passlock "chip". Also, if you have a remote atarter, cutting the yellow wire is not an option, because it is wired into the remote starter bypass, and if you do so (which I tried), it will not let you start the car remotely, or manually. My fix was that I had my mechanic, who is awesome, get me the part, and do the job on the side for ca$h. He charged me $250 for everything, which is a steal compared to what I see on here. If cutting the yellow wire is an option for you, do it and save the cash, wish I could have

[Hoppy2]

I did cut the yellow wire and it has nothing to do with my remote starter system. I did the resistor modification.

[ponchonutty]

Originally Posted by diavolos

Hi all, I've had the passlock system problem also, and read alot on here which was a huge help. I read on here alot that one alternative fix is to get a remote starter. The only way getting a remote starter will help is if you plan to use it every time you start your car if you are experiencing passlock problems. Reason is, if you get a remote starter, the passlock wire "trio" gets wired into an alarm bypass module, which bypasses the ignition "chip" for the alarm when you use the remote, thus starting the car even if you are having passlock problems. This in no way has any effect if you use the key to turn the ignition manually, because now, you are once again turning the tumbler and using the faulty passlock "chip". Also, if you have a remote atarter, cutting the yellow wire is not an option, because it is wired into the remote starter bypass, and if you do so (which I tried), it will not let you start the car remotely, or manually. My fix was that I had my mechanic, who is awesome, get me the part, and do the job on the side for ca$h. He charged me $250 for everything, which is a steal compared to what I see on here. If cutting the yellow wire is an option for you, do it and save the cash, wish I could have

WOW, the part to fix that is only about $100. I guess he must charge by the hour and included his lunch too.

[diavolos]

Originally Posted by ponchonutty

WOW, the part to fix that is only about $100. I guess he must charge by the hour and included his lunch too.

Where can you get the whole ignition, with new keys for $100?? I went to Chevy myself, and they were going to sell it to me for $150, with a municipal discount. If you think $250 is expensive, then the others on here must have gotten bent over, and raped for paying $400-$500.

[ponchonutty]

Originally Posted by diavolos

Where can you get the whole ignition, with new keys for $100?? I went to Chevy myself, and they were going to sell it to me for $150, with a municipal discount. If you think $250 is expensive, then the others on here must have gotten bent over, and raped for paying $400-$500.

Yep they've gotten bent over all right. I've seen them on Ebay. You can even get them out of a late model at the local salvage place. The area ones here only charge about $25 and all you need is one key. Even so it's worthless to do that sort of repair because it'll happen again and again. The resistor trick is 99% effective and it only cost at most $8.00.

[Hoppy2]

The resistor trick worked for me as well, however only cost me my time as I had a multimeter already and all the resistors I needed in my electronics repair stock. Even to purchase a pack of assorted resistors you are only talking $3.

[billducat]

You can add me to the non-passlock members. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents into the argument to be able to disable the system as a normal user. I am a electrical technician that works for a large corporation, without going into too much detail about who I work for I deal with integrated multiple computer systems. I am usally pretty good at hacking these systems when i need to in the course of the day.
When I installed a remote car starter in 1998 pontiac grand am for my girlfriend I was aware of the passlock feature and installed the fix of a relay to bypass the key in the ignition. This worked fine for a couple of years until the remote feature stopped working. I did not want to diagnose why the remote no longer worked so i told her to live with it. Then one day she called me to tell me that the car would not start and she was stranded. With her being out of work and on dissability I could not afford to have a repair bill so I went after work to find out what the problem was.
Without going into too many details I just spent $130 of money that i could not afford, towing, 2 wks. Without a car, a small car fire. Having to diagnose a problem outside in the freezing rain and having to take time off from work to take her to doctors appointments because I did not realize that the passlock system was the cause of the system activating at the wrong time.
The car would start and after 2 sec. would stall. Not thinking that the passlock system was the cause I started cheking sensors, fuel injectors, and all others possibilties. After searching the internet I found this forum and tried resetting the passlock system which allowed the car to start.

The message that i am trying to send here is that someone mentioned "adding my name to the class action". That is probably not the best solution as a consumer. My brother (ASE certified mechanic) had the misfortune of bying a newer used impala with a 4 cylinder motor and many problems (coolant leaks, water pump, etc. ) that his final solution was to by a Ford. We can all try to sue corporations to try and make them responsible but all we can accomplish is to make a few attorneys millionaires while you pick up your free key fob at the dealer while they try to sell you a new pile of crap. The pontiac that my girlfriend owns does have 169k on but I dont know if I will be bying another gm car in the future until i can verify that they have cleaned up theire act. Can anyone say toyota.


end of rant

[ponchonutty]

Well, I'm not sure if I'd pick Toyota as part of my defense. I mean, they did have the #2 most recalled vehicle for 2007 http://autos.aol.com/article/safety/...03102409990001

Anyhoo I understand your frustration as many on here have. I don't think it's a bad idea to get on some sort of bitch list to be handed to Gm or any other maker for that matter. You have billions spent on advertising and most of the time in those ads there's something about how reliable the vehicle is. So, the buying public believes this only to find out that soon after warranties end, there's a host of issues at hand. Why GM never fully used a transponder setup like Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda to name a few I'll never know. For years the only transponder vehicles were some of the higher end Pontiacs. Transponder systems are where the key itself has a chip inside the head of the key and the ignition has a magetic field that can read the chip. It's simular to that like what they put inside pets. Instead, GM uses a fragile by designed mechanical setup that is made to fail easily.

To add insult to injury now the newest of GM vehicles have BOTH the Pk2 and PK3 systems!!!!

[Guvnuh4]

Originally Posted by ponchonutty

Well, I just bypassed one the other day too. What I did was cut the yellow PK2 wire, stripped a little off of the black reference ground wire, put one lead from my ohm meter on the black ground wire and the other lead on the wire yellow wire going to the ignition switch. Then I put the car in gear and cranked it over. When you do that, the switch will send out what code it has been using. It came out to something like 6.21ohms. I then got some resistors that were about 6.25 and connected one end of the resistors to the cut yellow wire GOING to the BCM and the other end of the resistors to the ground reference wires. It started right up and the theft light went off.

Wife's car (2001 Pontiac Grand Am) experienced the reported issue, security light flashes, starter whirrs, engine doesn't start, blah, blah, blah...

10 minute trick worked, but the wife expressed serious displeasure in having to wait (if needed). So I wanted to try this little fellow out, but I wanted to make sure that my MS Paint style wiring diagram was correct:



With soldering to the data-to-bcm wire and ground

[Hoppy2]

You want to check the resistance between the ignition side of the yellow wire and black wire. You don't have to touch the white wire. Once you find the resistance put the same value of resistors between the black wire and the non ignition switch side of the yellow wire. Solder up and seal it up and you are done. I'm not sure what wire colours are in comparison with your neutral, hot and data wires. It is a simple thing to do, but hard to get at in my car at least.

[TXMAXX]

Originally Posted by diavolos

Hi all, I've had the passlock system problem also, and read alot on here which was a huge help. I read on here alot that one alternative fix is to get a remote starter. The only way getting a remote starter will help is if you plan to use it every time you start your car if you are experiencing passlock problems. Reason is, if you get a remote starter, the passlock wire "trio" gets wired into an alarm bypass module, which bypasses the ignition "chip" for the alarm when you use the remote, thus starting the car even if you are having passlock problems. This in no way has any effect if you use the key to turn the ignition manually, because now, you are once again turning the tumbler and using the faulty passlock "chip". Also, if you have a remote atarter, cutting the yellow wire is not an option, because it is wired into the remote starter bypass, and if you do so (which I tried), it will not let you start the car remotely, or manually.

Interesting! The only time i have had problems with starting is when i do not use my remote start. I have a Chevy Malibu Maxx 2004 with 74k miles on it. The remote start is OEM and the main reason i purchased the vehicle. The last 3 months i have not used it much as someone told me it uses more gas to start that way . Have had the car a year and it started acting crazy after i switched to key starts. Its very random and never occurs on cold start(1st thing in the mornining or after car has been parked for a few hours). Always when i go somewhere like grocery shopping .