Keyless won't work and Passlock is disabling engine.

Hi there,

I am new in here. I was looking at a friends car (2001 S-Series) as they know me to be pretty handy. They needed their serpintine belt changed (bugger of a job BTW) and the service engine soon light was on. Also yesterday they were driving and lost the instrument cluster while the car operated as normal. Once stopped and restarted the cluster has worked fine.

Well, I check the code and they are a simple misfire codes which I reset then drove the car for a little while to see if they were reproducible. The codes reamained clear. Yeah.

Well now to change the belt. As this car has a remote start I decided it would be safe to disconnect the battery. Once I got the belt swapped and went to start the car the car turned over, fired then quit. I tried again and same thing. The car kept doing this and I quickly figured that it was the anti-theft which I now know as Passlock (especially considering the alarm sounded which I had to pull the horn relay to shut up.) The key fob would not disable the alarm and it would not lock/unlock the doors same with the trunk.

Well now I have my friends (actually my wifes coworkers) car in my parking lot which I cannot start. Please help me getting this thing going and get it out of here.

Key notes:
Will not run after turns over
Battery connections and fuses good
Neither FOBS work
Everything fine until I disconnected the car battery
Car has remote start
I have tried two of its keys
Security light flashes
I have tried the start without a transmitter technique
I have tried the Automatic sync for the fobs

Please help me out!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I was working on this car for my wifes coworkers mother who recently was diagnosed with cancer and they need the car to get to chemo..........:banghead:

Misfire code is probally from a bad intake manifold gasket.

No start...unfortunetly this can be from anything, especially since it has an after market remote start. Who wired this in? A shop? themselves?

Some other member may have answers for you tho.

What brand remote starter is it? You should find the PK2 wires coming out of the igntion lock and trace them to where it's been hacked into for the remote start. There should be a yellow wire cut in two. I'd put that back to normal and see if you can get it to start then. I assume the fobs you are messing with are also aftermarket correct? PM me if you need more help

Well the car went to Saturn. I had a friend there so my friend got a deal there. It was the BCM. Didn't cost too much. That explains the guages the other day and the Passlock and key fob issues. Thanks for those who replied.

thats the 2nd 3rd gen BCM needing replacement. How ever both were related to after market system installs

glad you got it fixed!

thats the 2nd 3rd gen BCM needing replacement. How ever both were related to after market system installs

glad you got it fixed!
What do you mean? If that were they case my $100k+ a year income from my aftermarket bizz would cease to exist.

Ah you must not assume! Most saturn owners are do it your selfers. Note i did not say that the bad BCM's also coinsided with installations from a certain company or group. I would expect that a company who does installations of such devices would understand the security systems they are dealing with in each car they work on. However most saturn (especially s-series) owners do there own work, and unfortunetly dont understand everything about such a system as the security system. Also, im sure the makers of such remote start systems advise only those who are educated in that area to install thier products, as what happened to the OP is a risk that do-it-yourselfers take! Granted he did not say it was done my himself or a friend, but I was merely pointing out that the BCM seems to be the first thing to go if an after market system has malfunctioned :)

No problem. You know in my 15 years in the bizz I have yet to see an aftermarket of anything be the direct underlying cause of anything in a vehicle. Now, I have seen indirect cause of an aftermarket product due to faulty installs.

BYW, the electronics in the S series is known for odd electrical issues such as BCM's going bad.

I suppose my use of "after market system malfunctions" should of been " after market system malfunctions due to inproper instalation or lack of understanding of the system" :D

And yes, so far the only electronic device that has been needed to be replaced is the BCM in the 3rd generation s-series. Other than that its all been bad sensors, or carbon build up :grinno: