Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Yellow Spring, West Virginia

Yellow Spring, WV Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Passlock Security System. [djohn139]

by tommyo1 on Mon Nov 17 05:32:28 PST 2008

O.K.... might give it another shot today... Just curious.... that yellow wire that is not needed (the one that gets taped up and tucked away)... that wire is not needed for anything ? Where does that unused yellow wire go .. to the ignition ? I hope to give this another try later on today; I've got to see how my back feels because I'm no spring chicken (pre-senior citizen, lol) and have back troubles... But I want to get this done soon because it's only getting colder here in New England.... Also.. just making triple-sure here... The yellow wire and the black wire are on opposite rows, but adjacent to each other...correct ? I'm certain that's the way I had it but I'll make triple sure if I can try the mod again today...

Re: Yellow [andys120]

by stephen987 on Sun Nov 09 13:05:00 PST 2008

Yup. The yellow one was a 1950-51 Dellow Mk 1, with the leaf springs.

Re: 2003 Ion won't start under 10 degrees [4r33l]

by meron on Fri Feb 08 05:30:16 PST 2008

I also had heard that the lubricant in the switch was at fault and tried electrical contact cleaner and then relubed the switch. It seemed to help. For a day or two. GM service bulletins describe "reteaching" the BCM thru a thirty minute process with a new switch/key, and I inferred that you could also reteach it with an old key. I did so and the car started repeatedly, until my daughter tried to start it, with a different key on a keyring with many other keys and whatnot dangling from it. It would not start, as you might guess but did start for me when I used the 'retaught' key. I think that might have solved the problem, if she would have used the sucessful key from then on, but I wanted a permanent solution for the rest of the winter anyway. GM also described the Passlock system as fifteen different resistors that could possibly have been used, thus the reason for the BCM to be retaught. The original had a resistor in the key itself. The module, BCM or previously the TCM, needed to see a small voltage, thru a small wire, that was within a +/- 5% range or the start signal was disabled, some shuting down the fuel injectors, fuel pump delivery. In the cold weather electrons get a little sluggish, and fall outside the necessary range originally programmed into the control module. Remote start addons replace a resistor inline between two relays, with a diode ahead of the circuit, I believe as a one way valve. The resistance value is first determined while the car is running I think, between the two wires going from the switch to the module. There are websites that describe all this, along with an aftermarket defeating system that learns the voltage that the module expects to see. I think the whole kit runs about $40. The link is below. As I said in above post, cutting the white wire, (2003 ION) and putting wire nuts on the severed ends has eliminated the problem, BUT you must cut the wire after the car is RUNNING. The module thinks the circuit has been damaged and falls into a failsafe mode allowing the car to be started from then on. The only side effect is the little yellow padlock icon on the dash stays on. I may look into disabling the yellow icon later in the spring. For now I don't see a lot of the car as my daughter hasn't been around much; she's busy driving all over town. http://www.slickcar.com/manuals/pljx.pdf http://www.autotoys.com/x/catalog/GM_PASSLOCK_BYPASS_IMMOBILIZER_INTERFACE_FOR_R- EMOTE_STARTS_TYP_p_256.html http://members.tripod.com/alarmtek/GMCISCRAZY.html I hope others are able to find a solution here. If you read the above you will see that this problem has been around for a while, across a broad spectum of GM products. As far as I can see the only difference in any of the solultions is the wire color on individual products. Good luck out there!

Re: Desperately Need Answeres [fcole]

by akirby on Wed Oct 29 06:28:06 PDT 2008

Sounds like the clock spring again. If that doesn't fix the airbag light check the yellow harness under the driver's seat (carefully!). If it's a V6 replace the PCV, if it's a V8 have the ignition coils checked and/or replaced.

Re: horn malfuntion [icnfixxit1]

by scoske on Thu Sep 25 07:11:42 PDT 2008

If the horn stays on continuously, then it is likely an issue with the switch that is in the steering wheel above the airbag unit. This is a major design blunder on GM's part. The switch was VERY poorly designed and expands upon getting hot. Usually this happens when the car is sitting out in the sun, but can happen anytime. You have a couple of options you can try: 1) You can take the air bag unit off of the steering when and disable one of the horn switches. Test to see which one is causing the problems with a volt meter. To take the air bag unit off you'll have to disconnect the negative battery terminal. Then pull the airbag fuses out of the fuse panel below the driver's side dash. Pull the kick panel off of the drivers side and disconnect the yellow connector (to completely disable the airbag). Use a torx bix to loosen the screws on the back side of the steering wheel. This will release the air bag unit. Once you pull this off, you'll see another yellow connector and and a black connector for you radio controls. There will also be a spring type clip that goes into one of the holes and a longer plastic tube with a spring attached that goes into another hole. If you put a volt meter on these two connections you can test the switches. Once you've found the switch that has a problem just leave that one disconnected. There are two small black plugs. Usually, one of the switches is more sensitive than the other and you can just disable that switch. The horn will only work when you push the steering wheel in the specific location of the switch you did not disable. 2) You can buy a new airbag unit which will obviously have a new horn switch that should not have problems for the next 5 years.

Re: Popular color for Porsche Carrera [asi12]

by habitat1 on Mon Sep 15 05:03:26 PDT 2008

There is a lot of speculation about color and resale value. I have a 2005 911S Cab in Seal Grey that I bought off the lot in Spetember, 2005 at a great deal ($10k off). My preference at that time would have been Speed Yellow and, in fact, the next spring I ordered a 2006 through the dealer that I then decided not to take when a deal to sell my 2005 fell through. The dealer kept the Speed Yellow on their lot for about 6-8 weeks, longer than most other colors at the time, but then it sold for near MSRP (vs. the $8k off I had negotiated) to someone that had it shipped to Arizona. There were only about 3-5 new Speed Yellow 911S Cabs in the country at the time, vs. probably hundreds of gray, silver or black ones. IMO, my seal gray will be easier to sell than speed yellow, but on the other hand, I won't get much value for some of the $13k in options on the car. The biggest color danger is in the interior cusomization. Before I ordered that Speed Yellow, I saw one that had gone overboard with yellow guages, yellow seat stitching, yellow seat belts, yellow center console. You needed sunglasses driving at night. I've seen some other interior color combos that only the original bipolar owner could love. But short of those, I think you can be pretty safe going with almost any exterior color and keeping the option list under control.