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My sister in law has a 2002 monte carlo, 3.4L, with about 90k miles. It had an issue where the message center would start throwing every idiot light it could (low fuel, security, low battery, etc) and the gauges would drop to nothing while driving. The dealer diagnosed that as a short in the splice pack which the DIC connects to. They disconnected the wiring harness at the splice pack for the DIC and all was ok for about a month (car doesn’t have a DIC at the roof anyhow). Then on Monday the car died while driving and would not crank or start and was again throwing every idiot light it could. It went back to the dealer and was diagnosed with a bad ignition switch (it’s GM I believe it), that was replaced and they said they found a loose wire which was causing the level 2 data communication issue. Car ran and drove fine for the next 18 hours. Then it exhibited the same symptoms and had to be towed to the dealer yet again.
Ideas? Passlock is bypassed on this vehicle and I believe the dealers TechII should tell them if there was an issue with the passlock stuff anyhow.
I’ve seen the video by Eric on no crank, no start. The engine is not seized and has been properly maintained. The vehicle battery is less than 1 year old.
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You might want to check the battery cables and connections. What you describe sounds like a connection issue. Maybe the battery or somewhere else. More info here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-no-start-problems
Keep us posted on your progress.
I’m betting that there are now a number of recalls on that car if the news earlier this week was correct. So at least check for any new recalls. I’m not trying to pick on GM with this post. There really may be a recall.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Monte_Carlo/2002/electrical/
No recall directly related to this issue that I can see.
with eric all the way, check connections, it is very common for the battery side terminals on these cars too go bad and develop excessive play and corrosion developing connection issues making starting difficult so wiggle the battery cables and see if that makes a difference make sure they are nice and tight, also check your connections too starter and ground, the ground connection i believe is located on the bell housing running from the battery down the front of the sub frame under the radiator sometimes on a occasion it corrodes at the connection point but not usually but still check tightness and for corrosion, and very common for corrosion to occur at the starter on these vehicles since the starter is located at the front of the vehicle and so close too the ground.
also check this, applicable too your vehicle.
All the battery connections were tight prior to the vehicle getting towed to the dealer the first time. I had fiddled with them then and disconnected them and held them together for a minute and left disconnected for a few minutes to see if resetting the computers in the car helped.
I did not check the grounds to the frame, etc so thanks for that suggestion. I had previously touched up the ground located under the air box and applied electrolytic grease. I’m not going to assume the dealer checked those ground locations.
They tried to blame a bad SDM for it the second time around but they basically admitted they weren’t sure and it was yesterday at 5:30pm (meaning they all just wanted to get out of there for the holiday weekend where they don’t work again until Monday). I have a feeling their going to jump to conclusions to call it a bad BCM on Monday when the service writer follows up with me.If it is a bad ground it’s possible it could be causing the vehicle to lose it’s communication on the level 2 bus I’d assume. I also think the PCM is located in or near the air box on this vehicle and I wonder if they checked that connection. They had a heck of a time pulling the code for the bad SDM because the level 2 bus wasn’t functional which also explains why the cluster was lighting up with low fuel, etc.
PCM for most all W body GM cars is located inside of the air box, the ground for the PCM is probably the one next too the air box i am sure only make sense, not sure if A BCM will prevent starting, here is a second thing you can try
try honking your horn, if it honks… switch the horn relay with the relay i believe is labeled CRANK on the fuse box top, then try, also check fuses in case something was shorted, ALSO check too make sure that the hot side wire that goes from the positive battery terminal too the fuse box is snug too the fuse box. i have had issues with those just being loose and it wont start i won’t have any electrical power too anything in fact.
PS with those side battery terminals just because it feels tight doesn’t mean it has a good connection, i would check continuity of the battery cable terminals and the cables themselves…
hope this helps keep us posted.
Ah ok I’ll have them continuity check them.
The way I understand how passlock works is the passlock sensor (which is bypassed with a 2KOhm resistor) goes to the BCM, BCM checks the resistance value and communicates to the PCM to enable fuel injectors and the crank relay. That’s why I have a feeling they’re going to jump to a BCM issue.
The dealer said they checked the grounds and battery terminals and those were ok. They did find the PCM fuse was blown the second time the vehicle was towed in. They replaced the PCM fuse and it ran again for a bit until the fuse blew again. They’re diagnosing it down to a faulty BCM causing the PCM fuse to blow.
We shall see 🙂 I ordered the BCM, I’ll install it in their parking lot and do a security relearn to get the vehicle to run and then have them program the other BCM options. After paying them > $400 for the ignition switch replacement last week, and having the car run for less than a day, I don’t care if they think I’m being a jerk to not let them make part markup and install labor on this one. I didn’t have the funds to pay them the > $450 they wanted for the BCM, install and programming this week.
I suppose that sounds like progress. Strange problem indeed. I guess we’ll see if the PCM fixes it. Let us know if it does. Good luck.
I put the new BCM in and learned security on the vehicle (3, 10 minute on key cycles) and it fired right up. They completed the rest of the dealer option programming in the BCM and the car has been running for the last 3 days so far so good. Now this car just has an airbag issue and warped front brake rotors to deal with.
The warped rotors are an easy fix, there’s plenty of material on them to get them turned.
The airbag issue is going to be a bit more complex. 🙂Sadly, she purchased this vehicle from a used car lot without having anyone (including a mechanic) look at it. She’s learned a lesson that it’s worth it to get a used car checked out prior to finalizing the purchase I’d say.
Wow this car is a bit of a boomerang… guess what died this morning and got towed back to the dealer (again) for the same issue. The instrument cluster has all the low fuel, low battery, security, etc stuff going again and the car died while in running in a McDonalds drive through.
I called the dealer to let them know what happened and while talking to the service writer they put me on what they thought was hold and proceeded to say disparaging remarks about me (while they thought I was on hold but I wasn’t…) Whoops.
Once they fix this vehicle correctly it won’t be going back to them and their reputation is going to take a rather good hit on social media after this fiasco.
Maybe that’d be an interesting subject for an ETCG1 video; boomerang cars that keep coming back for the same issue within a week and how you deal with them as a technician.
That sounds like progress. Well done! As for the SRS, you might need to get your hands on a tool that will read those codes with that vehicle. Perhaps the GM guys can help you with that.
Good luck with the brakes and keep us updated on your progress.
Nah it’s not really progress since the dealer has said they’ve “fixed” the same issue 3 times now and yet it’s been towed into them 3 times dead, no crank/no start and a communications issue all 3 times. LOL
I have the ability to read airbag DTCs on GMs at home but lack the few tools to do things like BCM programming on GMs.
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