'03 L200 with Passlock issue...

[Jim@HiTek]

78,000 miles

The passlock issue has been creeping up on me with my Saturn. Yesterday it happened twice. And happened a week before. Usually it's a month or two between issues.

So, I was planning on doing the bypass trick but first I wanted to ask if there are any youtube or written instructions so I can stay out of trouble taking things apart. When I did the auto climate control module swap a few weeks ago, that took a bunch of work. I've still not completely reinstalled the glove box.

Any tricks hints or hacks to getting to the back of the ign switch without to much trouble?

Thanks.

[02 LW300]

Did you get anywhere with this?

[Jim@HiTek]

Usually I get help from Saturnalia about how to proceed with a repair...got a lot of help with my SL1 and a couple times with my L200, but as you can see, no answers this time.

Which means either it's so obvious I'm an idiot for even asking OR that it happens so seldom with an L200 that there aren't many people that have done it that can offer advice.

I'll just keep waiting until I have some idea how to do the work and if I don't find any instructions, I'll just stumble along on my own hoping for the best.

Hmm, I will try Youtube again and try to get a bit more specific with my query. Maybe I entered the wrong wording when I checked.

[02 LW300]

I don’t know about the bypass trick but I can post some pictures of the drawings in the fsm if that helps. The column plastic comes off easily other than being 20 years old.

[fdryer]

Can you elaborate on your issues with Passlock? Be as detailed in your descriptions as possible.

A summary of Passlock and the security indicator.

Using remote to Lock/Unlock, locks/unlocks doors and enables/disables the security indicator; locked/blinking security once every few seconds, unlocked/off.

When a theft attempt is made with security enabled, anyone attempting to jimmy the ignition lock cylinder/ignition switch may result in security detecting a theft (three wire sensor in the ignition lock cylinder) resulting in the bcm sending a disable signal to injectors and begin flashing the security indicator. Attempts to start results in a momentary startup or no startup. The starter can continue to crank the engine but without injectors operating, no engine running to drive away. The flashing security indicator is s tell tale with physical damage to the ignition switch/lock cylinder if amateur thieves tried to steal the car. Other instances of a false theft attempt may display a flashing indicator and simply inserting and turning the ignition switch should reset security, turning off the indicator. Pressing Unlock on the remote unlocks door(s) and disables security.

The security indicator has four modes; off, blinking, flashing and on. When the security indicator is permanently on, Passlock detected an internal failure during self tests and disables itself to prevent interfering with everyday driving. Security indicator on all the time may be; replacing ecm or bcm and not performing a relearn procedure to 'marry' the replacement module to the other one, the three wire sensor on the ignition lock cylinder was damaged or tampered with or magnets embedded in the ignition lock casting was damaged or tampered with. The sensor detects magnets and rotation of the ignition lock cylinder as part of security.

If none of these descriptions matches your symptoms, then your problem may not be a security issue and more likely related to starter, battery, battery cables and their connections, fuel (pump) or spark issue.

[Jim@HiTek]

Sorry for the delay in responding, my browser displayed an error message about SaturnFans having an internal server error for a couple days.

To address your questions, what happens is that occasionally, I'll get in the car, try to start it, it doesn't start. When I notice, I see that the Passlock idiot light on the dash is on steady. I now know to just cycle then leave the key on and wait 10 minutes until the light goes out, then restart. So far that's worked every time. This happened the first time shortly after I bought the car in 2021 (with 65,000 miles on it) and I found the info about 'reprogramming' it here on SaturnFans so thanks for that everyone.

Anyway, it had happened maybe 2X-3X since 2021, but lately it's gotten a bit more frequent. In fact, this month it's happened 3 times already. About once per week. Getting old.

What I thought for a while was that it happened just after I'd done something out of the ordinary with the remote. Like press the wrong button in the dark, or press a button too many times, or press 2 buttons to quickly, or thinking a door was unlocked, try to open it AND stupidly pressing the unlock (or different) button at the same time.

But the last time this happened, none of those things had occurred. And we had to sit in the heat for those 10 minutes before it started.

So since the resistor trick I'd found researching this passlock issue seems right up my alley, I was going to do that (retired electronics tech/engineer) but couldn't find any instructions on how to get to the switch and I thought it had to do with the ignition switch so expected that the wiring they were talking about was at the ignition switch. BTW, I find these resistor kits at Amazon and eBay so it's a common fix...Passlock Bypass Resistor.

HA! Never Mind! I just found a Youtube video and I see that the wiring to attach the resistor to is at that control module above the glove box. Which I still haven't reinstalled since I pulled it out to change the fan speed control so it's very accessible to me. I don't need to access the key switch wiring like I thought I'd need to.

Boy, happy I waited and didn't just go crazy pulling the steering column apart.