Hi, car is a '97 Go out today, all is well. All of a sudden, no apparent reason the gauges go nuts. Temp went to highest position, oil pressure to 0, gas to empty, radio goes off; windows don’t work,DIC repeats low tire pressure, reduced engine power,check gauges. bells start dinging, check gauges light comes on, traction control light, abs light, . . . Made it to a dealer. turned car off, now it won’t even start. Just to let you know I’m 400 miles away from home Thankfully the tech was good. He troubleshooted it for over four hours.He said it had something to do with the DCM and the key fob sensor... Dealers invoice: “ disconnected module vehicle will start and run.
Module is discontinued from GM. Key fob and tire pressure monitors will not work due to module being bad“ SO my question is can I drive the car forever like this or am I doing harm.? With this module disconnected?
Would like to hear your comments!
thanks
George

 

It took a Dealer Tech 4 or more hours to diagnose this ??…you should have come here first we could have done it in 4 minutes !!…if it’s the FOB they said is inop do you mean the RCDL ??…it may just be a bad power or ground on that module and not just a bad module…I’d call the dealer and ask them if they checked the power and grounds to it…that is the first thing you would do…you may be able to find one on EBAY or here on the Forum if the module is indeed bad !!

 

LOL!!! Yep,,, Very common issue. You should START at the Door Control Module that they disconnected. Pop the accordion tube out of the body and the door and you will see TWO wiring connectors. The connector with SIX wires is the POWER CONNECTOR for that door module. What usually and more times than not happens is the FEMALE PINS inside the one power connector spread apart and make poor connection with the male pin in the other power connector connector.

This causes the module to turn ON & OFF, ON & OFF, ON & OFF, ON & OFF (you get the point) This causes the DCM module to flood the serial data buss with corrupt data and the BCM goes crazy and sends out bad data.

SO,, To resolve this issue, you need to (disconnect the battery) Using a spare male pin that is the same size as the male pin inside the connector, insert the male pin into the female pins in that female half of that connector. Its called a PIN PUSH PULL TEST. The pin should push in and pull out with a noticeable resistance. Meaning that there is a very good mechaniical connection between the male and female pin. On a bad female pin, you will NOT feel that resistance to male pin movement.

To FIX this issue, you can use a very small PICK and bend the little tang inside the female pin so it makes better contact on the male pin. OR .You could also de-pin the connector, purchase new female pins and crimp them on the wire and reinsert them back into the connector in the correct slots.
Do that for BOTH "LDCM & the RDCM" for trouble free driving. Once you get that sorted out,, CLEAR ALL THE DTCs start the engine and see what DTCs come back,, List those DTCs and we can go to work on those issues. You don't need a STINKING STEALERSHIP!!

LOL!!

Bill

 

Your reply’s and information are very helpful. I had no more issues for the rest of my trip. Now that I am at home I will have my local mechanic take a look at your suggestions which seem to be spot on. I just completed driving The Blue Ridge Parkway (469 mi) I am from NY so 1800 mi round trip. great trip other than this one break down thanks again for your help.