goofy '95 cavalier with no passlock

Just did this one today - it was interesting to say the least. I thought I was going to have to deal with the stupid early Passlock (black, black, BLACK/ white) ribbon cable which doesn't separate with any kind of ease. I ended up taking the shroud off to find this: It's sort of hard to make out, but there are no wires whatsoever going in to the key cylinder. Very bizarre to find this, as I was under the impression that all '95-up J bodies had Passlock. Apparently they didn't start quite that early (this car had a build date of January 1995). I ended up running a (probably unnecessary) wire to the bulb test wire, but the remote start worked fine and no bypass was necessary. Something curious to look out for.C Renner's Auto Electronix

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You got a new phone or camera?

Honestly i'm more surprised there are 14 year old Cavaliers still on the road....Mike M2

Tech Manager

CS Dealer Services

howie: camera phone. LG VX9900(enV) which is the 4th of that phone I've had (3 replaced under warranty, generally due to poorly designed battery retention, and this one is about to give way to number 5). Mike: mileage was 66666, interestingly enough. Old lady owned it, and it ran about as good as you'd expect for a POS 2.2 liter. It's too bad that the seats couldn't be solid metal and linked to the engine; then you'd get a nice massage after a long day's work.C Renner's Auto Electronix

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ah it could just be a 95 with the old 94 system still in it cuz they had them left over. that does happen once in a while.

jinstall wrote: ah it could just be a 95 with the old 94 system still in it cuz they had them left over. that does happen once in a while.

That's the goofy thing. The cars were all new for '95, including the key cylinder. I'm thinking they might not have quite worked the bugs out of it in time, and figured that if there was a car that people weren't expecting to have any theft deterrence, this was it.C Renner's Auto Electronix

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lol yeah it's much more fun when it's something like the pcm is a year older than the rest of the car. lol that's lots of fun to troubleshoot

I hate to imagine having to run diagnostics that car - the plug was OBD-II, not the earlier GM 12-pin. I've heard some horror stories about scanner compatibility with '94-'95 OBD 1.5 cars.C Renner's Auto Electronix

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that's pretty awesome. what happens does it give you totally wrong diagnostics or just not work at all? or does it do something to the whole system?

There's just a bunch of conflicting information on it...like whether you're supposed to use an OBD-II scanner, or an older GM specific scanner with an adaptor. What codes it will give, and if it's possible to use a paperclip for diagnostic codes like you could do on conventional '82-'95 GMs. Whether or not special firmware or external power is needed on a scanner in order for it to communicate with the car. Etc. and so on.C Renner's Auto Electronix

My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two