Printer Friendly Forum Posts - viper 791xv 98 trans am

I'm thinking they messed something up too, and they did suggest going to the dealer or somewhere else that might be able to troubleshoot the wiring itself.

The switch on the passenger door doesn't work either. So, neither switches nor the remote can lock the door, but all 3 work in terms of unlocking the door.

It looks to me like there is only one wire, RED / black that could have any problems with it, and it should be easy to troubleshoot it. I just don' t have any knowledge of this stuff.

What is the difference between:

Power Lock	RED / black	-	green plug at the BCM
Notes: The BCM is located in the passenger kick, just in front of the blower motor.

and:

Lock Motor	gray	5wi	green plug at the BCM
Notes: The BCM is located in the passenger kick, just in front of the blower motor.

They never mentioned anything about a plain gray wire, so that could be it, and I understand they followed the picture diagram when they wired it. I really do appreciate the help...i'm a mechanical guy, not electrical

I'm in Dallas...you don't happen to be close by do you?

Thanks again!!!

any ideas guys? The shop isn't offering to look into any further

Yes, I have an idea. I did an alarm on a 00' Camaro (almopst the same setup you have). I had the same problem. It ended up being a blown fuse for the door locks. I hooked everything up and it all worked fine, but as soon as I touched the factory keyless remote...it blew the fuse. I didn't realize it and when I tried to use the new alarm, the door would lock at all. Took me forever to find out the I had a blown fuse in the fuse box. Check that fuse, if it's blown, replace it and never ever touch the factory keyless remote again, for some reason it causes the system to blow fuses. I did this on the car I was working on and it fixed everything perfectly. If this is not the problem, I have no idea.

check the pins in the door lock switch sometimes they bend when the pulg comes out if the bottom cover comes off

shoelesscraig wrote:

Yes, I have an idea. I did an alarm on a 00' Camaro (almopst the same setup you have). I had the same problem. It ended up being a blown fuse for the door locks. I hooked everything up and it all worked fine, but as soon as I touched the factory keyless remote...it blew the fuse. I didn't realize it and when I tried to use the new alarm, the door would lock at all. Took me forever to find out the I had a blown fuse in the fuse box. Check that fuse, if it's blown, replace it and never ever touch the factory keyless remote again, for some reason it causes the system to blow fuses. I did this on the car I was working on and it fixed everything perfectly. If this is not the problem, I have no idea.

Thanks for the advice! I'll check all the fuses when the sun comes up tomorrow...Do you remember which switch it was, because the owners manual doesn't have anything labeled for the door locks...

ccroadshop99031 wrote:

check the pins in the door lock switch sometimes they bend when the pulg comes out if the bottom cover comes off

Thanks for the tip, I really appreciate it. Could you explain what you mean by the pins in the door lock switch, such as where it is and everything? I don't know much of anything about this stuff :( Thanks again.

To be honest, I don't remember which fuse it was. I believe (don't hold me to this) but I believe that it was a yellow 20 amp fuse, in the glovebox that is located to the left of the steering wheel.

when you unplug the door lock switch in the door

Well, all the fuses seem to be intact. I'll try making sure the door lock switches are properly plugged in later today. THanks again for all the help guys.

After the shop installed my 791xv in a 98 trans am with power locks, they could not get the locks to lock. They unlock, but will not lock using the remote or the push button inside the car. A signal goes to the BCM, it clicks, but nothing happens to the locks. There has to be a way to wire up some relays to bypass the BCM and send the signal directly to the door locks. Anyone know how exactly to wire this up????

are you saying that the doorlock switch on the drivers door no longer works as well?

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Kevin Gerry
Certified Electronics Technician
MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer
Classic Car Audio
since 1979

Yes. The remote does not lock them, and neither do the switches in the doors. However, the remote and both switches are able to unlock the doors.

Anyone have some advice???

Check all fuses, connections, ets. If you are saying that your doorlock worked prior to taking it to a shop, they installed a system for you and the lock no longer works at all, I would have them look at the car. Check to make sure that the RED / black (- trigger for lock) at the BCM in the passenger kick is still connected. I am not saying this is your problem, I am just trying to offer something to try.

As far as hooking directly to the motors, yes you can do that, trusting everything else is fine. You would have to 5 wire the lock side of the circuit, just as the unlock should be connected currently.

Unfortunately the shop gave up on it after 7 days and gave me a discounted install rate, and I can't find anyone else to work on it. Everything seems to be connected properly according to the schematics.

How exactly do I wire up the 5 wire lock side of the circuit?

I'm willing to try just about anything at this point.

Sounds like the shop burned out the switch in the door because the UNLOCK function requires a 5 wire setup to protect the switch from getting a (-) signal. If you can actuate the door motors via the motor wires, you can use the 5 wire set up like this ( https://www.velocitymotorsport.com/images/install_notes/C.jpg ) and wire in both the driver's side and the passenger side motor wires:

DOORLOCK MOTOR	gray		green plug at the bcm			The BCM is located in the passenger kick, just in front of the blower motor.
DOOR UNLOCK MOTOR	tan		green plug at the bcm			The BCM is located in the passenger kick, just in front of the blower motor.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Also, did the shop grab both unlock wire ( TAN & GRAY/BLACK ) & 5 wire these wires ?

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Just to make sure I undersand... All I need to do is get a relay; run a 12volt source to "86" and "87"; run the proper wire from the alarm to "85" to supply the negative pulse; run the output wire from the door switches(I believe it is red and balck) to "87a" and the gray motor wire to "30"????? Is that correct?

Should I test anything before I get started to see if this will actually work or not? Is it possible the door lock motor is fried? I think the switch itself is OK, because a signal does go to the BCM because it clicks, but then nothing happens after that.

Will I need to wire up the unlock function as pictured in the diagram, or will it work properly still? I suppose it would be fine if they wired it up as you questioned/suggested in your last post. From what they told me, they were able to wire up the unlock function properly according to the install schematics of the alarm. I'm not sure exactly sure what that consists of. I guess I'll find out when I tear into it.

Thanks again so much for your help. I REALLY REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!!!!!

Well, I started working on this, and now neither of them work. Checked the fuses, not it. Hit the button, and things click, but neither the locks nor unlock works. I picked up a DEI 451. could someone please tell me exactly how to wire this into the system. Keep in mind the RED / black, tan, gray/black wires have all been cut in half, so please include if I should be connecting the 451 to the half going into the Green plug at the BCM or the half that goes into the car somewhere.

Also, is it possible to have fried the actuators themselves or a fuse going to them? Where are they and how can I check???

Well, I've tried wiring it up every way possible, to no avail. I decided to wire it back up stock to see what happened, and the doors will UNLOCK, but will not LOCK. It seems to NOT be a problem with the way the alarm is getting wired in since they DO NOT LOCK when the wiring is STOCK. What could possibly be wrong. Could an acuator be fried? the BCM be fried? Is there a fuse inline in the system somewhere? I know there has to be a simple answer to this one. Also, I checked with a continuity tester, and there is no juice going through the RED / black lock switch wire, and nothing going through the gray lock motor wire either.

Correction, there is juice going through the gray wire.

I tried wiring things as the velocity motorsports diagram was showing, and that didn't work. I tried wiring it up as another diagram I found showed for '96 and up Camaro's where the relays separated the unlock function in two relays and wired the lock pulse from the alarm to the RED / black wire. Both of these had the same results. Hit the lock button, hear a click at the BCM and then nothing.

someone may have already suggested this but i didn't read all the posts entirely. isn't this vehicle one of the ones like the camaro where you have to turn off the factory alarm with the lock unlock switches (programming) so that it doesn't interfere with an aftermarket alarm locking the vehicle. try document 1057 from diretechs. also most shops have insurance and if they did burn the switch up then it would be up to them to file a damage claim and get your vehicle fixed. i would go in being rude about it but you should let them know that you do expect them to get your vehicle fixed at least back to the way it was working prior to them working on it. good luck.

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"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."
-Socrates-

Yeah, unfortunately I moved 15 hours away from the shop that did the install. So, that is out. I did notice when playing with it, the factory alarm did go off when I opened the passenger door a couple of times. The wiring is the same as in the camaro. I'll try to find the 1057 article on the website here and see if that helps at all. I tried directechs website but couldn't seem to do anything without logging in. Thanks for the help!

Didn't find the 1057 article on here, but could that actually be the problem since I wired the locks back up to stock and they still would NOT LOCK, but did unlock?

Did not find a 1057 document on Directechs, but 1052 is for Camaro/Firebird door locks.

You have an open trace on the lock side of the door lock relays inside the BCM. Repair the burnt circuit board trace, and you will be OK.

Gus

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Wherever I go, that is where I end up......

Yep, I went off that 1052 document. also tried wiring with a DEI 451, but had the same result.

I'm thinking it is in the bcm as suggested, but I have no idea how to repair a circuit board trace. If it is that, could I directly wire the RED / black from the switch to the gray wire going to the motor and bypass the BCM?

OR the gray wire is cut somewhere on its way to the motor locks cause it does get juice when I hit the lock buttons. Is that a possibility?

What's the best way to bypass the VATS (vehicle anti theft system) in a 1998 pontiac trans am. I see kits on ebay for like $25. Does DEI offer a part that easily interfaces with a Viper 791XV alarm, i 'd like to have quality/dependability? I plan to swap a used BCM for mine which seems to have a fried circuit and need to get it to work with my key.

resistor and a relay... fast and effective

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Kevin Gerry
Certified Electronics Technician
MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer
Classic Car Audio
since 1979

I need a little bit more assistance than that. I don't really know which wires to tap into, or exactly how to measure the resistance of the key.

Anyone know what I need to do here?

If you have changed the BCM, you will have to get the dealer to reprogram it for your car and VATS system. The BCM reads the value of the resistor in your key when you place it in the ignition cylinder. The resitance value of the key is stored in the BCM. If the value of the key matches the stored value the BCM will enable the fuel and starter circuits. If you bypass the current system, it won't help after you replace the BCM. You need to use a ohm meter to measure the resistor in the key. Cut the two white wires, usually insulated inside orange or black insulation and install a resistor of the same value as the key across the two cut sides of the wires going into the car and not the key cylinder. This way the car will see the correct value all the time.

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sparky

Does anyone know where and which wire is the hood pinswitch wire in a '98 firebird? I've looked around the wiring guides and haven't ever seen this one. Basically I have a Viper 791xv with everything hooked up except the remote starter, and I want to hook it up. Shouldn't be too tought to find all the rest of the correct wires, but if anyone has suggestions or knows exactly which wires go to what and can provide this help, that would be awesome!

Wire/Function

Colour

Location/Description

Polarity

PASSIVE ANTI-THEFT

YES

PASSKEY / V.A.T.S.

SEE NOTES

12 VOLTS

Red

Ignition harness

IGNITION

Pink

Ignition harness

ACCESSORY

Orange

Ignition harness

STARTER

Yellow

Ignition harness

KEY SENSE

Lt.green

Ignition harness

TACH SIGNAL

SEE NOTES

WHITE at the Ignition module on the top of the engine for the 3.8L. The 5.7L engine has a coil per cylinder. The WHITE tach wire can be found at the PCM behind the right strut tower at pin-35 of the 80 pin connector.

LOCK

RED / black

Driver's kick panel

The BCM which control the doorlocks goes into a sleep mode when the vehicle is left sitting for a few minutes and the doorlocks no longer operate. The module must be 'woken up' before the doorlocks can be operated again. See the ALARM diagram for details. PLEASE NOTE: On models equipped with no factory security, the doorlocks can be wired as a reverse polarity doorlock system.

UNLOCK

ORANGE / black

Driver's kick panel

DOORPIN

Gray/black & BLACK/ white

At BCM above pass. Kick

Both wires should be isolated with 1N4001 diodes to prevent any feedback. You can also find your hatch trigger and doorlock wires here as well as the hatch release wire.

TRUNK PIN

ORANGE / black

In driver's kickpanel

TRUNK RELEASE

BLACK/ white

In driver's kickpanel

DRIVER DOOR LATCH

Gray/black

Same as doorpin

FACTORY DISARM

See notes

BRAKESWITCH

White or Lt.blue

At switch above brake pedal

PARKLIGHTS

Brown

In driver's kickpanel

HAND BRAKE

Tan/white

At steering column harness

HORN

Black

At steering column harness

CLUTCH SWITCH

Dk.green

At switch on top of clutch pedal

TYPE 1

DRIVER WINDOW UP

Dk.blue

At switch in driver's door

REV POL

DRIVER WINDOW DOWN

Brown

At switch in driver's door

REV POL

PASSENGER WINDOW UP

Blue or Blue/white

At switch in driver's door

REV POL

PASSENGER WINDOW DOWN

Tan

At switch in driver's door

REV POL

HEADLIGHTS

Yellow

At light switch harness

REVERSE LIGHTS

Lt.green or Gray

In driver's kickpanel

DIMMER

Gray

At dimmer switch harness

VSS WIRE

Dk.GREEN / WHITE

Behind radio or at PCM

4000ppm

This wire can be found on the connector to the rear of the vehicle's radio or at the PCM behind the right strut tower pin-55 of the 80-pin connector.

DATABUS INTERFACE

Pin-2(top row from left)

Diagnostic plug below dash

DATA

V.A.T.S.

White

In orange tube at steering column

DATA

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That's awesome! Thanks man!

I had a Viper 791xv installed by a shop in my '98 pontiac firebird trans am with a manual transmission. Obviously they wouldn't hook up the remote start so I"m going to do it myself, but I seem to be missing a couple wiring harnesses(they must have tossed them) and want to make sure I'm hooking up the correct wires, so here are my questions.

From the satellite, I splice into the following wires, and by splicing I mean attaching to them, not cutting them and leaving one end unhooked, right?

Orange from the satellite goes to the slightyly large orange wire that is near the ignition wires then runs towards the center of the car?

Pink from the satellite goes to the heavy brown wire in the ignition wires?

I am missing the 4 pin harness that plugs into the satellite. Will this be a problem?

I am also missing the 5 wire harness from the brain, but have one that fits, but the wires are obviously not the right colors. Could someone tell me which would be H3/1, H3/2 etc...?

Which wire can I run to the parking brake to provide ground to the remote start system so it will only work when the parking brake is on, and which wire on the parking brake do I use?

There is a blue or blue/white wire in the main brain harness that is indicated for the remote start, but I have no idea what to connect it to.

Thanks everybody, I will really appreciate your help!

I hate to say it....but the mods will probably shut this post down shortly. The 791 is NOT for manual trans, and they guys don't like the members helping figure away around a featuer, to make it work. This is NOT safe. Good luck, maybe someone will give you the answers you need before the topic gets closed.

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I didn't know I was at risk of getting it shut down. I know a lot of guys have used this model on a manual trans. At the time I bought it I was in Texas, so I didn't need R.S., but now that I"m in Indiana, it's way tooo cold, and I don't really want to buy a whole new alarm to work with it. Thanks for the heads-up!

I found the 4 pin harness for the satellite. Just not sure what to use the blue wire for, I belive it goes to the relay for bypassing VATS???

I wired things up, described as above, but nothing at all happens. I assume partially because the WHITE/ blue H1/3 wire from the main harness of the brain is not hooked to anything, because I don't know what to hook it up to.

I bypassed vats permanently with a 4.7k ohm resistor, but will wire this up later with a relay using the blue/white wire from the H3 harness in the brain. I used a 5 pin harness from something else, so the wire colors are wrong, but I consider the wire on the right the blue/white, the wire on the left, the BLACK/ white. I hooked up the Tach wire, and did the tach learn, and the brown brake wire to the light blue wire at the brakes.

So, now what? I know I'm close...

I finished hooking up a VIper 791xv on my '98 Firebird Trans Am yesterday, and tapped all the connections but one! The pink and white wire, which is hooked up to the brown wire in the ignition hit bare metal, sparked and now the car won't start. It did blow a 50 amp fuse under the hood, which I replaced and a 10 amp inline fuse that was on the white wire of the alarm. I replaced both of these, but it still won't start. You can hear the starter click when I turn the key, but just once and it stops immediately. Also, the power to the radio will start and shutdown right away. Also, the first time I put the key in the door, the BCM will chime 5 times very quickly.

I can't belive I get it all hooked up and made such a stupid mistake. I have NO IDEA what to do to try to fix this!

The ignition switch has two separate red, constant-power wires.

Usually, each is powered by a separate fuse. You may have somehow blown both of them, but replaced only one.

1. Test BOTH of the red wires at the steering column....do they both have power?

2. Get out your test light and test EVERY fuse in the car, both inside and out.

Just turn the ignition on, touch your test light to one side of the fuse (without removing it), then the other........when you find a fuse that's got power on one side, but not the other, it's blown.

It all works, I just have to figure out how to trick it into thinking the clutch pedal is pressed in, and I'm done.

Make sure the battery isn't dead.

Things happen, but you'll learn from it. As Chris advise, look through and test every fuse carefully. You may just have miss one.

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Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. posted_image

I finally did find the fuse. the ole fuse tester showed it was ok. It was the "Gauges" fuse in the box on the left of the dashboard. Thanks for the help guys!

Viper 791xv on a '98 pontiac trans am. It works, almost all the time, about 4 out of the 20 times I've tried it, you can hear the starter click a few times and everything shuts down. The remote indicates it's in remote start mode. The car has no power to anything at all inside, lights, radio, nothing. Try starting it with the key, but nothing at all happens, no clicking starter, no juice to anything. But, I turn on the parking lights, which for whatever reason flips the headlights up, which doesn't normally happen, and the car fires up with or without using the key. The trip odometer and the cd player are reset, and I have to set all the setting on the cd player again as though I disconnected the battery. I also have noticed since it happened the first time, the led light stay on constantly when the car is shut off but not while running, the siren does not chirp when arming and disarming and the lights don't flash. Please someone tell me there is some little secret that links all this together!!!!!!???????!!!!!!

The battery. How old is it? HAve you repleaced it recently. I've seen the same sorta propblem in that car when the battery was going bad.

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Cause I'm So white and nerdy...
First Class Certi-fried installer

It's about 1 year old, and holds steady at about 14 volts with the lights on, AC on, and a 5 channel amp pulling max wattage. I'm going to pull it out this weekend to find out for sure. If it's toasted, it's time to get an optima.

The problem may be with your power source. These cars go to sleep within a minute of locking the doors. Many of the battery circuits in the car go to sleep, unless they are required for memory functions. Use the red and RED / white battery wires in the ignition harness for power as they don't go to sleep. To wake the car up, you need to pulse the doorpin and the unlock wires. To disarm the alarm you must do that as well as momentarily activate the VATS interface and pulse the brown accessory wire in the ignition harness with 12 volts. If you are tied into a wrong power wire, the remote starter will try to pull the power backwards through a circuit that can't handle the current demand. This will cause things to lock up or reset.

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sparky

I know the car does wake up as needed because the door locks and other accesories function normally regardless of how long the car has sat around. The VATS pulse is good, but I'll double check which power wires I have tapped everything into.

What seems so odd is that it works almost all the time. The alarm itself is good to go, except for what I mentioned above Which started since the first time the remote starter didn't fire the car up. such as the constant lit LED and the siren not chirping. I would think if it was an issue regarding the direction power is being pulled through a circuit, this stuff would happen every time.

The alarm is in valet mode thats why led is solid and no chirps on arm or disarm. That should not cause the car to not start though. On dei alarms you can put them in valet mode with the remote or the valet switch, probally done from remote so you have to take it out from the remote. You will have to open the door then arm, disarm, arm if thats not it then its disarm, arm, disarm.

Got it out of valet mode. thanks for that one!

It remote started fine yesterday and again this morning after sitting all night. I pulled the brain out and found a 10 amp fuse on the white wire had been blown. I swapped it out, and it remote started fine again and the fuse stayed ok. I also threw in a new optima red top battery. Hopefully this solves the mystery.

I also can't get it to go into programming mode so I can turn off the auto locks(almost locked me out several times now. ) Gonna check some more wiring...

Everything is working quite nicely, but I can't get it into programming mode to turn off the pesky ignition controlled locks. I keep locking myself out with them on. I open the door, ignition on, then off, then press and hold the valet switch, but I never get any chirps.

I know the valet switch works fine, because it will enter valet mode, which it does everytime I try to get it into programming mode. I know the door pin is hooked up, because opening the door sets of the alarm when it is armed. Anybody have an idea?