E38 Vin Change

They go by many names, P01, P59, VPW, '0411 etc. Also covering E38 and newer here.
bojimmy35
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E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

Looking for some assistance with this operation as what I have been doing up to this point has not yielded much success.

I am attempting to do what I thought would be a simple change a vin on an E38. I am trying to do the vin change prior to updating with SPS/Techline Connect. I have attempted on a 2007 E38 as well as 2010+ E38 both with the same results. I have a 08-10 E38 as well but the vin seems to be garbled when displaying with Universal Patcher.

Using an MDI I read out the E38 using PowerPCM Flasher and saved the bin. Loaded it up with Universal Flasher and the first couple attempts tried a complete vin change, when that failed, I tried just the last digit of the sequence number. Saved the bin. Reopened with Universal Patcher to verify the change. Then loaded it into PowerPCM flasher to upload into the ecm. Wait until it completes. Cycle the power, initially both battery and ignition, now just ignition. Then reread the ecm, saved as new file and reopened with Universal Flasher only to find the vin had not changed. Also verified with tech2win that the vin has not changed.

I have opened the vin changed bin file with efilive and it at least is showing the vin has changed. So I don't think it is an issue with the file as much as it may be an issue with either the flashing software or my method. This is all being done on the bench outside the car and the ecm is the only module on the can network that is powered. My bench harness has a provision for a tcm but that is not being powered during this.

What am I doing wrong in this procedure?
kur4o
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Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:20 pm

Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by kur4o »

To change the vin that way you need to do clone rewrite of the pcm. Th program you use writes only small portion of the full file[calibration area]/
There are some commands you can use, but are CAN based and some other guy might help you better..

With sps you can also reflash to new vin, as per new module that have no vin saved.
ironduke
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by ironduke »

Put something together real quick but I don't have time to test it, give it a try.. Won't be available to touch it up until later tonight if it fails so give me some time if it fails..
with the E38 I've found what I think is certain OS's that don't let me change the vin unless I perform an SPS write to them, don't remember if it has to be an OS write or just a calibration write(which powerpcm does) so if it does fail, try writing the calibration to the ecm then give my program another try..
If it fails try writing the same vin that's in it and let me know if that succeeds for feedback.. If that fails too then I have something messed up in the code for sure..
E38 Vin changer.exe
(66.5 KiB) Downloaded 487 times
E38 Vin changer.exe.remove_all_to_exe.txt
(66.5 KiB) Downloaded 245 times
E38 Vin changer.7z
(56.84 KiB) Downloaded 264 times
Same program, one is the exe straight up, the other is the exe with .txt added at the end(per Gampy's suggestion) and the 3rd is just zipped it up in case you have problems downloading the exe.. browsers and such are getting to be a pita with that..

As for the vin being garbled it's likely because you erred writing to it.. Not all E38 ecu's are the same, well they are but different years and OP's cannot be interchanged without some work, cloning works ok but just using sps will semi-brick them and garble the VIN,serial, and seed key locations.. Without some work you might be out of luck on that one..
Last edited by ironduke on Tue Mar 01, 2022 7:31 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Gampy
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by Gampy »

Put a .txt on the end, and a rename comment, fools most!
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Cincinnatus
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by Cincinnatus »

Ironduke, how are you cloning an e38?
ironduke
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by ironduke »

Cincinnatus wrote:Ironduke, how are you cloning an e38?
I was lucky enough to get a license for tazzi's program.. Haven't used it in a long time and I understand he's no longer licensing it as of a little while ago.. I am assuming my version is still working if I needed it to?
bojimmy35
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:59 am
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

ironduke wrote:Put something together real quick but I don't have time to test it, give it a try.. Won't be available to touch it up until later tonight if it fails so give me some time if it fails..
with the E38 I've found what I think is certain OS's that don't let me change the vin unless I perform an SPS write to them, don't remember if it has to be an OS write or just a calibration write(which pcm hammer does) so if it does fail, try writing the calibration to the ecm then give my program another try..
If it fails try writing the same vin that's in it and let me know if that succeeeds for feedback.. If that fails too then I have something messed up in the code for sure..
The attachment E38 Vin changer.exe is no longer available
The attachment E38 Vin changer.7z is no longer available
Same program, just zipped it up in case you have problems downloading the exe.. browsers and such are getting to be a pita with that..

As for the vin being garbled it's likely because you erred writing to it.. Not all E38 ecu's are the same, well they are but different years and OP's cannot be interchanged without some work, cloning works ok but just using sps will semi-brick them and garble the VIN,serial, and seed key locations.. Without some work you might be out of luck on that one..
So this seemed to work on the the 07 e38 without issues as well as the 08-10 which at least in Universal Patcher displayed a somewhat garbled vin. I have a few 07's that it was able to read the vin on that Universal Patcher was not, so I am willing to be that its not the ecm at this point. The 2010+ is however the one it doesn't seem to want to change. I have attached the bin dump from that ecu
as_found_12633238.bin
(2 MiB) Downloaded 144 times
as well as the error I am getting below.

Code: Select all

Input Device Number:1
Vin is 1GC2GUBG9A1184016
Vin is 1GC2GUBG9A1184016
Type in Vin you want programmed into module
1GC2GUBG9A1185017
Seed is 7033
Key used to unlock is 38CF
Unlocked- OK
Device ID request ok
101FE013E
Write vin 1st line OK
Response from wrotevin is 000007E8037F3B31AAAAAAAA
Error!! Response from wrotevin 000007E8037F3B31AAAAAAAA
Please make sure to turn ign off for 30 seconds!!
Press any key to go back to main menu
kur4o
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by kur4o »

So this seemed to work on the the 07 e38 without issues as well as the 08-10 which at least in Universal Patcher displayed a somewhat garbled vin.
If you have some bins that don`t display proper vin info in universal patcher please post them here. Might be an easy fix, or yet unsupported versions of eeprom data.
bojimmy35
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:59 am
cars: Don't have a shed

Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

kur4o wrote:
So this seemed to work on the the 07 e38 without issues as well as the 08-10 which at least in Universal Patcher displayed a somewhat garbled vin.
If you have some bins that don`t display proper vin info in universal patcher please post them here. Might be an easy fix, or yet unsupported versions of eeprom data.

Sure thing. This first file looks like it may start reading the vin 3 digits too late as it shows the last 14 characters but then 3 "?" at the end but the vin does not start out correctly.
as_found_2007_2500_HD.bin
(2 MiB) Downloaded 134 times
This file looks to be in the same boat as the last one.
as_found_2008_g6_ecu.bin
(2 MiB) Downloaded 127 times
The other 2010 and the other 2007 bin's I have seem to read fine.
ironduke
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:32 pm
cars: Mainly GM trucks, a Cruze and an Equinox for dailys..

Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by ironduke »

bojimmy35 did you try writing the same vin back to that 2010 Express van ecm? Vin 1GC2GUBG9A1184016? I'm guessing that works ok but changing it to a different vin fails..

I have run into it before where I couldn't change the vin, except I did find out that I could write the vin right after a sps programming event.. Not sure why though? even just pushing the gm sps write kernel didn't do the trick, I had to write the calibrations at a minimum.. that might be something to try if your able.. Do you have unlimited access to sps? or do you have to pay ver vin? Do you need this ecu to be changed or are you just goofing off like I do all the time? lol..

I see the differences in the vin location and I see in the xml where kurd4o and joukoy are doing the figuring for that, sorry but it's over my head.. request 1A 90 is for the vin and 1A 28 is for partial vin, but I've always been seeing the full vin with that request. I see 2 sports for the vin and they match so that makes sense, I just don't know howto determine where it is like they have.. Other than that they do look like good bins, hopefully the 2 of them can get it figured out..
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