E38 Vin Change

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

Post by bojimmy35 »

ironduke wrote: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..

Sorry forgot to initially try that. It does work to write the same vin back in by either simply leaving the field blank or manually typing the same vin in.

So I pay per vin for sps/techline. On a hunch while trying to make this post, I tried a different bench harness I made that powers both the tcm and a bcm on the canbus not just a standalone ecm. This allowed the tool to successfully change a vin on the 2010+ ecm. When I attempted to change it back I am now getting the same error as before. So it has now been incremented 1 but won't go back down to its original vin now.
ironduke
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by ironduke »

bojimmy35 wrote:
ironduke wrote: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..

Sorry forgot to initially try that. It does work to write the same vin back in by either simply leaving the field blank or manually typing the same vin in.

So I pay per vin for sps/techline. On a hunch while trying to make this post, I tried a different bench harness I made that powers both the tcm and a bcm on the canbus not just a standalone ecm. This allowed the tool to successfully change a vin on the 2010+ ecm. When I attempted to change it back I am now getting the same error as before. So it has now been incremented 1 but won't go back down to its original vin now.
That is just weird? Honestly have no idea why that would happen, I don't look for or send any other messages except to the ecm.. As to them talking amongst themselves and letting the ecm vin change, maybe? somehow? Maybe someone smarter than us can chime in...
Might be something to do with the immo/security handshake between the BCM and ECM?? Guessing your messing with a 6 speed 6l80 and there is no security in the tcm for that.. They don't even need to have a matching vin to make them or the rest of the ecu's happy..
bojimmy35
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:59 am
cars: Don't have a shed

Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

The end goal for the ecm is to be paired with a 2013 t43 from a 6l80, the tcm that was plugged in on the bench was a t42 from a 4l60. Fired up the tech2 and it shows the newly incremented vin in the ECM. TCM in tech2 seem to always reflect the ECM regarldless of what they are actually for. The BCM still shows the original vin for the vehicle it is from.

Going to try and keep messing with it to see what if can get it changed over to the vin I actually need in there.
Cincinnatus
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by Cincinnatus »

Not sure about e38s, but the p01/p59 don't write the Vin until key off is performed after a write, but battery power has to remain for 30 secs or so I read.
ironduke
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by ironduke »

Cincinnatus wrote:Not sure about e38s, but the p01/p59 don't write the Vin until key off is performed after a write, but battery power has to remain for 30 secs or so I read.
yes!!! that should have been mentioned!!! That will only work if the vin writing is successful though.. if my program says it failed then turning the key off will not help..

As Cincinnatus has already mentioned, if my program says it was successful you need to turn the key off for 30 seconds so it can write it to the eeprom..

For the E38 ecu's the eeprom is stored in 2 locations just like the po1/p59 ecu's.. I imagine they all do it.. In order to make a change to the eeprom they can't just highlight the section they want changed and write over it like we do in a text editor.. They need to write it all out from start to finish..

So what they do is write out the eeprom (including the changes) to the 2nd eeprom location and erase the 1st location after a successful write.. this seems to happen when you turn the key off.. a battery disconnect doesn't let this happen so the eepom never takes the changes..

Locations are 0xc000 and 0xe000..
bojimmy35
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:59 am
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

Well that may explain some of the issues I am having, that particular bench harness did not have a way to keep battery power on. I have since modified it to allow this but still can't seem to get the new vin to take
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 wrote:Well that may explain some of the issues I am having, that particular bench harness did not have a way to keep battery power on. I have since modified it to allow this but still can't seem to get the new vin to take
sorry, I kinda took it for granted you knew that.. My fault for having a Doh!! moment.. If you haven't yet, try writing the calibration using powerpcm yet??

I am working on something, should have something for you in a day or 2, I can also add T43 to the vin change program I threw together..
Cincinnatus
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cars: 97 Corvette
92 Camaro
2005 Silverado
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Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by Cincinnatus »

If it's a bench setup, I would expect t42 TCM instead of t43
bojimmy35
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:59 am
cars: Don't have a shed

Re: E38 Vin Change

Post by bojimmy35 »

I picked up another 2010+ e38 today and attempted to change the vin with the tool. It worked again, I was able to change the vin to the one I needed. Cycled ignition power, waited 30 seconds. New vin had been stored. Attempted to change the vin back to what it was. Same error as before.

So not sure if it is a process issue so much as maybe a protection in the ecm. This time the vin is at least what I needed it to be so I will now attempt a sps/techline update to the correct OS. Once that is done I will attempt to program over the previous 2010+ e38 and see if it will take it and start to experiment with vin changes on that one

Also purely for future knowledge and disassembly. Here is the original calibration from that ecm.
as_found_2014_tahoe.bin
(2 MiB) Downloaded 118 times
Update!!: After doing both a reprogram and a replace and reprogram Universal Patcher still seems to show the old vin. Tech2win as well as techline connect/sps all recognize the new vin. Changing the vin in Universal Patcher and then uploading seems to have no effect.
ironduke
Posts: 579
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 wrote:I picked up another 2010+ e38 today and attempted to change the vin with the tool. It worked again, I was able to change the vin to the one I needed. Cycled ignition power, waited 30 seconds. New vin had been stored. Attempted to change the vin back to what it was. Same error as before.

So not sure if it is a process issue so much as maybe a protection in the ecm. This time the vin is at least what I needed it to be so I will now attempt a sps/techline update to the correct OS. Once that is done I will attempt to program over the previous 2010+ e38 and see if it will take it and start to experiment with vin changes on that one

Also purely for future knowledge and disassembly. Here is the original calibration from that ecm.
as_found_2014_tahoe.bin
Update!!: After doing both a reprogram and a replace and reprogram Universal Patcher still seems to show the old vin. Tech2win as well as techline connect/sps all recognize the new vin. Changing the vin in Universal Patcher and then uploading seems to have no effect.
I bet if you read the flash with powerpcm and take a in the eeprom region you'll see a couple sets of vins, new and old.. universalpatcher is trying to read the vin out of the bin and sps and tech2win are requesting it using a 1a90 command.. the E92's do that too, not sure how to tell which one is which myself..

As far as powerpcm the vin is never ever even touched with that program other than when reading the flash... Writing the calibrations using powerpcm writes 0x1c000 to 0x1fffff and that is it.. The vin is not in that seciton of flash..

writing calibrations writes 0x1c0000-0x1fffff
Writing OS and calibrations(write full) writes 0x10000-0x1fffff.. sps looks at the OS and if different writes full.. If the OS is matching what it wants to be then it only writes calibration files.. That's why sometimes sps is quick, sometimes slow, lol.. take a peek and see if it's changing the OS or not..

Notice how the eeprom section 0xc000-0xffff is never written with powerpcm or gm sps. changing the vin the bin using a hex editor or changing it inside universal patcher will not do anything towards getting it into the actual ecm unless you use a program that can write the eeprom sections.. Some aftermarket companies do, gm does with sps in some circumstances such as a theft learn, I just don't know the procedure well enough to copy it, yet..

The as_found2014_tahoe bin is kind of interesting, there's 2 vins in that.. Is this read before or after you changed the vin? Thought it was before you touched it.
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