God DAMN P.I.T.A. home mechanics...

[VX L67 Getrag]

Have a customer thats just been given a car from his brother, the guy that had it given to him has never had an electric type car before & always worked on it himself...

He's been given a 1998 AU I6 Fairmont & came in with wires running from battery to the fans saying the fans weren't working & said it could be anything from a fuse or relay to wiring, sensors or PCM.
He said leave it with him knowing what I said & came back a day later & said it was too complicated & left it with me...

I tested all the wiring, fuses & relays that control the fans & all tested o.k. then bridge under relay & fans worked without starting off slow or needing to hit them so brushes were o.k. Then looked at schematics & all controlled by PCM off coolant sensor in head & knew that was reading correctly so ASSUMED the PCM wasn't controlling it correctly...

Sourced a PCM & it fired up directly without having to have the 30 minute smartlock re-learn which is weird & was running a key that didn't even have a black code head so I again ASSUMED maybe the BCM(BEM in Ford's case) had been re-wired to by-pass & then thought if it's not linked even though it starts maybe thats why it's getting code 380 & 381 for fan control as we know if your in limp home fans normally stay on & maybe in this 1's case fan's couldn't be controlled till link...

Long story short I accidentally rested on the door snib when the door was shut after the re-link procedure & only the drivers door locked (no central locking) so it then dawned on me maybe there's a fuse missing to BEM or it's circuit & it needs to control the PCM for fans for some reason & checked the fuses & there were 2 missing (none blown & a couple wrong amperage) so i fixed those things up and... VIOLA fans now work!

All the time WASTED & if I knew how much the customer had screwed with I should have gone back to basics, but you always ASSUME the worse especially when the car has done 375,000Kms!

[vlad01]

you assume the worst cos its a ford and 99% of the time its worse that the worst that you thought was possible

[TdracerTd]

Goes back to one of the first lessons you learn when troubleshooting, start with the basics and work from there. Still, after all the years of experience, you can still get caught out. I have been many times myself.

[Gareth]

Sourced a PCM & it fired up directly without having to have the 30 minute smartlock re-learn which is weird & was running a key that didn't even have a black code head so I again ASSUMED maybe the BCM(BEM in Ford's case) had been re-wired to by-pass & then thought if it's not linked even though it starts maybe thats why it's getting code 380 & 381 for fan control as we know if your in limp home fans normally stay on & maybe in this 1's case fan's couldn't be controlled till link...

That can't happen.... I'd love to know how that was possible, over the years i've copped ex taxi's with a coded key tied to the column to get around having to have the right key, bcm crank bypass is easy, but 'ok to go' signal to pcm - only with a signal generator... Please correct me if im wrong

[VX L67 Getrag]

Yeah the stupid things is I checked the fuses for fan 1st & all was o.k. there didn't check every fuse to every device as the car ran perfectly, just didn't check the body control electrics for a fan issue, who would have thunk it!

[VX L67 Getrag]

That can't happen.... I'd love to know how that was possible, over the years i've copped ex taxi's with a coded key tied to the column to get around having to have the right key, bcm crank bypass is easy, but 'ok to go' signal to pcm - only with a signal generator... Please correct me if im wrong

Yeah I told the customer that just blade key won't work to run the car with his original PCM in it 3 weeks ago & he hadn't tested but did then & there & worked with the factory PCM in it then, then when I sourced the other PCM it did the same thing, I thought it would have been impossible too but not 1 single delay on crank or fire!

[HQ355]

It's part of the au theft system, have a look at it, if u still want to steal it have a look at it ! If you do continue and steal it, have a look at yourself ! FFS

[Holden202T]

you assume the worst cos its a ford and 99% of the time its worse that the worst that you thought was possible

[Gareth]

Hang on,

'blade key'???
AU 1998 WTF???
all AU's are 'Smart lock' with the hex end key, never seen a non chip key for them...

[VX L67 Getrag]

Yep that's right just a diamond blade with a washer welded to it, had it made as a spare to keep in his wallet in case of emergency!