Starting troubles

[Fasteddy46]

New to the forum long time browser. Have 3 bonnevilles 2000 ssei,2001 sle, 2002 sle. The 2001 had the dread uim explosion. I wasn't there to deal with it. It is my girlfriends car. Somehow someone had the bright idea of shutting the hood while it was ablaze. Needless to say everything got fried wire and plastic wise. She loves the car doesn't like the newer 2006 g6 gtp she is driving (even though it has 80000 less miles) so I bought the 2002 sle for the engine, harness and whatever else it might need. I didn't do the work. Didn't have the time or the want to do that much. A family member who is a great mechanic for over 30 years said he would do it at a reasonable cost. He switched the engine, harnesses, everything under the dash, ignition, steering column you name it. He can't get the motor to crank with the key. He can turn over if he jumps the starter but that's it. Any ideas? Is it a security thing to do the relearn thing, or do I have to have the module cleared/relearned?
Thanks in advance. I've been browsing around here for a long time trying to soak up a little of the knowledge that you long time bonneville owners have.

[RJolly87]

What electronics were swapped over? Do you have photos so we could see the extent of the damage?

[crash93ssei]

There is a security relearn procedure that must be done if the PCM was swapped, if the ignition was changed then you will need a Tech 2 to program it, there is also the passkey3 module in the dash that could be switched and then if those three all came from the same car it should fire up.

[Fasteddy46]

Everything from the front bumper, under the dash and the harness under the drivers sea was supposed to be swapped. I figured if everything was swapped it would fire up. I'll see if I have some pics from the fire. If not I'm gonna try to make it over tomorrow and get a couple. Everything that was replaced came from a perfectly running car. It was hit n the back. I think he tried the relearn thing once but I'll do it myself tomorrow. Thanks

[Fasteddy46]

[AJT2004]

Wow, lucky no one was hurt. The damage appears extensive, it must have been quite an undertaking to replace all the parts. Did you need to replace any front suspension items that were ruined by the heat?

[crash93ssei]

The harness comes in several parts, there is an under hood / power train harness, main body harness, and several smaller harnesses that attach to the main.

By chance, did this car not have the DIC gauge package with compass and the donor did have that? I actually swapped all of these harnesses from a 2004 SLE into my 2002 SE, could not for the life of me figure out why it wouldn't do anything, windows wouldn't work, locks wouldn't work, no crank... but everything else had power. Turns out I forgot to swap the harness under the back deck with the compass module, must have been something different with that because as soon as I did that everything worked and it fired right up without skipping a beat.

[nos4blood70]

Goodness! Now that is some intense UIM carnage!

[Fasteddy46]

Sorry fellas. I didn't get a chance to get to the car. I did see the donor car. I didn't check to see if the back harness was out. The whole dash was no longer in the car. Hoping to get to it this weekend.

[Fasteddy46]

I had to go out of town for work. I'm just now getting back. I got to look at the car today. It's a mess. Everything is swapped out or I was told. Has the engine tranny harnesses from the donor car. All the modules were swapped I was told. I brought it home and tried messing with it. I keep getting unknown driver message on the dic. I tried the relean procedure a couple times but I put it in my brothers newly built pole barn and he is putting up lights now no electric yet. It got dark haha. I'm going to go back tomorrow and try the relearn process again. Is there anything else I could try. When I try to crank it I can hear the relay click over.
Both cars had a dic and compass I went ahead and swapped the compass and on star antennas. There were a couple of unplugged plugs that I hooked up. No changes. I'm stumped. Hopefully the relearn process works. Any more suggestions would be great.
Oh also yeah the engine cradle and all suspension parts were swapped with the engine and tranny. It was done all together. Hoping to get it going if not I will probably part it out. Which I don't really want to do.

[Fasteddy46]

Ok. I did the relearn process a few time and nothing changed. For a long time it was saying unknown drivers checked most of the connections cleared all kinds of codes. Got to checking everything and saw the very back harnesses in the truck were cut and spliced. So I put butt splices in to make it a little more neat. Wasn't happy about it being cut but what's done is done I guess. Fuel pump started kicking on. Still no crank. We manually jumped the motor from the front fuse box. It starts up runs fine for about 3 seconds and shuts off. We checked the fuel pressure its good. After messing with come of the modules it now says driver one. So I'm making a little progress but not much. So I'm assuming it's between the ignition and the vtd. Codes it showed throwing were c0625 level control suspension sensor, c0660 level control exhaust valve circuit malfunction, u1255 class ii communication malfunction. I kept clearing the codes after that. The ones that keep coming up now are b3055 no transponder modulation/no transponder and u1000 class 2 serial communication problem. When watching the data on the scanner when turning the key it goes from ignitin off to normal decision to no coded key. Also the c0625 and u1255 So is it in the ignition maybe?

[jtmontano]

I'm not even going to try to answer any of this. I'm a beginner with my Bonnie as well, BUT, what causes the UIM to explode and catch fire like that?

[RJolly87]

Usually a fuel pressure regulator. Leaks fuel into the vacuum line and in turn into the intake where it doesn't belong. There was actually a recall out for it at some point.

[Fasteddy46]

Rjolly87 is right about the regulator. Unfortunately they won't do anything if it's past 10 years old. Also I'd like to say the 2001 didn't have the recall. They have the same bad regulators but apparently not enough of the 2001s blew up for them to worry about. Think they used the regulators from the mid/late 90s till 2004/5?

So after a long time of messing with it we had it running. My brother started jumping relays with the same result but one time it just magically kept running. It started up everytime after that for a while. The battery was junk so it locked me out while putting it back together. I put in another battery wouldn't start the first few times. I pulled the dash cluster and radio, then put them back in and bingo fires everytime. Moved it a few handfuls of times under its own power I've the last couple weeks. So I was trying to button all the interior up and small brackets/screws that weren't in. I had to change the brake booster. The one from the donor car went bad. Other than that it's together and fixed(besides a black hood and windshield). As all this is going on, me and my helper in and out of the car, we ran the battery dead. Someone must've bumped the rear interior light because it was on the next day of working on it. I know it's probably because of our negligence.
We are now back to square one. Won't crank everything else works. Security light is on after I try to start it. It will start if you jump the starter relay but only runs for a few seconds the I believe the vtd shuts it down. More things work now because they were fixed when assembling everything. We've tried everything. I don't really want to spend any more money if I don't have too. I've spent more than I've wanted but she has to have this one fixed. I can get some used parts at the u pull it yard in town though. If I change the ignition excitor/keys, bcm and rear module will this reset the security light if I relearn the new parts? I think the transponder in the key or the excitor is bad. I even went as far as tried to use a universal bypass module as a bypass with no luck. I took the transponder out of the key and used it in the bypass. Zero luck. I also tried a self learning bypass it has to be able to start the car to learn the key value though so it didn't work. Even tried jumping it from the relay so it would run for a few seconds. It didn't learn it.
Any help on the ignition and module replacements would be appreciated.

[Fasteddy46]

I know I'm slow. I just wanted to give an update. After searching some more and speaking to halofreak. I tried a new ignition. I told the gf that it might be the ignition and before I got home to order the one from halofreak she had already went to the junk yard and yanked one out haha. Anyways did the relearn with the new ignition and it lives. Got it cleaned up painted again and it purrs like a kitten. Thanks for all the help from everyone.

[MikeKerr]

I know I'm slow. I just wanted to give an update. After searching some more and speaking to halofreak. I tried a new ignition. I told the gf that it might be the ignition and before I got home to order the one from halofreak she had already went to the junk yard and yanked one out haha. Anyways did the relearn with the new ignition and it lives. Got it cleaned up painted again and it purrs like a kitten. Thanks for all the help from everyone.

Congrats on getting it running, mission accomplished!!

[MKMike]

I know I'm slow. I just wanted to give an update. After searching some more and speaking to halofreak. I tried a new ignition. I told the gf that it might be the ignition and before I got home to order the one from halofreak she had already went to the junk yard and yanked one out haha. Anyways did the relearn with the new ignition and it lives. Got it cleaned up painted again and it purrs like a kitten. Thanks for all the help from everyone.

Much better late than never!
Always glad to learn what the remedy is.
By "new ignition", I assume you mean ignition control module or the ICM and the coil packs.