Ships from our USA and CANADA stock — no extra duties or import fees for US and Canadian customers
Scott’s 2003 Chevy Suburban Passlock Fix
Scott is from Utah. He and his wife bought their 2003 Chevy Suburban new, and for over a decade it was simply the family truck.
Then Thanksgiving weekend 2014 happened, and the next two years cost him nine hundred dollars and a great deal of patience.
It started at his wife’s workplace
“Thanksgiving weekend of 2014 we had our first no start and the truck sat at a tennis facility my wife works at (luckily they knew us and didn’t tow it). After 3 days of no starts I went to tow it and it started. Yay!”
Three days dead, then perfect the moment the tow truck arrives. Every owner of one of these reading this just nodded.
“We took it to a repair shop and were told it was probably tied to the security pass lock system. After two weeks of driving and testing they could not get the truck to no-start again so we picked it up.”
Eight hundred dollars
“Over the next 6 months we worked through testing and replacing basically the entire security system parts replaced and had the dashboard cluster rebuilt. We figured it was worth the $800 or so we spent on getting everything replaced. That is if it fixed the problem but it didn’t. We were still having no-starts. The mechanic was baffled and frustrated but he wasn’t out the $800 with no resolution.”
That last sentence deserves a moment. The shop did nothing wrong. They replaced the parts that logically should have fixed it. But replacing security components puts fresh hardware into the same ageing system, and the value it produces will drift out of tolerance again.
Then another hundred, for a week of peace
“At this point I found a little bypass system that guaranteed to bypass the system and give you a start no time. This cost us an additional $100 but we were hopeful it would be the final fix. This little fix seemed to work but only for a week or so and our frequent no starts were back again.“
A week. That is the shape of a resistor-style workaround: it imitates the key, the system quietens down, and then whatever was actually drifting carries on drifting. The full explanation is here.
What it was really costing
“I don’t know how many times my wife would call me and say she was trying to find a way to get the kids to school because the car wouldn’t start. Or that she was stranded at the grocery store. It was ridiculous and we were at the point of needing to replace the car.”
Nine hundred dollars is the small number in this story. They were seriously considering replacing a sound vehicle that ran perfectly well, because nobody could make it start reliably.
“EVERY SINGLE TIME”
“I ordered it on Feb. 21st 2016 and it arrived on Feb 24th 2016. I immediately took the truck and the part into my mechanic and had him install it. He felt good about it when I picked it up and said the system was pretty robust unlike the cheap one we had him install earlier.”
“Days went by and then weeks and now it has been over 8 months and the truck has started EVERY TIME! Seriously, EVERY SINGLE TIME. After more than a year of wasted money and frustration our Suburban was back. Thank you NEWROCKIES, Inc, I wish I had found you sooner. Your product is exactly as advertised and fixed our nightmare problem. I would recommend to everyone to try NEWROCKIES before spending your money on any other ‘fix’.”
Scott S., Utah
What was actually wrong
Nothing that any of those replaced parts would have cured. Passlock reads a resistance value produced in the ignition lock cylinder and compares it against a value the Body Control Module has stored. When the two disagree, the injectors are shut down.
The reading sits close to the edge of the acceptable window on an ageing truck, so some days it falls inside and some days outside. That is why the shop could not reproduce it in two weeks of testing, and why every replacement seemed to work for a while.
The PRO Module removes the comparison. There is no longer a value that can drift.
If you have one of these trucks
Scott’s is covered by the 2003 to 2006 Suburban, Tahoe, Avalanche, Yukon, Sierra and Escalade installation guide. The BCM sits in the dash directly under the steering column, and you will need connectors C2 and C3.
His advice is worth repeating exactly as he gave it: try this before spending money on any other fix. Not sure which system your truck uses? Identify it here first.
