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William’s 2004 Impala: When It’s Passlock, and Something Else Too
Nearly every story on this blog ends the same way: the module goes in, the car starts, done. William Adams’s does not, and that is exactly why we are publishing it. His 2004 Chevy Impala had a Passlock fault and a second, unrelated fault at the same time. Fixing one did not fix the car.
If you are reading this because your install did not solve everything, this is the post for you.
Years of the ten minute wait
“typical GM security problems with a twist… started with having to wait ten minutes to start my 2004 impala, which i had lived with for a few years; but then came the dreaded start but immediately stalls due to fuel being cut off by GMs worthless crappy buggy security approach problem.”
The dealer’s offer, stated plainly
“diagnostics said security problem and local dealer would not bypass it but would start swapping expensive parts at random until it ran but NOT guarantee it would stay fixed.”
We have quoted a lot of dealer conversations on this blog. That is the most honest one. Swap parts until it runs, no guarantee it stays fixed.
When your garage will not fit it
This is the part worth knowing about, because it stops people.
“local service station ran diagnostics that said security but did not want to try to install the newrockies pro after i got it. so i got the local audio/electronics store to do it as they work on car stereo and security systems as well as remote start etc. they had a lot of help from newrockies and Jack to get it installed correctly.”
A general mechanic who has never seen the module may not want to take responsibility for wiring one in, and that is a fair position. A car audio and alarm shop does exactly this kind of low-voltage work every day: they run wires behind dashes, splice into factory harnesses and fit remote starts for a living. William’s install went to one of those, and our support walked their technician through it. If your regular garage says no, that is your next phone call, not the end of the road.
And then the car still did it
“which did solve the security related issues but the car still had the same symptom. so towed back to the service station that could now diagnose that a sensor had also gone bad. replaced the sensor and everything runs great again.”
Two faults, overlapping, producing one symptom. And note what changed: once the security system was permanently out of the picture, the service station could finally diagnose the rest. Before that, every test was contaminated. Is the engine not getting fuel because a sensor failed, or because the Body Control Module decided this was a theft? While Passlock is still in the circuit, nobody can answer that, which is why these cars soak up so much diagnostic labour to no effect.
Removing the security system did not repair the sensor. It made the sensor findable.
So what is not bypassed?
After his install, William asked us a good question, and it is the right one to ask: is there anything on a 2004 Impala that is not bypassed, so he knows what to watch for in future?
The honest answer is that the NEWROCKIES PRO Module does one thing completely. It removes the anti-theft system’s power to stop your engine, permanently, so no drifting sensor value or ageing decoder can ever cut your fuel or your starter again. That part is finished for the life of the car.
Everything else on a twenty year old car remains a twenty year old car. Crank and cam sensors, the fuel pump, the ignition switch contacts, grounds, the battery and the starter itself all still age, and any of them can produce a no-start that looks similar from the driver’s seat. We say this openly because pretending otherwise would fail the William Adams case: he had a genuine second fault, and if he had been told the module fixes every no-start he would have concluded the module was faulty rather than that his car needed one more repair.
If your security light is out and the module’s LED is on but the car still misbehaves, that is not a failed install. It is a car telling you it has a second problem, now on a system you can actually test.
What it saved him
“without the newrockies pro module and the intense guidance that Jack gave the local installer i would be looking at a choice of junking an old car with very low mileage or letting the dealer gouge me for more than it was worth. i am certainly happy that i got the newrockies pro module and got my car running for less than one of the expensive parts the dealer would have installed.”
If you have one of these cars
The 2000 to 2005 Impala and Monte Carlo wiring is here: 2000-2005 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo installation guide. If your garage will not fit it, try a car audio and alarm installer, and tell us who is doing the work. We will talk your technician through it the way we did William’s.
Related stories on the blog. Same generation, different stories: Steve’s 2004 Impala, fixed without touching a wire, and Christopher’s 2002, where a battery reset was the missing step.
