AboutRob Painter Expertise Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet.
My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine.
This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle:
Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?
Experience Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.
Question QUESTION: I recently went through emissions and they failed me because the service engine light on the dash didn't light up, I passed the test in the other fields, is their anyway i can do this repair myself.
ANSWER: Could be bulb is burned out. Should com on with ignition on for a system check. You may have to change bulb.
If you can get the bulb to light, I can help you from there. Yes, you should be able to fix it.
Rob
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QUESTION: The bulb will not come on at all, all the other lights come on, on the dash. I'm sorry I don't understand how i will get the bulb to light if it's out.
Answer Hello,
If you need to change the bulb, the speedo assembly can be removed by hand tools. The cluster plugs into a connector in the dash. Once the cluster is pulled, the bulb is easily removed and replaced by rotating the holder.
After thinking more on this, I have never seen one of these bulbs burn out, but the possibility exists. You did state if there was anyway you could repair this problem. Changing the bulb shouldn't take you over an hour.
Before doing this however, it might be a better idea to have the vehicle diagnosed before you go to the effort of changing the bulb.
You need to know why the light is not coming on.. After working on thousands of vehicles for 30 years, the only common problem was that the light came on, in turn leaving a fault code for the system. I do not ever remember of a complaint where the light was not illuminated.
Did you buy the vehicle with the light not functioning? If so, someone may have removed it.
If not, what event happened in which you realized the bulb was not working?
Shouldn't be, but you can go to the owners manual to check for fuse box locations. You can check the fuses by pulling them one by one (engine not running) and looking at them to see if the wire is broken inside telling you that there is a bad fuse.
Contact me a robo14@aol.com if all the fuses are good.
