# Insane hackery under the dash



## Bannor (May 17, 2012)

Long story short: I was desperate for a car and foolishly purchased an 01' GXE practically on sight from a shady small car lot dealer, for cash.

Unsurprisingly, it had a blown head gasket, as well as a bunch of other junk wrong that had to be fixed. Being that I was all in, I changed the header gasket out myself (replaced with copper sprayed Fel-Pro gasket), repairing whatever I could on the way and on the way out.

However, it still has some issues running, trouble at idle, missing, etc. Still trying to diagnose the problem, I hooked up to the OBD port, no good. Checked fuses, found one missing, replaced it, OBD now on, but not working right. Hmm.

Took panel below steering column off, and found this insanity:



This would explain why once the fuse is in, an I tried to lock the doors, it would automatically unlock them. :crying:

I have double and triple checked the VIN numbers on the dash, transmission, and the plate on the inside of the engine compartment. All the information seems to match up exactly with a CARFAX report. I have it registered and inspected by the local highway patrol. I'm fairly certain it isn't stolen, just incredibly poorly treated.


Any suggestions on how to proceed to rectify this mess, so I can get back to work on the engine?


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## Bannor (May 17, 2012)

Alright, so it turns out the thing that was hanging down center was the only thing spliced into the OBD connector. It was in fact a GPS unit, that I am guessing the shady dealer used to track the whereabouts of the shady cars he sold for repossession when his shady customers failed to make payments on their shady loans. That was easy to remove.

The other was a bit more work, but not much. Created a small "bypass box" for the old key with the security chip to reside in, and mounted in properly under the dash without the entire cylinder lock mechanism, only the antenna bit. Someday when I have some spare cash laying around I will get it properly rekeyed at the dealership.

Now I can continue to chase down the misfire issue, but that should probably be a separate thread.


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