well, there was a combination of two things today. first the truck wouldnt start, which was the main issue. and the second issue was that when the doc came to my shop a few months back we couldnt complete the programming for his viper alarm because we didnt have the second oem key. oddly enough, trying to program the viper alarm solved the problem of the truck not starting. the viper databus interface requires 2 keys to program. so in sequence here is what i found out.
got to the truck and tried to start it. he has a total of 4 keys programmed to the truck. no luck. reset all the computers onboard, still no luck
reset all computers again, tried different key. truck started.
tried multiple keys, truck would not start.
reset all computers again.
tried programming dball interface. would not complete programming. tried programming multiple keys, no luck. since the dball interface requires 2 keys, i found that one key would program, but the other 3 woud not. that got me thinking, if the programming wouldnt complete, that was telling me that the second key i was using wasnt programming correctly. the dball interface, and the truck retain memory and will lock you out of the start sequence if the key is not correct. so not being able to program the dball interface allowed me to trouble shoot and find that 3 of his keys do not work. with the viper security system disconnected, the truck would only start with one key. thats why i couldnt program the dball, and why he could not start his truck. once i reset everything, i stopped using the other 3 keys, and the truck fired right up with the one working key. so something must have happened during the programming sequence of the additional keys and since i think the other 2 keys are a clone of one oem key, if it happens to that one, it happens to the others. so when i left today, his truck starts but with only one key, and he has 3 non working keys.hopefully when he gets back, the dealer will be able to correct the problem quickly and get them all functional again. that way he can take full advantage of his viper security system too.
and im finally home at 2am.....
