

Clean the board with flux and a tooth brush and maybe a pencil eraser being careful not to damage the eyelets. Try to solder the diode back into place on that connection and use the solder sucker again until the diode comes out easily. GM vehicles have three types of Vehicle Thief Deterrent (VTD) systems, each requiring their own set of relearn procedures. The diode will come out easily if there is no solder, so if you are using force then something is wrong. Be careful not to damage the eyelets around the holes the diodes are mounted thru. You have to remove that diode using a solder sucker to get all the solder from the connections. Most likely you will find that one of the diodes will not allow the solder to flow. I then re-flow the solder on the 7 larger diodes and the 2 larger blue color resistors located between the diodes. On the backside of the board I generally re-flow the solder on all the pins on the connector. This repair is for GM vehicles with Vehicle Anti Thief System (VATS) or Pass-Key systems that have the black Chip in the key and intermittent No Starts with the dreaded 10 minute wait. Remove the module and remove the board from inside. If the vehicle starts after doing that I have found it may have a diode in the module with a bad solder joint.

If you have a GM vehicle that has the no start issue you can try pulling the module down from under the dash and tap on it with you finger or slightly twist the module box with it still plugged in. the most common repair is to replace the ignition lock cylinder or passlock sensor and perform a relearn procedure. This repair is for GM vehicles with Vehicle Anti Thief System (VATS) or Pass-Key systems that have the black “Chip” in the key and intermittent No Starts with the dreaded 10 minute wait.
