This summer I began having problems with my fob, remote units on my 2002 PSD. When the cab interior was hot, the remotes would intermittantly lock and unlock the doors. The door buttons would always work perfectly. As the summer prgressed, the remotes became useless as they would work only on a rare occation and this was after replacing the fob batteries. About a month after beginning to act up, when trying to lock the drivers door with the door button, the drivers door would lock, then immediately unlock. I had to now lock the door with the key! This only lasted a couple of weeks when the drivers door would stay locked by using the door button again. Now the locks will not respond from the remotes at all, ever. The interior door buttons continue to work fine. My questions are:

1. Does this indicate a bad GEM module?
2. How much can I expect to pay for a replacement? I sent a request to fordparts.com last week and never heard back.
3. I understand the GEM is located somewhere on the firewall interior, by the radio. Will I have to spend 3 weeks at the local contortionists school to chage out this module or would I be better off taking it to the stealership?

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

I'll move this to SD/HD for some more looks.

It does sound like it could be a faulty VSM (vehicle security module). You should not need the contortionists school. Just remove the lower center dash trim panel and find the little box with three electrical connectors. Those connectors and two nuts are all thats holding it in.

A note of caution: The "official" service procedure calls for uploading the current module configuration into a scantool to be loaded into the new module. I have heard that the module will learn on it's own and can be used in a plug and play fashion, but I do not know it for a fact.

 

I picked up a new VSM (the stealership knows it as a receiver module ) and switched it out. I was able to program the fobs and the door locks now work. I ran it around for a while to see if it would "learn" the things that the new module screwed up like....

Door ajar light stays on.
Auto lock does not work.
Dome light does not come on when opening door.
Dome light comes on when starting the engine but never goes out until you start driving.

I'll drive it around for a few more days to see if it will learn anything, but it looks like I'll have to pay to have it scanned and reloaded into the new module.....bummer.

 

That sounds like it could be seperate problems. Try spraying the door latches down with some WD-40. Might take care of some of that list.

 

Nope, it's all in the VSM. I plugged the old one back in with it laying on the floorboard and everything was back to normal, except the remotes wouldn't work again but thanks for the suggestion.

 

The first thing done should be a scan for dtc's to determine if there are any fault codes related to your problem then go from there.
anything with a bxxxx or uxxxx code relates
Rich

 

The reason you are having these problem's with the new VSM is that it need's to be programmed. I replaced a VSM in an Excursion for a customer and it had the same problems that you describe. Programming took care of it.

 

Yep, needs programming and I have it scheduled to go into the shop next week.

 

It does need programed ,but if there is comunication problems between it and the pcm
It won't program right.Seen this before.
Thats why a scan in the beginning would have pointed in the area of the problem.
The vsm might not be the problem.Lets hope it is or you have more money to shell out.

Rich

 

guzzle92, almost forgot to mention, make sure you take the old module with you for the programming. They will need to retrieve data from it.

 

The old module is sitting on the floorboard, temporarily plugged in. I believe that it needs to be connected to scan from the OBDC port. The new one is mounted in position on the firewall so all they should have to do is scan, fish the connectors back up to the new one, plug it in and reflash.

 

Sound's like your good to go!

 

Got back from the stealership (name well deserved) and the new VSM is now working great. After scanning the old VSM and reflashing to the new one, the door ajar, autolock, and dome light functions work as they should. It took the tech about 15 minutes to get the truck in and back out... $90. Pretty good return on their $3300 piece of equipment.

The reflash also brought along the old fob codes because the remotes both worked without manual reprogramming.

I opened up the old VSM, looking for any obvious cracked solder points on the SMDs, thinking that maybe the problem was similar the the overhead console problem. I did not find any. There are a number of relays on the PCB that could have burnt contacts that I suppose could to lead to a failure. My thinking on this is the VSM may be working but when the relay kicks in, there is not enought current passing through dirty contacts to enguage the door lock motors. I'll keep the old one and play with it another day.

 

How much did they get for the new VSM? The dealer told me that on my 02 ex the VSM is incorporated into the GEM. And the GEM/VSM unit is about 360.00 plus they would need to put it in because of the PATS keys. I am having a problem where the key fobs won't work untill i press one of the door buttons to kind of wake up the system. Then the fobs will work fine. I would love to get my keyless system up and running correctly so I can try to add my remote start module. I bought the remote start before I found out my keyless system was not working correctly and its been sitting on top of the tool box since.