RockLSonDubz
LVC Member
First off I'm a 2000 LS6 automatic owner and have done everything a person could do to take care of any and all mechanical,electrical and misc issues that come from any vehicle that was serviced amd modded at Disneyland by Mickey Mouse Mechanics.
I've put a lot of time,money and love into my LS making into a pretty customized and reliable head turner ;but this last month has been ruthlessly expensive because of the most simple and cheap problems.
First off my key wouldn't turn the ignition most the time then not at all unless I treated my key like a bump key with a rubber mallet. So right away I scoped the condition of my key and noticed it was a bit bent and looked pretty worn.
I went to the dealership to get a key cut from code and while I was there I scheduled my car to get a pair of key fobs programmed.
One was 3$ shipped on Ebay the other identical fob was from Ford and cost 90$! First the idiot cut the key from my bad key ;but didn't tell me that he did. I told him specifically to cut it by code (after reading around the forums and reading that specifically repeatedly mentioned).
I thought the new key was cut from code and when it didn't turn in the ignition either I then assumed it was the ignition and broken tumblers.
Next day (well a few days later because the dealership couldn't program the fobs and despite me telling them about the real deal with Gen 1 LS requiring IDS software to program fobs they kept trying the gen 2 procedure cycling the ignition).
Anyways next I took the car to a locksmith who scoffed at what the dealership charged me and said rebuilding my ignition and replacing tumblers would be cheap. My bill from him was over $200 after he was done and the worst part is all I needed was a key cut from code as my key had worn down a quarter inch at the tip.
But the locksmith damaged my pats transeiver while working on my ignition and I started getting pats vehicle disabled no crank with flashing pats light.
At this time I had no clue what the issue was, my laptop and odb2 scanner were packed in storage. The car had been great so I hadn't needed it on hand.
After more tows back to the dealership who never fixed the problem it just went away so they said it was fixed ;but again kept my car 5 days trying to program the remote key fobs and unsuccessfully despite me telling them not to bother programming the fobs I just wanted the no crank fixed.
Since then I've been stranded everywhere and when I hooked up my windows 10 laptop to my obd2 usb dongle and scanned I got over a dozen fault codes. Shorts everywhere and I couldn't figure out why, turns out I had the MS CAN switch on the wrong setting.
I finally got only 2 faults now and know for sure the transceiver is what's causing the no start.
Thankfully I ordered 2 for 16$ shipped already and 2 new uncut unprogrammed keys for less than 20$ both Ford and the locksmith were charging about 100$ per key not even programmed! Also the coolest thing ever for Gen 1LS owners, Forscan for Windows can program remote entry key fobs! Plus with the extended license all LS owners have full pats access to service functions of all kinds.
What the dealership and Fords own IDS software couldn't do in weeks Forscan did in seconds.
Long story short if you're at your wits end dealing with some unknown issue don't just throw money at the car because whether or not it actually fixes anything the car will happily eat your money! Lol
Also over this time reading the forums I'm sure has saved me a lot of time and money being able to narrow down things. I'm sure the dealership would have charged me a lot of money to narrow things down for me, thanks a lot to everyone who has contributed to making these forums as great as they are. I really appreciate you guys.
I've put a lot of time,money and love into my LS making into a pretty customized and reliable head turner ;but this last month has been ruthlessly expensive because of the most simple and cheap problems.
First off my key wouldn't turn the ignition most the time then not at all unless I treated my key like a bump key with a rubber mallet. So right away I scoped the condition of my key and noticed it was a bit bent and looked pretty worn.
I went to the dealership to get a key cut from code and while I was there I scheduled my car to get a pair of key fobs programmed.
One was 3$ shipped on Ebay the other identical fob was from Ford and cost 90$! First the idiot cut the key from my bad key ;but didn't tell me that he did. I told him specifically to cut it by code (after reading around the forums and reading that specifically repeatedly mentioned).
I thought the new key was cut from code and when it didn't turn in the ignition either I then assumed it was the ignition and broken tumblers.
Next day (well a few days later because the dealership couldn't program the fobs and despite me telling them about the real deal with Gen 1 LS requiring IDS software to program fobs they kept trying the gen 2 procedure cycling the ignition).
Anyways next I took the car to a locksmith who scoffed at what the dealership charged me and said rebuilding my ignition and replacing tumblers would be cheap. My bill from him was over $200 after he was done and the worst part is all I needed was a key cut from code as my key had worn down a quarter inch at the tip.
But the locksmith damaged my pats transeiver while working on my ignition and I started getting pats vehicle disabled no crank with flashing pats light.
At this time I had no clue what the issue was, my laptop and odb2 scanner were packed in storage. The car had been great so I hadn't needed it on hand.
After more tows back to the dealership who never fixed the problem it just went away so they said it was fixed ;but again kept my car 5 days trying to program the remote key fobs and unsuccessfully despite me telling them not to bother programming the fobs I just wanted the no crank fixed.
Since then I've been stranded everywhere and when I hooked up my windows 10 laptop to my obd2 usb dongle and scanned I got over a dozen fault codes. Shorts everywhere and I couldn't figure out why, turns out I had the MS CAN switch on the wrong setting.
I finally got only 2 faults now and know for sure the transceiver is what's causing the no start.
Thankfully I ordered 2 for 16$ shipped already and 2 new uncut unprogrammed keys for less than 20$ both Ford and the locksmith were charging about 100$ per key not even programmed! Also the coolest thing ever for Gen 1LS owners, Forscan for Windows can program remote entry key fobs! Plus with the extended license all LS owners have full pats access to service functions of all kinds.
What the dealership and Fords own IDS software couldn't do in weeks Forscan did in seconds.
Long story short if you're at your wits end dealing with some unknown issue don't just throw money at the car because whether or not it actually fixes anything the car will happily eat your money! Lol
Also over this time reading the forums I'm sure has saved me a lot of time and money being able to narrow down things. I'm sure the dealership would have charged me a lot of money to narrow things down for me, thanks a lot to everyone who has contributed to making these forums as great as they are. I really appreciate you guys.
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