GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Last night I was bored, so I decided to make a spot for my unichip switches. Let me know what you guys think. There not perfect, but I think that its better than having them loose somewhere. I know, my car is filthy.

They work! They look good! Good job! They look upside down to me though as I'd always think pushing up would be turning them on (like a light switch)

I see what you mean. I should have thought about that before. Oh well.

Ok, at the risk of sounding really stupid, on these switches, which position is on and which is off? If the O symbol is depressed, would the switch be set to on or off? I'm an idiot. When I was installing the switches, I accidentally pressed the buttons a couple of times and forgot which was which. I feel really dumb.

O is off,I is on.That's exactly how I had that installed in my Vibe.I miss her.

Duh. I had to look it up on wikipedia just now! No wonder it's taking me so long to get my degree...

Does the red light still work.

The red light works no matter what position the power switch is in.

has anyone used the switch below the ac and air circulation buttons? i got a 3rd button thats identical to the other two..well it aint a button but same shape and it looks as if it can be made into a button

Quote, originally posted by ajflan »The red light works no matter what position the power switch is in.That's not right then.That red light should only come on when you are in map "B",with the unichip on,not off.It shouldn't be on any other time.

The red light will switch on and off with the a-b switch, but the red light will stay on no matter what position the power switch is in.

That's wrong.You have a switch problem then.Plus,how did you get that red light so far away from the switch,it's suppose to be tight to the switch.The red light is suppose to only come on in "b" map,no other time.So it's somewhere to start.,somethings not hooked up right.

The light does only come on when its in map B. However, when it is in map B, it makes no difference what position the power switch is in, the light will stay on. Everything is hooked up properly, could it be a problem with the switch? This is how the switches have acted ever since I got it.

I really don't know.It worked fine for me.Never had any problem at all with it.The only reason I sold it,was too much money to convert it to s/c.I should have left it all connected when I shipped it to you,but I didn't want this to happen,go figure.Do you have any Friends that are good with electrical,get one of them to look at it,or drive down to the Ohio meet and I will take a look at it.

i agree..you SHOULD drive down to the Ohio meet, it'll be a blast

Its really no big deal at all, I have no hard feelings about this. Its just an unfortunate side to messing with things. I wish that I could make it to the Ohio meet, but my work denied my request for having the weekend off. I have to work fri and sunday. Oh, and in the pictures in the first post, the power switch is turned OFF, correct?

Yeah, I double checked, and it would take me about 4 hours to make it to the meet. 8 hours is a lot of road time for one day. I'm bummed.

So that red light was right next to the switch to flip? Or was it in the wiring and you pulled it out for that switch set up? I DO NOT have a big red light like that by any of my switches. May have gotten rid of it in the new Q model but they still talk about it in the instructions (which has many mistakes in it).

Yeah thats probably it. If you had it you couldn't miss it.

Your code is: ECM BATT MalfunctionI think your Unichip is bad or you have a loose connection. Does it go away when the Unichip is off?

The unichip is not bad,it was mine before he bought it.I think somethings loose or not hooked up right.

Kevera, in the pictures above, the power switch is off, right? Because I was messin around and switched it the other way, and after a day and a half of driving, my cel is gone, at least for the moment.

From that picture the Unichip is off and it's on Map B.

Thats what I thought. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but hopefully by fiddling with the stuff for the past couple of days, I may have tightened what was loose.

hehe, ya. I'm glad you think it works now after tightening things up because if you had issues because it was off the entire time I'd have to cyber-smack you. hahaha

Trust me, if it was off the whole time, I would sell my car, never touch one again, and stop posting on these forums. I just began second guessing my self after I re-installed the switches.

the power switch is for the cars ecu. not the unichip. you use it to temporarily kill power to ecu to reset cel. leving this switch in the off position will cause you to get a cel ecm batt malfunction. so if that was the cel you were getting then yes you had it off all this time.the reason you probably didnt notice is that is the power to the cars ecu memory. it wont neccessarily affect performance but your car will be in learn mode all the time. cause its like dissconnecting the battery every time you turn your car off.now that your ecu is battery backed up. it should take about 3 drive cycles to get to normal "ready" status. oh. and i had the wires for the light still bundled next to the switch but no light so im guess its possible to still add a led. and the wires can be pulled away from the switch a little. otherwise it would make mounting the switch more difficult.

From reading the UNICHIP manual I was under the impression that you will be fine with it off but everytime you shut off your vehicle you clear the ECU's learnings. So it's a stupid thing to do but I would doubt that you'd get an ECU. Or maybe I read it wrong.

yes you clear the ecu learnings. but ater a few drive cycles of constant clearing.the ecu knows this isnt right and sets a code. which can be cleared with the unichip switch. just be sure to turn it back on. actually the code is for the battery backup if backup power can be maintained the ecu could probably stay in learning mode indefinitely(which by the way wont allow you to pass emissions).and the unichip manual is passable at best. i spent a hour looking for a nonexistent light.and the turbo switch down is actually up. and "power cut on"' is just rediculous. ecu power is far simpler

That's why I left it on and in the Map B position all the time.I never had any troubles.

I just got back from Toronto for the week, started up my car, and still no CEL. I don't think its coming back this time. (knock on wood)

So what is it that you exactly did? Come on now, come clean

All I did was take everything apart, make sure everything was nice and clean, and then I put it all back together. I guess it must have been a loose connection or somthing.

That's good news.You had me worried,Why didn't you tell me you were up here,I would have had a looked at it for you.But just to let you know,I didn't sell you junk,so it's possible that it could have happened during the shipping process.I didn't want to take it apart,but I felt it would be better to bubble wrap everything separately so nothing would get damaged.Enjoy.

I was in Toronto with my family, and did not bring my car anyway. And don't worry, I know you didn't sell me junk. I never once blamed the problem on you, just my own incompetence.