Has anyone seen this? (VRCM problem)

R

Robertf

Registered
I finally found a VRCM for my 96 on Car-Part.com. When installed it last weekend, I discovered that the one that was on my car was from a 93-95 Mark. That may explain why the fan ran constantly whenever the ignition was turned on.
When I tested the 96 VRCM it worked as advertised. The fan came on after the car had been running for a while and it shut off after (presumably) bringing the coolant temp down. And my AC worked! Everything was great until I tried to turn the ignition off. The car continued to run with the key in the off position. I could not stop the engine. Ultimately I had to pull the connectors to the coils to kill the engine. I reinstalled the old (93-95) VRCM so I could keep driving the car. Any ideas???
 
Yeah, that's what I figured. They are so hard to get that I wouldn't send it back. They only had one anyway. I may as well start looking for another one.
 
well first off, what year is your car? if you had a 93-95 vcrm on your car, and your car is a 96 that wont work, if you have a 93-95 mark VIII and you tried putting that 96 vcrm on your car that wont work either. 96 vcrm will only work on a 96 mark VIII, if you have a 96 mark and the 96 vcrm you got did that when installed chances are the item you got is defective.
 
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I would say that you prolly have a bad ignition switch. The VLCM gets its ground from the pcm. Even if the fpdm stays powered some how, the pcm will shut off the injectors and ignition, since it uses the crank and camshaft position sensors to activate them.

Next question, how are you driving the vehicle with the 93-95 VCRM installed. It physically won't work in the 96 vehicle. Unless of course you take the ground wire from the VLCM-PCM, and connect it to the ground wire from the High speed Relay - VLCM. Thats what Palm Harbor Auto service did to my car to make it run, when the previous owner overheated it.

On second thought, it should still shut off. I'm confused now. I think you need to check out the wiring.
 
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Robert, there is nothing wrong with the VLCM that you bought. It is more likely, that the ignition switch was stuck in the on position. The cooling fan worked constantly, because the pinouts for the 93-95 VCRM's are different than the 96 VLCM. Also, you need to check the harness at the VLCM connector. The people who worked on it, spliced together 2 ground wires. Circuit 787(pin 7-VLCM) a pink with black stripe wire and circuit 789(pin10-VLCM) a brown with white strip wire. This allows the pcm to ground the high speed fuel pump relay, which is in the powertrain distribution box. This is also why your A/C didn't work.
 
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