New member - 2004 XLR Crimson Pearl

[Jonathan]

Hi everyone,
glad to join the forum, thanks to all involved for sharing precious information on the XLR.
I'm based in Pompano Beach, nearby Fort Lauderdale in South Florida.
I recently acquired a 2004 XLR Crimson Pearl.
It has only 46k miles but needs TLC, paint is faded, seats need dye, a couple of cylinders are leaking and gremlins are playing with the electronics
Overall nothing crazy but it has seen better days.

I'm working on it , will post updates to share finding.
I hooked up a Tech2Win via VCX nano onto my macbook laptop using Parallel Desktop VM.
It works pretty well, helped finding DTCs, If someone is interested by this, let me know.

Thanks to all , enjoy your XLRs.

 

[Rob]

Welcome to the XLR Net!

 

[James Landi]

Sounds as if your baby was sitting outside in the vicious FLorida sun. Do you have any background on your car, and just why it was not protected? As you likely already know, there are a few wrecked XLR's with "like new interiors," and I've noted that some of these parts are relatively inexpensive. I owned an Allante that had seats that looked good, but the foam rubber was baked hard underneath the leather... Welcome James

 

[Jeff Rhodes]

Hi Jonathan, I'm interested in what program you used with your laptop as a Tech2. I'm also new to this site and have found it very helpful as I try to keep my 2004 XLR on the road. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jonathan]

Sounds as if your baby was sitting outside in the vicious FLorida sun. Do you have any background on your car, and just why it was not protected? As you likely already know, there are a few wrecked XLR's with "like new interiors," and I've noted that some of these parts are relatively inexpensive. I owned an Allante that had seats that looked good, but the foam rubber was baked hard underneath the leather... Welcome James

Hi James, Thanks !
My XLR is far from being perfect in the interior while being mostly a cosmetic issue.
Anyway, my plan is to go over the entire car and check/repair/maintain every suspect or fragile components.
I already took care of the seats; dismounted, greased the mechanisms, and cleaned the electrical connexions .
The leather/vinyl needed a repaint which I did with dedicated paint and a custom color order matching the 'aged' color to a local shop, hopefully the foam is in very good shape.
I also removed the carpets, cleaned them, and more importantly cleaned the 4 ground connections nearby the doors. These were the source of electrical gremlins and DTCs preventing the driver seat and the steering column adjustment to behave correctly. Since then, the seats works like a charm and the interior is getting closer to what it should be.

 

[Jonathan]

Hi Jonathan, I'm interested in what program you used with your laptop as a Tech2. I'm also new to this site and have found it very helpful as I try to keep my 2004 XLR on the road. Thanks in advance.

Hi Jeff, I have it working but do not recall the exact sequence of installation.
the Tech2Win soft is from the CD provided with the VCX nano, the other apps/drivers were pulled from the VCX nano site.
The Parallel desktop install is trivial, you may have to get a licensed version , you select the Win OS you want, I took Win10, it installs swiftly, you may not need to activate the Win10 OS temporarily...
Next, I had to try several drivers downloaded from the VCX drag site, and running another app before I could see the connectivity of the Tech2win ok w/ no driver complaints. I'll redo the install on another MacBook I have, collecting the sequence and action and will post it so that it can be shared.
hope it helps for now, let me know if you have particular issue, maybe I can help. Thanks,

 

[Jeff Rhodes]

Hi Jeff, I have it working but do not recall the exact sequence of installation.
the Tech2Win soft is from the CD provided with the VCX nano, the other apps/drivers were pulled from the VCX nano site.
The Parallel desktop install is trivial, you may have to get a licensed version , you select the Win OS you want, I took Win10, it installs swiftly, you may not need to activate the Win10 OS temporarily...
Next, I had to try several drivers downloaded from the VCX drag site, and running another app before I could see the connectivity of the Tech2win ok w/ no driver complaints. I'll redo the install on another MacBook I have, collecting the sequence and action and will post it so that it can be shared.
hope it helps for now, let me know if you have particular issue, maybe I can help. Thanks,

Hi Jonathan

I'm just trying to get into the computer, I'm having "service ride control" and "service cruise control" issues that I would like to address. After seeing some of the forum conversation I'm fairly convinced to install the C6 Corvette shocks but I would like to get into the programming to remove the "service" marquis on the dash board. Finding the proper Tech 2 seems a bit challenging. I'm the GM of a research and development company and have an IT guy on staff that has his masters, half my age....ugh, lets see how far we get after I break down the control modules and try to read them.
I also have gone through the interior to make the car nicer, that said, I made a 3D Solidworks sketch of those silly little brackets that hold the speakers in the seats. If yours are broken, let me know, I'll send you the file. It was $35 to have 5 of them printed up by a professional company. Almost every part of this car is obsolete.....challenge accepted!!

Thanks for the heads up on the Tech 2 stuff, I'll gladly take any advice you have and/or learn along the way.

 

[Jonathan]

Hi Jonathan

I'm just trying to get into the computer, I'm having "service ride control" and "service cruise control" issues that I would like to address. After seeing some of the forum conversation I'm fairly convinced to install the C6 Corvette shocks but I would like to get into the programming to remove the "service" marquis on the dash board. Finding the proper Tech 2 seems a bit challenging. I'm the GM of a research and development company and have an IT guy on staff that has his masters, half my age....ugh, lets see how far we get after I break down the control modules and try to read them.
I also have gone through the interior to make the car nicer, that said, I made a 3D Solidworks sketch of those silly little brackets that hold the speakers in the seats. If yours are broken, let me know, I'll send you the file. It was $35 to have 5 of them printed up by a professional company. Almost every part of this car is obsolete.....challenge accepted!!

Thanks for the heads up on the Tech 2 stuff, I'll gladly take any advice you have and/or learn along the way.

Hi Jeff, that's an ambitious project ! I'm in IT too, may be for as long as you do I guess you may have to reverse engineering the code of the corresponding module, might be tough to achieve since the functionality you want modify was not intended to be programmable. You certainly know more than I, I would guess that one option is to upload a new version of the entire module if such "firmware" upgrade was possible in such early 2000 wonder vehicle.
Still, unless you have access to the source code (may be written in C if not ASM ?) and a compiler for the target chipset, I'm not sure you can achieve much.
This could be a fun project, let me know if you want to share knowledge or findings , I'd be happy to exchange on this.
Otherwise, would it help, here is what I experienced regarding the "Service Ride Control". I had this since purchase, noticed that the suspension had been changed for regular ones with simulators plugged on the 4 corresponding connectors. I found that one suspension height sensor was broken, Found it for $30, put new part, no more "Service Ride Control". However the "max 80 mph" is popping up randomly if I take aggressive turns, go over rail tracks or alike, another Gremlin waiting for me...
Thanks for the offer on the speaker brackets, you played it smart. During the seat dye I completed, I was more brutal using hot glue gun on the broken brackets, enough to hold but soft enough to be dismountable.
Thanks again.