Got'cha. General Motors and Volkswagen are the two least customer-friendly car companies. They've figured out many ways to separate owners from their money after the sale, and sadly, you just fell victim to one of them. You'll need to have the car towed to the dealer so they can reprogram numerous computers to unlock them.
Toyota and Chrysler allow any independent mechanic to access any of their computers except the Security system for a small fee. Only Hyundai allows any mechanic access to their entire web site for free. GM only allows independent shops to access three computers, as mandated by the government because they affect emissions. GM keeps everything else locked up for themselves. These types of business practices have been costing them lots of repeat customers so they have to keep dreaming up more and more ways to cost you money.
In the future, look into a "memory saver" when you disconnect the battery. (By the way, due to the generator's design, it has an extremely high failure rate. The number one way to prevent repeat failures, or an initial failure, is to replace the perfectly good battery, as you did). A common memory saver uses a nine volt transistor battery that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket, but they only work if your lighter will work with the ignition switch turned off. If you have to turn it on, that little battery will try to power all the things on the car. It's not capable of that.
I use a small battery charger hooked to the engine block and the positive battery cable where it bolts to the fuse box. Remote jump-start terminals are a good place to connect to also, but you always have to be careful that the car's positive battery cable doesn't touch anything metal on the car, and / or the battery charger clip leads don't pop off.
Oct 26, 2011 at 7:32 PM
