Pontiac Aztek BCM removal and installation

Pontiac Aztek BCM Removal and Installation Instructions

Get some paper and a box to hold your parts that you take off. You can make notes about which screws go where etc. You will need a Phillips screw driver, a socket set, a torx screw driver and some patience.

1. Disconnect negative side of car battery and then disconnect positive side. Move them away from battery so they cannot touch the terminals.

2. Remove the cups from the shifter console and then remove the screw holding that trim in place. Now remove the trim, you may have to put car in neutral. Turn the trim sideways to get it around the shifter.

3. Some people have removed the trim around the radio. I don’t think its necessary, but it is only 2 screws.

You will need a torx screwdriver, the screws are low on the trim in recessed holes. Remove them and pull the trim away from the radio. The car will need to be in neutral or lower to ease the removal.

4. On the drivers side, remove the access door and you will see the fuse box connectors and the wires that go to the BCM, which is on the top of the fuse junction box.

5. Disconnect the wire connectors shown in the 3^rd photo, there are 3 connections. Squeeze the blue tab with your thumb on the tab and your next finger underneath and pull them out. Push them out of the way and get your socket set out. Put a 6” extender bar on it and a 9/32 socket and remove the white and black wire boxes you see in the second photo above. After you have loosened the two screws holding them in you can gently pull them back and away from the junction box. You may have to loosen them more to get them out.. The pictures above where taken with the drivers side trim loosened but you do not have to do that. It does make for better visuals of whats there, but is not necessary. You will now move to the passenger side.

6. There is a half dollar size plug on the console trim, pop it out with a small screwdriver and then remove the bolt thats holding that trim panel tight. Remove the fuse door trim and that is where the inside fuses are.

7. Now you can pull the gray(that’s what mine is) trim away from the fuse area. It won’t go far because there are a few screws holding the large gray console trim to that white panel you see behind it. By pulling it away a bit you can get a small socket extender (3”) with that 9/32 socket on these screws and turn them out. There are 2 of them just above where the hole is and they are holding the two panels together. Be careful, tuck a small towel down below them in case you drop them. There are areas down there that are hard to get anything out of.

8. Near the shifter there is a screw with a large washer on it holder the gray console trim to the white panel. Remove it. It is missing from the next photo, but it would be in that slot right behind where the wire loops.

9. This is where things get interesting. The BCM is connected to the fuse junction box and they are removed together. The BCM is removed from the junction box after you get the whole thing out. The whole unit is snapped into a plastic bracket that goes completely around it. You can pull on the gray trim and the the white panel behind it and maybe put a block of wood or something to hold it out away from the junction box. It gives more than I thought and you will have to give it a good pull in order to get the whole unit out.

If you can get someone to help, have them push on the junction box from the drivers side while you push the two tabs on the side of the bracket out away from the junction box. The tabs are connected to the nubs that hold the unit in.

In this picture you see the top of the bracket, holding the BCM under it which it connected to the junction box.

Just below where you see the bracket go down there is a tab, one on each side, that you push out away from the unit so it will release.

This crude drawing kind of gives you an idea of how the bracket holds the unit in. Once you push those ears back the unit should slide toward you and out the passenger side.

10. When you get the unit to release you will find very little room to totally remove the unit from the area. I had to pull the trim back strongly and wiggle it out from there. If I had it to do over again I probably would have gotten my dremel and cut a bit of the white panel away that interferes with the removal.

11. Once you have it out, there is a silver lever that you must turn to the left to remove the BCM from the electrical junction box. Once you move the lever pull the BCM up and off the junction box. Get the new BCM, put it in place and push it down on to the connector. Now move the lever back to the right and it locks it on to the junction box. You are now ready to put it back in. Make sure you hook the 3 wire connectors back up on the drivers side and then re-attach the white and black connector boxes to the junction box. The box slides into the bracket only one way and then tighten the screws back up that hold it to the junction box.

Getting the screws back into the side trim to the white panel is the hardest part and then put the nut back that you removed through that hole in the trim.

When you are all done, recheck everything and then re-attach your battery cables. Put the positive cable on first and then the negative cable. You should be able to start the car and everything should work except your radio and what appears to be non-essential to driving things. But you can now get it to the dealer to be re-programmed.

I hope this helps someone get a better understanding of what is involved. After you are done you will think that it really wasn’t as hard as you might have thought. Doing anything thing like this, the first time is always the worst. But the good news is, that should be the last time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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