I have an HHR ls that is a rebuilt salvage. I put a roof cut in from an lt with a sunroof and roof rails. All of the wiring in my new headliner simply plugged in and I assumed the sunroof would work. it didnt. Same goes for the heated power SS seats and associated switches I installed. I called the dealership after I had checked everything I knew to check ( fuses, voltage at the switch, made sure the sunroof motor worked) and they asked for my vin before even attempting to troubleshoot the problem. The service writer then informed me that my car, the car I just told him I had rebuilt, was a salvage title and I don't know what kind of shoddy work was involved. Clearly he either wasn't listening at all or didn't want my buisness. So I thought I'd turn to the lovely people of this forum. how do I fix my various electrical problems. I've heard that the dealership can go in and turn "ON" accessories in their computer. Is this what I need? Or is there a switch or fuse I need to swap.

 

You need to have a dealership programme the computer

 

The service guy was trying to tell you that the computers need to be programed, which may be problematical since they usually are only trained to do it by VIN.

In other words; You can only add option that are available to the VIN.

 

So even though my car came with the wiring to plug the accessories in, they might never work? I may drive to another dealership in the spring and see if they could help me.

 

Yes , the computer in the car has to be programmed for the accessories it is "supposed" to have according to the VIN and the build sheet for that vehicle.

The problem I see is a GM dealer may not be willing to reprogram it for you because of the salvage status. Because of this and the fact that it's "pieced together" (for the lack of a better term ), a dealer may not want to accept any liabilities due to this salvage status.

Example; If the dealer programs your car to activate these accessories, then the wiring gets fried because of bad salvage work that was done, well, the dealer could be blamed.
I know that back in my mechanic days if someone brought a car to our shop like that I would decline to work on it.

 

if it's just the sunroof you want to work then maybe run power to the switch and ensure it is working it would only run on 12 volts so I don't see why the GM dealer won't enable that !

 

A way to try as well, would be to create an agreement of waiver of liability to the dealership and have yourself and the Dealership Service Manager sign it saying that you acknowledge they programmed this to allow you use of the items you added yourself, and they are not responsible if some breaks, is damaged by use, or fails to work properly at all, and if in doing this programming, it causes other systems to fail, not work right, or causes serious issues to critical systems, they are not right..

As some have said, perhaps wiring to switches yourself instead of through the system, is an option. Depends on your level of competency with wiring and comfort with doing the wiring job you do.

 

I know people have added the heated seats and had their dealership enable them and had not issues other than having to pay a charge to reprogram BCM

 

That is true Oldblue. On a straight forward task of adding on optional accessories to a car I could see the dealer not having a problem about programming it.
Now, as far as the OP and his salvage car, we're talking a different scenario.
One thing that caught my attention in the 1st post: "I put a roof cut in from an lt with a sunroof".

I used to do a lot of mechanic work for a used car/ wholesale company through the shop I worked at. I have seen a lot of salvaged and "brought back from totaled" vehicles. Some former repairs made you go WTH. Others were just down right dangerous.

 

I get all the reprogramming the brain, but if its an already salvaged car and the dealers dont want to touch it why not just wire it yourself?