I have a 96 SE. When I bought the car it did not have a remote, but It was equipped with an Automate alarm system. The system was deactivated when I bought the car, presumably because the remote was lost. I have since activated the alarm and then once again deactivated it to make sure it was working. Recently I bought a remote off ebay, and today tried unsuccessfully to get it too work.

Now, after some research I looked at the rpo codes in the trunk and there is no AUO code(the one for remote entry).

my questions:
is the automate a GM installed alarm or aftermarket? did it use remote entry?

is the process for programming different for a 96 then from a 98?(i used 98 instructions)

also my diagnostic port doesn't have a pin 8, but instead a pin7. so I did 7 and 4 in a half hearted guess and getting it to work.

any input at all on this would be appreciated.

Oooh, bummer. I'm pretty sure that AU0 _is_ the code you need to find for '96; sorry. But if you have power locks, you can still add an aftermarket unit without too much trouble.

Some Googling led me to http://www.automate-alarm.de/ -- a horrendously busy website with all kinds of flashturbation to download, plus it'* all in German anyway, but the gist of it seems to be that Automate is the parent company of Viper electronics, among other things, and if that'* the same Automate you're talking about, it'* aftermarket.

In fact, GM doesn't have a separate brand name for the factory-installed security system anyway, although dealers are always free to run their own third-party alarm installation deals, which is what this may have been.

It also would have been really appealing to the first buyer of your car, since it would have added keyless-entry functions to the car even though it didn't come with the factory keyless-entry option AU0.

I think you can forget about those programming instructions altogether because it doesn't sound like you have a factory keyless-entry system in the first place. Your choices appear to be:

1) Figure out if the aftermarket Automate is installed properly, and what it needs to get going again (e.g. whether you have the matching transmitter(*) for that model of security system -- what you're in need of is the correct _Automate_ transmitter, not the correct original Pontiac transmitter. Here is one such link offering replacement Automate transmitters: http://www.autotechs.com/subcat17.htm )

2) Ignore the Automate unit altogether and install your own system from scratch

Let us know how it goes!