Ignition problem driving me crazy
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 296
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From: NY
Ignition problem driving me crazy OK here's the deal. I've recently been having problems starting my car ie no power to the starter, no cranking, nothing. It started happening about a month ago but i always thought i had somehow not had the clutch to the floor to start. This past week or so it's gotten worse. I couldn't start my car on friday morning. Later on in the afternoon i went out and it fired right up first try. I originally thought it was the neutral safety switch so I replaced it and the problem is still occurring. Im thinking possibly vats since i've seen a lot of posts about these things crapping out but i have to point out two things. One is that i have a spare key and tried it a number of times when the car wouldn't start and i still had the same problem. The other is that my security light with comes on for about 3 seconds when the key is put into the ignition and promptly turns off. Im unsure but i believe that this is how it's supposed to work. Im going to try disabling the Vats using hptuners and see if this helps any. Other than this im thinking the ignition it self. Any suggestions? This is driving me crazy. And just to be clear the car still starts up but has a thing with me in the morning when im getting ready to go to work. Cold weather seems to make it worse too. DRIVING ME CRAZY.
Typically the sec light will stay on if the vats is bad in the cylinder, however I have seen the light go out even though that is the problem. Very seldomly is the chip in the key bad, its normally the little wires at the ignition cylinder that break. You can check the resistence of the two little wires at the bottom column connector while turning the key and see if that is the issue. When turning the key see if the resistence goes to "open" or changes. If so then you need a new cylinder.
