Security Light on Dash

[merlinsrealm]

hey everyone......A friend of mine has a 1995 Camaro. Her security light is on when she starts the car and stays on. She has tried to clean the chip with an eraser & tried her spare key. Any Suggestions?

[FireFighter]

i dunno but when mine came on for 2 days it wouldn't start at all so, tell her she is lucky.

[V6MaroFL]

This can develop into a real pain in the a** problem. Eventually the car will become hard to start and finally, one day it won't start at all. I just had it fixed on mine, turned out to be the ignition cylinder. Had to replace it, costed me about $270 w/ new cut key.

If you do a search, this topic has been discussed a bunch of times. Some say simpily a wire inside can be sodered back together and it is fixed, although I asked my mechanic (hes trustworthy, long time friend of the family) and he said this wasn't the case on mine. Maybe your friends will be a different case and she will get out easier.

I wouldn't recommend bringing it to the dealership, they quoted me at about $530 to fix it (not to mention the 29 bucks just to look at it). Good luck!

[TheV6Bird]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by V6MaroFL:
This can develop into a real pain in the a** problem. Eventually the car will become hard to start and finally, one day it won't start at all. I just had it fixed on mine, turned out to be the ignition cylinder. Had to replace it, costed me about $270 w/ new cut key.

If you do a search, this topic has been discussed a bunch of times. Some say simpily a wire inside can be sodered back together and it is fixed, although I asked my mechanic (hes trustworthy, long time friend of the family) and he said this wasn't the case on mine. Maybe your friends will be a different case and she will get out easier.

I wouldn't recommend bringing it to the dealership, they quoted me at about $530 to fix it (not to mention the 29 bucks just to look at it). Good luck!<hr></blockquote>This is true...I had the same problem. Ignition lock cylinder was the culprit. Man, that problem sucked :mad:

[camarofan]

Depending on how worried you are about the car being stolen you can fix it fairly cheap. The side effect is the security system is disabled for resistance purposes, meaning a key cut the same without a pellet will still start the car.

It's done by getting a resistor with the same value the key is, then cutting the VATS wires between the ignition and the VAT module and making a loop between the two wires no longer connected to the ignition from the VAT module. The resistor should cost no more than $5.00, and installation shouldn't be more than 30 minutes by someone knowing what they are doing. I got my resistor from a Benchmark Audio, but any place that installs remote starts/ alarms will have them. Just be sure the 2 wires coming from the ignition are not connected, doing so will double the resistance value and shut down the fuel pump and other features when trying to be started.

Forgot to mention, you can determine the resistance value of your pellet by going to a dealership with your vin number(may have to have ID and proof of ownership) or by having the resistance of your key measured by the place selling you the resistor. I think there are like 8 or 9 different resistances for our cars.

[ May 19, 2003: Message edited by: camarofan ]</p>

[OneQuickV6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by camarofan:
Depending on how worried you are about the car being stolen you can fix it fairly cheap. The side effect is the security system is disabled for resistance purposes, meaning a key cut the same without a pellet will still start the car.

It's done by getting a resistor with the same value the key is, then cutting the VATS wires between the ignition and the VAT module and making a loop between the two wires no longer connected to the ignition from the VAT module. The resistor should cost no more than $5.00, and installation shouldn't be more than 30 minutes by someone knowing what they are doing. I got my resistor from a Benchmark Audio, but any place that installs remote starts/ alarms will have them. Just be sure the 2 wires coming from the ignition are not connected, doing so will double the resistance value and shut down the fuel pump and other features when trying to be started.

Forgot to mention, you can determine the resistance value of your pellet by going to a dealership with your vin number(may have to have ID and proof of ownership) or by having the resistance of your key measured by the place selling you the resistor. I think there are like 8 or 9 different resistances for our cars.

[ May 19, 2003: Message edited by: camarofan ]<hr></blockquote>


This is what I did when my lock cylinder went out...very easy fix, didn't take 20 minutes. Get a multimeter that will read the resistance of that chip, find the same ohmage resistor at radio shack, cut the right wires, solder in the resistor. If you do a search you can find exact instructions I posted a while back. Search for "security" or maybe "lock" and only my user number, and it should pop up a thread I made abck in the day.

[camarofan]

If you choose to measure the resistance value yourself, be sure that you are not touching the leads from the multimeter, it will give a false reading. Before soldering or making the permanent connection do a simple twist and try to make sure it works. No damage will result if the value is wrong, the starting system will be disabled for like 10 minutes or so. It's very simple and if you're not comfortable with measuring it yourself most places will do it for free.

[merlinsrealm]

As always, Thanks Everyone for your responses. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Eric

[NSolano]

similar problem, I had ths ignition cylinder replaced for like $350 but right now its doing it agian. Anyone got a link that will tell me exactly what to do, or anyone in the Northern VA area know how to do this and help me.