Ignition Lock Cylinder went out today :(

[BLLDOGG]

well, i went to the parking lot at school today to move my car and it wouldnt turn over :( i pushed it over to my mechanics shop and we went to town. my teacher came to the conclusion that the wires on the cylinder have broke cause when you turn it over slowly, the volts on the voltmeter are fine until a point and it goes crazy. so, either the cylinder is gone or the wires are broken, $58 part and $75 in labor. god my mom is going to freak :(

[98Camaro3.8]

So the key turns in the ignition, the car just doesn't start? Do you get power in the car with the ignition turned on? Does the security light turn on in the dash?

[BLLDOGG]

the power turns on but when you turn the key to start it, nothing happens and yes, the security light slowly flashes. my teacher thinks its the damn GM problem where the wires to the Ignition Lock Cylinder break because of the twisting on them. we tested everything and when you slowly turnt the key on the start position, its steady then at the same point every time, the circute opens and the gauge goes nuts :(

[98Camaro3.8]

If the security light is on, then chances are it's the chip in the key. When VATS goes bad, it will keep the car from starting. Try cleaning the resistor on your key with an eraser. If that doesn't work, go to a dealership and see if you can get a new key.

Edit: The service manual says it may leave the Security light on for a full 3 mintues, even if the ignition is off...does it do that for you?

[ September 15, 2004, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: 98Camaro3.8 ]

[silvachris1]

It's prolly not the key. My cylinder went out on me. And I have proof that it was the wires that broke. And consider yourself lucky. 75 bucks in labor aint bad. My total for repair with parts came to 273 and it wasn't at a dealer.

[BLLDOGG]

the key is good. it was reading 11.79 volts or whatever it was reading in. yeah, the light didnt stay on. it just slowly flashed when the key was in. but the wires breakign makes total sense cause i have heard of the problem before and the volts or whatever read 11.79 until a point then it went nuts and my tech teacher said that means the cuircut opens and he said that means the wires seperated. yeah, im glad about the cheap price but im going to shop around. i have no telling how long my car is gong to sit there. money is never really flowing at my house :(

[98Camaro3.8]

Sorry, but how do you know the key is good?

I'm not saying those wires are not broken, because I've heard of that problem too. I'm just saying that there are simpler solutions that are also possible (Ockham's razor, anyone?), so why not check them first?

[BLLDOGG]

we have checked everything we can think of. please, if you have ideas, bring them on cause we might have missed something. you test the key with a voltmeter or whatever and you stick one of the testers on each side and if it reads a certain amount of oams(spelling**)thats what your setup is running at. if it is broken, then it will read 0. but whatever you key is running at, thats what you tell the dealer or they test when you go to replace stuff like the key or the rest of the stuff.

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by BLLDOGG:
you test the key with a voltmeter or whatever and you stick one of the testers on each side and if it reads a certain amount of oams(spelling**)thats what your setup is running at. if it is broken, then it will read 0.

What did your key read? Just because the key reads a certain amount doesn't mean the car is looking for that number. It's possible the key got dirty and doesn't read the right amount. It can easily be just a little off.

Did you check the wires going to the cylinder to see if they're obviously broken?

Do you have a spare key to try starting the car?

If the key is good, it's not that hard to disable VATS by using the correct resistor.

Edit: Also, make sure you're giving it enough time between tests. It takes 3 or 4 minutes to reset between tries, and if you try before that time then it just starts counting again.

[ September 16, 2004, 12:28 AM: Message edited by: 98Camaro3.8 ]

[BLLDOGG]

im pretty the wires were reading the same thing but you do have an interesting point about it reading a charge but the charge is wrong. hummm.....

no spare key :(

i didnt check the wires yet cause it would be a ***** to take everything apart just to look. you would have to take the steering wheel off which means going through the air bag bs, and all that. something needs to be fixed so im going to leave that part up to the dealer. under my close eye ;) no slick moves are going to get by me

yeah, i gave it enough time cause i would test it, then walk into the class and tell him my results, then come back and talk about it for a sec, then test again. lol. so i think i gave it enough time.

o' yeah, my key read 11.79. and when we tested the wires, it read 11.79 until we reached that certain point

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by BLLDOGG:
im pretty the wires were reading the same thing

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean the wires showed the same resistance as the key? If so, that's definetly not how it should work. The resistance it's looking for is stored in the computer, so you really can't tell what the correct value is unless you have the right equipment.

Originally posted by BLLDOGG:
i didnt check the wires yet cause it would be a ***** to take everything apart just to look. you would have to take the steering wheel off which means going through the air bag bs, and all that.

I think you should be able to check the wires going into the cylinder without taking out the steering column, although I'm not sure on that.

Originally posted by BLLDOGG:
o' yeah, my key read 11.79. and when we tested the wires, it read 11.79 until we reached that certain point

Did you say above that that was 11.79 volts? If that's Ohms, then 11.79 Ohms is NOT a correct value for a key.


If it were my car, I'd first check the value on the key. If that resistance is a valid one, then I'd get that size of a resistor and wire it in to check the cylinder. Replacing the cylinder if the key is good will accomplish absolutely nothing.

[terminaldegree]

Isn't there something posted here about the fooling-the-passlock-ignition trick? I remember reading about this more than once. Most of these type of posts can be traced to the wires in the ignition cylinder getting screwed up. I've occasionally read about a dirty resistor causing it, a wet key causing it, but never a faulty resistor.

If I recall, there's a way to disable the passlock system without having to buy a new ignition cylinder. BTW, I agree that the price you were quoted to fix it is comparatively cheap.

[98Camaro3.8]

Originally posted by terminaldegree:
If I recall, there's a way to disable the passlock system without having to buy a new ignition cylinder.

Yes, it's quite simple. Just wire in the correct resistor into the 2 VATS wires under the dash.

[BLLDOGG]

- when we tested the cylinder, we unplugged it and stuck the tester in each end, it would read zero, we would stick the key in and probably turn it to run, not sure about each time. it would read 11.79. when we would turn it to start slowly, it would still read 11.79 until point then it would go nuts. lol

- your right. i used the wrong wording. im going to have to disconnect the air bag system, take the steering wheel off, the blinker unit off, and then its right there ready to be taken off. i dont believe you can check it cause it is in the column housing and the only way to see thw wires is to pull the cylinder off and see what it is doing.

- honestly, im not really sure what unit it was reading, i just know its a number of 11.79.

- thats one thing im trying to find out, what the cylinder is suppose to read and go from there. check the key, then check the cylinder by doing what you said.


something is wrong and im going to have the dealer find out for sure.

i have a quick question though, do you think my starter would go out without any previous problems? and what are soem warnings its going?

[BLLDOGG]

Originally posted by 98Camaro3.8:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by terminaldegree:
If I recall, there's a way to disable the passlock system without having to buy a new ignition cylinder.

Yes, it's quite simple. Just wire in the correct resistor into the 2 VATS wires under the dash. </font>[/QUOTE]thats something im reading about right now [img]smile.gif[/img] if i can fix it and get a push buttn start, that would be nice and cheap