My 1 year old starter gave out yesterday. I had to tow the Caddy home It was actually the solenoid. It's a Napa Starter, and I have heard recently that they don't seem to last long at all. Anyways after replacing the bad with a new, the car still didn't start, but I found out that the black wire that connects to the battery directly to the starter has part of it's insulation open where it exposed the wires. The wires was touching the edge of the battery tray, grounding out.
Can this grounding out cause a short in the starter solenoid? And also damage the VATS system? I saw a spark coming from starter wire that's why.
Anyways after I put a rag underneath the exposed wire to prevent it from touching the battery tray, the car finally turned over. I plan on replacing the wire tomorrow.
Now the PASS KEY FAULT light is on the dash.
Is there anyway to fix this? If so how much will it cost?
Another possibility is a failing wire inside of ignition lock cylinder. There are tiny wires inside ignition lock cylinder which move every time you turn the key. They break down gradually and cause intermittent no start condition and eventually break completely and leave you stranded. Bypassing is easy, just measure the resistance of the chip in your key and buy a matching (close enough) 0.25 W resistor (or resistors) from RadioShack.
The VATS system on these cars are junk and very easy to bypass, if you ever need help ill walk ya through it. that was one of the first things i bypassed on my 95
I haven't replaced the starter cable wire yet, but I plan on doing that sometime this week. I just didn't have the time today. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.
Ok I finally replaced the starter cable. I had to get a spacer for the battery terminal , because the cable wouldn't fit at all with the regular connector on it. So far so good, I haven't had any kind of problems. The car starts fine, and the pass key fault light has been off. But I do have a code of "143" under the -01. I can't figure out what it is. I looked in the manual but it doesn't state anything in that number range.
Also does anyone know how to remove the rubber insulator on the battery cables? I still need to remove the old starter cable, but I don't want to rip or tear anything up.
Bad news, I am having problems again. Twice this week my car wouldn't start, and the pass key fault light came on and stayed on for at least a minute or 2. But once the light turned off, the car turned over and I was able to drive off. Is this ignition lock cylinder going bad now? Or ignition switch?
If so, I want to replace it, but the obvious issue is accessing the lock cylinder and getting a new key programmed for it to work. How do I go about this repair? And how much will it cost?
Any help is much appreciated, thanks again peoples.
if its just the ignition wiring thats getting shorted
you can bypass the ignition with about $1.25 worth of resistors
(adding them up to the keys value)
then plugging them in under the steering column
super easy to do/
or you can go to a stereo shop and they have tons of the exact value you need so you only have one resistor to wire in. no adding multiple ones together...and theyll prolly give you one for free
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