[hogstamogsta]

i have a 96 deville, i bought it from a dealer and it was a reposession, a lock smith made a key for it and i was wondering if it was possible if he could've made the chip in the key wrong, when im driving it says theft system problem car may not restart, and sometimes when i go to turn the car on it dosent start and says starting disabled and then i have to wait 3 mins until it will start again...but i also heard that there is wires in the steering column attacthed to the key cylinder that go bad and sometimes tear making the starting a problem, any help pleasseee?:crowded:

 

[hogstamogsta]

helppppp

 

[Ranger]

If he used the wrong resistor (pellet), the car would never start

 

[brmurph]

I had that same problem with mine. Dealer replaced the key cylinder/tumbler and both problems/messages went away.

 

[hogstamogsta]

well how do i know if i have the wrong key pellet? and how much did the dealer charge u to do all that?

 

[Kdirk]

The dealer has a tool, called a VATS (vehicle anti-theft system) interrogator. It is used to simulate the 15 different values of the key "chip" which is really just a resistor. They can hook this up to determine the correct value for your car, but it is a kind of stupid process, as they have to go through each value starting from the first until the hit the right one.

If you have the 15th one for example , they have to do the procedure 15 times, waiting 4 minutes each time for the lockout to expire before they try the next one, thus it can be time consuming (and that equals $).

You cannot have the wrong value or it would never work as has already been pointed out, BUT I have seen the resistor pellets go bad, especially in non-GM genuine key blanks.

I had a cheap one a locksmith made for me, worked for about a year then started getting intermittent "wait 3 minutes" lockouts. My other keys always worked fine, so I tested the faulty one with an ohmmeter and found the value had drifted well out of spec. This may be your problem.

You may also have a dirty (oxidized) contact on the pellet (can be cleaned with a pencil eraser on both sides) or in the key switch (which is basically impossible to clean, maybe a q-tip with some rubbing alchohol could get in there far enough to clean in). Other possiblities include poor mechincal contact in the key switch (due to wear) or itermittent open in the wiring (which is very thin and is known to break eventually) both of which requrie replacement of the iginition key switch asembly.

Finally, the PASS-key module (the part that controls/interprets the key chip) could be faulty, but this is a rather uncommon failure point.

I would first check the key to make sure it isn't dirty or has drifted off it's correct resistance. If it has, see if the locksmith who made the key or the dealer knows what value it was and have them make a new one.

Otherwise, you're looking at spending some bucks.

KDirk

 

[ewill3rd]

Sounds like the wires are broken inside the column, I replaced 2 this week.

I usually sell you a new lock cylinder, 2 new keys and make sure the new keys are code matched to the theft module.
If the code was wrong the car would never start, that is very true.
Depending on local labor rates it could cost between 300 and 600 bucks out the door.
The cylinders are about 60 bucks and the keys can be between 30 and 60 bucks each, plus labor which around here is about 250 bucks.

 

[hogstamogsta]

but what i dont understand is i can turn the ignition without a key being in there, but of course it wont start cuz of the 3 min thing

 

[kingphil69]

your ignition cylender is bad. you need a new ignition lock. there are ways of bypassing Vats, but i wont go into that here. you could pick up a decent car alarm (since you can turn the key anyways...) and that'll help you get around vats if its a viper i know they come with a resistor pack, and then you wont get that message because you've given it the correct value.

 

[brougham]

There's something wrong with it if you can turn it like that without the key. That might even be the right key that you have and something else is broken from when someone tried to steal it. It's probably going to be a lot easier to just bring it back to the dealer or a place that can fix problems like that then getting people to guess what's wrong with it here because probably nobody will be able to tell you exactly what to do unless they see it.