99Grand Am - Anti-theft?

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Jim Elbrecht - 24 Jun 2006 12:04 GMT

My daughter called last night at midnight when she got out of work.

She'd started her car with her remote starter, but when she got in the
car, she thinks she hit something on the fob, the car stalled, and now
she can't turn the ignition key or take it out of park.

The remote starter still works and it runs. Once started, you can
turn the steering wheel freely. If you start it with the remote,
then step on the brake, the car stalls as designed. But it will
start right up again.

The car will lock and unlock from the remote -- but the horn doesn't
chirp. This suggests to me that the alarm isn't setting- so it can't
clear itself.

I'm about to go l.ook at it in the daylight-- check all the fuses, try
manually locking the car.

If that doesn't work does anyone have some suggestions on where to
look next?

Thanks,
Jim

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Jim Elbrecht - 24 Jun 2006 15:54 GMT

Well- after checking all the fuses, I called the guy who installed the
remote starter & he said it was probably the ignition cylinder. As
soon as he said it, I remembered that 2 yrs ago it was flakey at
times- and I had a new key cut from the VIN, and sprayed some
lock-lube [dry graphite] in the cylinder. All was well until
yesterday.

So now I've tapped and lubed, and 'dry-aired' and wiggled and tried
several keys. . . and still no joy.

To save the price of a tow, and the cost of paying my mechanic to do
this- is my best bet to drill the cylinder? I've seen it mentioned
on the Grand Am forum & the poster said to remove the ignition switch
from the dash before drilling. I had thought that it would be
drilled directly into the slot where the key goes & wonder why leaving
it right in the dash wasn't a good idea.

Any thoughts? -- Or am I about to drill in the wrong place?

Thanks,
Jim

>My daughter called last night at midnight when she got out of work.
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>Thanks,
>Jim

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Shep - 24 Jun 2006 23:24 GMT

Is the dash secuity lite staying on, if so the lock out may be activated,
leave the key on for 20 minutes shut it off and try to restart. Is this the
chip key type, if so this will not work.

> Well- after checking all the fuses, I called the guy who installed the
> remote starter & he said it was probably the ignition cylinder. As
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
>>Thanks,
>>Jim

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Jim Elbrecht - 25 Jun 2006 13:09 GMT

>Is the dash secuity lite staying on, if so the lock out may be activated,
>leave the key on for 20 minutes shut it off and try to restart. Is this the
>chip key type, if so this will not work.

It's not the chip-type key-- but the problem isn't that the car won't
start. The problem is that the key won't turn.

Daughter remembered she had AAA- towed to repair shop.

Thanks anyway,
Jim

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