'02 Impala 3.4l 136.5K: Pothole = SECURITY Message
Last Sunday 7/11/10 (~136,300 miles), the passenger front wheel got swallowed up by a sizeable pothole, causing the SECURITY message to immediately illuminate (I was driving and noticed it instantly). The light stayed on all the way home (~10 miles) and when I got back home, after shutting the car off, I immediately checked to see if the car would re-start and it did. The message went away and I figured that would be the end of it.
But after no message all week, it has reappeared today. Still, no problem starting/re-starting the car, however.
The last time this message appeared on this car was in July of 2008 (107,095 miles). That time, the car would not start for 10 minutes. Before that, it occured for the very first time on 9/13/07 (97,475 - clear afternoon), and then again on 9/28/07 (97,900 - clear morning). No potholes or shock trauma either of those times (as far as I know).
My understanding of this SECURITY message problem is that it’s either an ignition block or Body Control Module issue. Could a front-end jolt have aggravated either of these things (doesn’t seem likely), or is there something else I might need to look into??
Had the car up on ramps yesterday changing the oil and when I finished the SECURITY message was gone (before I had even reset the OIL LIFE).
Coincidence? Maybe it was the angle of the front-end of the car? Maybe it’s going to return in short order?
Still no starting issues, although a poster on another board told me that if the SECURITY message appears AFTER the car has been started, it goes into failsafe mode and will still run and start.
Wait and see, I guess…