Dear Click and Clack,
We have a 1999 Chevy Malibu. On the whole, it has been a good little car. Except for one VERY annoying behavior that is getting worse with time:
The car has a ridiculous ?theft system? that has never (to our knowledge) helped in avoiding a theft but HAS caused us to spend (cumulatively) HOURS sitting in the car waiting (hoping!) for the car to decide that we are not trying to steal it and thus allow itself to be cranked up.
The ?theft system? prevents fuel from being injected into the engine for ten-minute intervals when the computer system thinks that the ignition was activated by something other than an appropriate key.
But the system has gone haywire and now spontaneously activates itself even when the ignition is fired up with our bona fide Chevrolet keys. We have gotten new keys made?the problem persists. We had the starter replaced once (this is the dealer-recommended fix), but the problem got worse.
There may be an electrical short somewhere in the car that is causing the problem: The first time that the ?theft system? shut down our mobility, it was pouring rain. And we?ve noticed that the problem occurs more often on really rainy days. When a recent Nor?Easter hit Boston, the ?theft system? activated itself on five successive attempts to crank the car. This meant 50 minutes of sitting there in the car, pleading with it to recognize us as its owners (and so we abandoned our happy plans to go out for Sunday morning pancakes).
In the past week, the theft system has activated on six different occasions, even on dry sunny days. So we?re now in a situation where our otherwise nice little car is totally unreliable. We never know if it will start on the first, second, third attempt?
We would LOVE to have the theft system deactivated forever. Our favorite mechanics over at Arlington Tire have told us that this is not a problem that they can handle because it probably involves the car?s computer? We really don?t want to take it back to a dealer to be pressured into having the starter replaced again?
HELP! Do you have any advice about how we can get this dastardly ?theft system? deactivated and who we can take the car to for this service?
Sincere regards,
Stranded in our driveway,
Stacie and Ben
Dear Click and Clack,
We have a 1999 Chevy Malibu. On the whole, it has been a good little car. Except for one VERY annoying behavior that is getting worse with time:
The car has a ridiculous ?theft system? that has never (to our knowledge) helped in avoiding a theft but HAS caused us to spend (cumulatively) HOURS sitting in the car waiting (hoping!) for the car to decide that we are not trying to steal it and thus allow itself to be cranked up.
The ?theft system? prevents fuel from being injected into the engine for ten-minute intervals when the computer system thinks that the ignition was activated by something other than an appropriate key.
But the system has gone haywire and now spontaneously activates itself even when the ignition is fired up with our bona fide Chevrolet keys. We have gotten new keys made?the problem persists. We had the starter replaced once (this is the dealer-recommended fix), but the problem got worse.
There may be an electrical short somewhere in the car that is causing the problem: The first time that the ?theft system? shut down our mobility, it was pouring rain. And we?ve noticed that the problem occurs more often on really rainy days. When a recent Nor?Easter hit Boston, the ?theft system? activated itself on five successive attempts to crank the car. This meant 50 minutes of sitting there in the car, pleading with it to recognize us as its owners (and so we abandoned our happy plans to go out for Sunday morning pancakes).
In the past week, the theft system has activated on six different occasions, even on dry sunny days. So we?re now in a situation where our otherwise nice little car is totally unreliable. We never know if it will start on the first, second, third attempt?
We would LOVE to have the theft system deactivated forever. Our favorite mechanics over at Arlington Tire have told us that this is not a problem that they can handle because it probably involves the car?s computer? We really don?t want to take it back to a dealer to be pressured into having the starter replaced again?
HELP! Do you have any advice about how we can get this dastardly ?theft system? deactivated and who we can take the car to for this service?
Sincere regards,
Stranded in our driveway
There is a lot of information to be had in both Cartalks data base about PassLock systems and there is much information about bypassing this system to be had on the internet (companies specialize in providing products to do this) Do a internet search and phone up one of these companies that has a customer service department and check them out.
Most of my PassLock experience came with the Malibu and with its center dash mounted ignition key and cable from ignition (not an electrical cable) to shifter things can get difficult. The Malibu of that year can get much worse to repair than other PassLock GM vehicles, more trouble with actual ignition switch.
Have a mechanic install a simple toggle switch on the bottom edge of the dash that activates the fuel pump relay manually. A simple 2-wire hookup. YOU can them override the theft system. Choose a power source that is “hot” only when the key is in the “on” position so you won’t leave the pump hot-wired inadvertently…