So my Bonnie is going on 17 years old now, and she's getting a little crotchety in her old age. I've had her for almost a year now, and every once in a great while (maybe once every couple of weeks or so), I'll turn the key in the ignition and nothing will happen. The starter doesn't engage, the solenoid doesn't click, nothing. Up until today, I've always been able to turn the key and the car starts right up. This morning, I got in to go to work, turned the key, and nothing. I repeated this four times with the same result.

Fortunately, my girlfriend was up and was able to give me a lift to work and picked me up this afternoon. Of course, it wasn't exactly a free ride--I had to fill up her gas tank and buy her dinner. Anyway, when we got home this evening, I tried it again and it cranked right up. I then cranked it again three times in succession without it missing a beat. Later in the evening, I went out to a meeting and made a stop at the grocery store on the way home. The car cranked first try every time.

I don't think the starter's the culprit, because unless it completely fails on the first try, it starts up almost instantly. When the starter went bad on my '97 Olds LSS, it would try to turn over when I turned the key, but it would take two, sometimes three tries for it to start before it eventually gave up the ghost. The rebuilt starter they put on it developed a "dead spot" after a couple of years and suddenly stopped and wouldn't start again in a pharmacy drive through line of all places.

What it reminds me of more is when the VATS system went out on my '94 Olds LSS, but I don't remember it ever just not engaging on the first turn of the key. When it acted up, it would lock the car down for a few minutes and then crank normally. This continued to happen more and more frequently until the car eventually wouldn't start at all and I had to have it towed to a stealership, which charged me $327 to replace the VATS module and ignition switch and cut a second ignition key to go with the one that came with the switch.

I have one original GM ignition key that came with the car and a copy cut on a third-party blank that I had made a day or so aftger I got the car. I've been carrying the OEM key and during the day I got to thinking that the resistor chip might be going bad, so when I cranked the car after I got home this afternoon and then when I went out this evening, I used the new copy up until I cranked the car to come home from the grocery store. I used the OEM key the last time, but it worked just fine.

Any insights into what the problem is and what I should do about it? I'm thinking I'll carry the new key for a while and see if the problem persists.

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Daily Driver: 2011 Chevy Impala LT
Weekend Toy: 1995 Olds Aurora
Sold but not forgotten: 1997 Olds LSS 1995 Pontiac Bonneville SLE

Possibly a bad connection in the ignition switch for the vats system. There are little tabs in there that contact the key to complete the circuit to read the resistance.

My daughter just had the same issue with her 95 and her uncle did the vats bypass for her since I am a few miles away.

That sounds logical and I may well end up doing that at some poing. After reading your posting, I took close a look at my two ignition keys and the contacts on the OEM key's resistor chip are quite worn down, compared to those on the newer copy, so I've swapped the newer one onto my key ring and relegated the OEM one to spare status. Everything has worked okay so far today, so I'm just going to keep using the newer key and see how things go.

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Daily Driver: 2011 Chevy Impala LT
Weekend Toy: 1995 Olds Aurora
Sold but not forgotten: 1997 Olds LSS 1995 Pontiac Bonneville SLE

Did the bad key completely fix the problem?

Once in a while (maybe once every a week), I'll turn the key in the ignition and nothing will happen. The starter doesn't engage, the solenoid doesn't click, nothing. Turn the key again and it works. Other times the starter will engage, then pause, and then work as it should. I replaced the started and tried the key theory but that doesn't seem to do it. It has not left me sit yet but I do not have much confidence in it. I had this car sense new and would love to keep driving it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

When you go to turn the key, notice what the security light does. It should flash on for a few seconds while you stop the key at ON. Then it will go off. When you turn the key to CRANK, the VATS system will be out of the loop unless the security light is flashing on and off about once a second. That means it did not get the right reading for the resistance to the key chip. It will block the starter for about 3 to 4 minutes before it will allow another attempt to read the chip resistance.

I will recommend checking the cables from the battery to any ground, the little ones as well as the large cable. And check the positive cable to the starter for corrosion down into the vinyl covering.

I understand you have replaced the starter.

Your big question is: Is current being sent to the start enable wire on the starter to make the full current red wire engage the starter? If you can come up with some way to check if that's happening when the thing won't crank, you'll know more what to do. But because you don't talk about the VATS light flashing for 3 minutes, I don't think that's your problem.

>Other times the starter will engage, then pause, and then work as it should.


That makes me think corroded cable for the positive/negative or bad battery.

similar issues. sometimes does not crank- just like dead, 2nd try fires right up.

last year there was a blown main fuse on Instrument panel right hand side "maxi"-fuses.

could the remote batteries have anything to do with this...going right now to buy new "2016" batteries to it

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sorry i´m from europe-expressions and understanding varies