Shryp

New member with a problem. OK, girlfriend has a problem.

2002 Cavalier that won't start.

Turning the key only gives the dash lights and no cranking of the engine.

I am thinking my issue might be the neutral safety switch, but I am not really sure how to test it. I see there is a starter relay in the under the hood fuse box as well. No idea how to test that either. The only other thing I could think of is something with the ignition switch.

Thinking of the neutral safety switch I put it into neutral instead of park and it started right up the first time. After that several tries in neutral and park gave no results. A second time while attempting to turn the key we got a start in park. This seams really random.

Does anyone have any ideas other than throwing parts at it and hoping for a fix?

With the key on I am able to apply 12v to the signal wire on the starter solenoid with a jumper and start the car, but using a multimeter I am not getting any voltage at the signal wire when the key is turned.

Possibly related and possibly not, the other day her heater blower motor started working intermittently. I did some searching on that and one page I found actually said it could be something with a wiring harness in the dash somewhere. She said turning the car off and back on again fixed it for a little while.

Shryp

Found the problem today.

There was a ground wire loose!

I finally found a regular way to recreate start and no start conditions. Wiggling the wire harness on top of the transaxle where it crosses between the giant mess of wires in the front of the engine and the neutral safety switch. I thought it was a short in the wire harness and undid a bunch of tape trying to find a problem somewhere and trying to trace the wires thinking I was going to have to splice something.

Finally I happened to be wiggling at the right time and heard the relay in the under hood fuse box for the blower motor clicking. Then I knew my no start and no blower motor issues were related. Sure enough, when the blower motor would work it would start and when it wouldn't it wouldn't start. Some more wiggling and I finally managed to realize the ground wire was loose. It wasn't a bad wire, but the nut holding it to the engine came loose.

If anyone else has similar issues check those 2 ground bolts first. Right in the center of the engine by the neutral safety switch you will see 2 wires bolted to the engine about 3 inches apart. On mine the rear one managed to come loose. Of course, the one you can barley see and it is even worse trying to reach. Took it apart and cleaned everything with a wire brush and tightened it down and everything seems back to normal now.

As a side note if anyone else is curious what the connectors on the neutral safety switch are for I finally figured that out too. There is a smaller white one towards the front of the car with 4 wires that is for the daytime running lights. There is a bigger black and blue one towards to back of the switch with 5 wires and that one is for the backup lights and for the starting signal.