hawley911

I have a 2002 Impala that has an intermittent starting issue. The ignition is only four years old, had to replace when the original ignition stopped reading the key and locked down the car. Now it starts fine sometimes, but other times will have no juice whatsoever. When this happens, the fuel pump will run, the gauges will work and the message center will cycle every possible message (security, service vehicle soon, change oil soon, low tire pressure, etc) when the key is turned to the ON position. When I try to start the key, no power will run to the ignition at all... there's no clicking or anything, just dead silence. Eventually it will start and run just fine, and sometimes it will happen the next time I start it or it might be three days.

Originally I thought that the battery rundown relay on the passenger side fuse panel had something to do with this issue, so I pulled the relay. When it was in place, the relay itself made a god-awful clicking noise and the car wouldn't start. After pulling it, the clicking stopped and the car would start fine. It has been about three weeks since I pulled the relay and now I'm back to the original intermittent problem.

I'm hoping someone can help me find a relatively cheap fix for this problem. I have no money to replace my car and need to keep this one going as long as possible. Thanks guys!

Frank3

Had a SIMILAR problem with my 2001 Impala. My wife was complaining about the weird happenings and the messages. Every time I looked it was fine. One morning she started it, had it running and it just stopped as if the key was shut off. She came in ant told me about it. Multiple messageswere being displayed and when I turned the key to start - NOTHING! I tried a couple more times - NOTHING - no crank - NOTHING, BUT I did have a ceiling light, dash lights and operating gauges. I initially thought it was an ignition switch. I pulled my Volt out of the garage to jump the Impala. I connected the jumper cables, still nothing. I went and jiggled all the connections, still no crank but the lights were on. I got out, adjusted the cables, still no crank. I then started to cycle the ignition sw from off to accy to run to start in rapid succession about 20 times. All of a sudden, it cranked over like summertime and kept running. Now I really thought it was the ignition switch. On the way to work with it, I was thinking about the problem and remembered that it cranked over a little slow the night before. At the time I checked to see how old the battery was. It had a 6 year old battery that was rated for 7 years. I called my dealer to see if they had a battery in stock and made plans to pick it up after work. When I left to get the battery, the engine turned over sooo slowly, the starter was almost growling. A new battery cleared up all the strange problems. I was trying to figure out why it was acting the way it did and with the 2001, after it first starts, it seems to run for a couple seconds, then after that few seconds have passed, it's like the rest of the electrical circuits are turned on as if it was solely running off of the battery for the first few seconds after start. I bet the battery that was in there could not sustain operation until all systems (including charging) were enabled. I would check the battery if it hasn't been checked already.

hawley911

The battery is about a month and a half old, it was having some issues after being replaced but that ended up being a loose connection

Frank3

Most of this stuff, Security, Battery Rundown, etc is controlled by the Body Control Module (BCM). We also had this replaced on our 2001 Impala, but previously to correct a "Service Vehicle Soon" indicator light and associated error codes that involved the horn circuit and headlight circuit that was ONLY triggered when my wife would lock the car with the remote and both circuits were activated. Have you had the car scanned for possible error codes?

hawley911

I haven't... that's something that Autozone can do, right?

Frank3

yes they can.

cj1

Check P/N safety switch being intermit

Frank3

Good Call!