I have a co-worker who has been having a whole lot of problems with her 1999 Grand Am. Apparently the alarm system which defeats the starting and fuel system when it thinks it's being stolen happens to think it's being stolen all the time. Off and on she has been unable to start the car and when this occurs the alarm light is flashing. A couple of times she's been stranded while running errands around town, other times she's been stranded when she wants to go to work or come home from work.

At this point the car has not been able to be started for 3 days. Multiple mechanics including the dealership have not been able to find the problem. She also has very recently experienced very poor fuel mileage which may or may not be related.

Does anyone have any similar experiences that might shed some light as to the source of the problem? Is there any way to disable the alarm system so the car can simply become useful again? If so, you should probably e-mail me the info so it's not published publicly to be used for the wrong purposes! Living in a small Nebraska town has it's advantages: simply locking the car is pretty much all the theft deterence that is needed!

Rich, 'some' of the GM systems can be fixed by turning the key to the "ON" position and leaving for about 30 minutes. Then OFF, then start. If you change keys, reprogramming is required. I'm surprised if the dealer didn't try this though. But you never know.

It typically won't malfunction while at the dealership. I'll tell her to try the 30 minute trick.

Could be the computer(s) going bad. Generally a royal PITA. Also it could be the ignition switch, just had this happen on a 99 saturn, it wasn't allowing correct contact with the switch and it made everything goofy.

Rich.

Lately I have been transferring a keyless entry / theft deterrent module from a 1991 Buick PA to my 1966 Chevelle. I have done some functional testing to get all of the wiring sorted out. These are some of the things I learned. Could be your 1999 is totally different, but that I cannot verify that. Perhaps this helps.

The keyless module acts like an alarm system and therefore it senses:
- ignintion (for not opening the trunk while driving, should system be armed, ...)
- transmission (being in Park, lock the doorlocks)
- door open (light the interior, reset the alarm)
- (remote) door lock (arm the system)
- tamper switch (has a lock been tampered with ?)
- key unlock (has the lock been opened legally)
- security indicator (show status when reset, armed, tampered, ...)

The fuel enable status is determined by antoher module that measures the pallet resistor in the ignition key. With the wrong resistor it blocks the fuel by disabling a relay which is in series with the fuel pump. It also tells the keyless module the light the indicator light.

You might check :
- the fuel enable relay (most likely)
- the tamper switches on the locks (will light the indicator lamp with the ignition on and switch is grounded)
- the 'door open' contacts (no reset when not detected - grounded -)

The are rather simple checks (I suppose the dealer may have done already).

Rob

Is this a intermittent problem? Like the car wont start at all and the security or theft light just flashes?

Chris R.

did the dealer re-flash the computer ? is the key damaged ?