Expert: Rob Painter - 1/21/2010

Question
took my son to doctors yesterday everything was fine, went to the store and came back out nothing no crank or anything, after about 10 or 15 min. the car started, went home shut car off and nothing again tried jumping starter it started for a sec. put a new starter in and battery and still nothing what to do?

Answer
Hello,

what needs to be understood that not being at the vehicle gives me a great disadvantage to diagnose a starting problem. The quality of replacement parts such as rebuilt starters and junk yard starters is a problem. It is also common for people to chase ghosts by changing out batteries, starters, alternators and other items only to have the same problem.

The factory security is commonly blamed as well, but in your vehicle, it is a real possibilty because GM installed the vats (vehicle anti-theft system) which never stopped theft, but made it a real problem for the owners and me. In fact, I have been so overwhelmed with requests to bypass (15 per day) and even charging a $100 consulting fee, I quit because it was costing me too much time and I could not get my real work done.

You will need a competent technician look at the car and check the vats wires in the column for continuity in an effort to find a broken wire. If the vats is the problem, you can pay a dealer $500 for a new lock cylinder. You can have a locksmith do the sane job for $250 with the same parts or you can go to an alarm store and have the system bypassed for $100. If you bypass pay for a hidden starter kill switch because old cars are stolen all the time.

As I said, it's impossible for me to diagnose your problem, but I can tell you a very common thing to look for.

GM really stuck it to their owners here and worse yet, if your car was stolen and you turned a theft claim into the INS company, your claim would be denied because according to those idiots, vats makes the car unstealable.

Good luck

Rob