Expert: Roger J.M. Warrington - 11/23/2005

Question
Would a bad ignition switch cause the following- Hard to start- Engine will turn over, but not fire- Gear shift lever will not move out of park when key is moved to acc position. It will sometimes go into neutral and start- After starting, it runs great-good power-no skip or surge. I was able to start it just now- Ran for 15 minutes -All was OK- turned engine off and left in neutral- Tried to restart after 5 minutes- Would not start- Turned over but would not fire. Do I have to take steering wheel off to replace switch- What is proper way to disable air bag .

Answer
Hi Dave;
      It sounds as if it could be the switch , if it dosent go into the right gear it will not start and that is also for safty reasons.The wheel must come off and you must have a wheel puller to do so . To replace the switch is a bit of a job and for the first time I would recomend that you have some help  in doing it. You can go to the library
and look in the car books and there should be some pages that will show you step by step . OK if you park the car in neutral keep the parking brake on.
good luck
Roger