I was working on the brakes yesterday and had the 96 on jack stands. I wanted rotate the rear rotors while working on it so I put the transmission in neutral (auto transmission) and turned the key back so the ignition would be in the off position. The battery was never disconnected. I didn’t finish the brake work. I left the car in neutral with ignition in off the off position and went to bed.

When I went into the garage this morning I heard a humming noise from the car. I went over to it and saw a light lit on the dash. It was the pke light. I went to open the door but the doors had locked themselves. I did not lock them the night before. Since the keys were in the ignition I went and got the spare key to open the door. It was maybe two minutes when I returned with the keys and in that short amount of time the humming noise stopped and the pke light has gone out. The battery was now completely dead, I mean zilcho. I unlocked the doors, put the trans in park and hooked up the battery charger. I’ll wait until later today to see how things are acting.

Why did these things happen from leaving the car in neutral with the ignition turned off? Other than a dead battery, is there possibilities other things were harmed? And what was likely causing the humming noise? It sounded like and electric motor

Thanks, John

 

Over the years I have heard lots of horror story of C-4 C-5 locking people out of there Vettes, years back had my brother-in-law pick up a 95 for me he stopped to get gas Bam locked out, Batt good?? Don't know why yours did what it did, after the 95 deal I have a door key under the gas flap, not long back my 93 for no reason locked door DA DA popped the gas lid key opened it, I don't have a fob . Just a FYI .. These C-4s do stuff, weird stuff nobody knows why, I think it's A.I. ..LOL

 

Incidentally, I had VATS turned off in a tune years ago. But I guess that’s different than pke.

 

I think a key part (no pun intended) of this scenario is that the key was in the ignition.

 

While repeated cycling of the lock actuators can be an explanation, the key fobs are nowhere near the car and haven’t been for years, let alone even having batteries in them. They are locked in a safe with batteries removed and far out of range even if they did have batteries.

But maybe the actuators were triggered to cycle without the fobs being involved. Hmmm

 

Cheers.

 

I finished the brake work and charged up the battery. Everything is back to normal

 

Does the PKE light come on for a second (like the other lights do) when you turn the key to ON?

 

Yes, it does. All back to normal