2001 electrical problem
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Instructor
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
From: Alabama
2001 electrical problem
My first problem with my 2001 Z06.
Car is maintained on trickle charger in HVAC controlled garage.
Battery is 1 year old.
1 month ago tried to start car. When key is fully turned, dash lights up appropriately, but no engagement of starter motor. No click indicating low battery, just complete silence!
I returned car to tricker and couldn't come back to it for a week. Upon return, started perfectly with strong battery spin of starter.
Everything fine for a month.
Yesterday, same issue.
Then after pulling key out and re-trying a few times, works perfectly!
My garage gurus say it will be impossible to find the problem if its not manifesting itself.
But of course when it does occur---I have no way of getting the car to them.
So who knows what the problem is or where to start looking.
Car is maintained on trickle charger in HVAC controlled garage.
Battery is 1 year old.
1 month ago tried to start car. When key is fully turned, dash lights up appropriately, but no engagement of starter motor. No click indicating low battery, just complete silence!
I returned car to tricker and couldn't come back to it for a week. Upon return, started perfectly with strong battery spin of starter.
Everything fine for a month.
Yesterday, same issue.
Then after pulling key out and re-trying a few times, works perfectly!
My garage gurus say it will be impossible to find the problem if its not manifesting itself.
But of course when it does occur---I have no way of getting the car to them.
So who knows what the problem is or where to start looking.
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Pro
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 524
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From: Sandown NH
No engagement of the starter motor/no click does NOT necessarily indicate a low battery. The only way to know if the battery is an issue is to measure the voltage with meter or have it load tested. The problem could be VATS related or a bad/failing theft deterrent relay. The first thing I would try is a different key and clean the pellet on any key you are trying. The contacts inside of the key tumbler can get dirty/intermittent and not make good contact with the key pellet. Yes the ignition switch could be bad as well but there are other thing to look at before replacing it.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,117
Likes: 793
From: Espanola New Mexico
As stated it could be your ignition switch contacts, or it could be the VATS key reader that is part of the ignition switch cylinder. Observe what the Security light is doing when the car fails to crank over, it should be off, if it is off then yes most likely the problem is the ignition switch contact block.
