WTF? My key isn't recognized by the ignition sensor??

13406 Views 14 Replies 9 Participants Last post by glhs837, Dec 1, 2005

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · Nov 16, 2005

I'm going to rant a little here so bear with me.............

Went to go to work this morning. Go to start the C and it fires up but then dies. Huh? Started again, same results. Checked that I was in park, etc and tried 2 more times with same results. Then I noticed a little red light on the dash. OK I thought, I seem to remember the owners manual saying something about this and it probably means the car needs servicing. WTF? I've got barely 4000 mi on the car but oh well, whatever...

Fortunately I've got a second car so off to work I go and call the dealer after they open. The first thing the service guy asks me is if I tried to start the car with an accessory key. Huh? What's that I ask and he says some people make duplicates out of regular keystock and the car will not read this as the actual key and refuse to start. Well of course it's the factory key and I tell him so.

He proceeds to tell me the car needs to be brought into the dealership..........ya no chit sherlock................so I have to call the D/C roadside assistance number. This takes about 10 min to deal with and they arrange to send a wrecker. I stress that the car is in the garage and I make a hard left hand turn off my driveway to park it there so if they send a flatbed tilt trailer the driver and I will need to roll it out and reposition it.

So a little while later I get a phone call at work that the wrecker is on it's way and will be at my house in 20 minutes! I hustle home since that's pretty close to my total commute time. The wrecker shows up 5 min later and the driver and I muscle the car out to where he can winch it. We try starting the car again but same results.

So.................later this morning the service guy at the dealer calls and says the car starts and runs fine. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????? He asks if they want me to hold the car overnight and try it again in the morning and I tell him yes, since I have no way of knowing if it'll do the same routine to me tomorrow.

So what have we got here? The car doesn't recognize my own key for cripes sake? That sure fills me with confidence! In the meantime I've lost hours off my day today and probably tomorrow messing around with this crap!

Anyone else having this problem? Jeez...............

See less See more

Save

1 - 6 of 15 Posts

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 16, 2005

A little round red light in the lower central left. Never came on before. The service guy said that's an indication of a false key being used and the interlock system has rejected it!

And this from the same key I've always used!

Save

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 16, 2005

Ya, I thought of trying the spare factory key too, but of course AFTER ther car had been taken to the dealership. I just may switch to that one now to give me a little peace of mind.

Save

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · #8 · Nov 17, 2005

kevenj said:
Since the dealer has your car, why don't you take your other key and have them re-program both of them to the car?......

Not aware they could do that (can they?).............

.............In any event picked up the C today and have switched to my second factory key. We shall see. Thankfully the charges for all this including the tow is a big fat ZERO!

Save

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · #10 · Nov 17, 2005

CJ7VFR said:
Did you use the button on the key to lock the doors the night before, and then just stick the
key in the door handle lock to open it the next day when would not run?

If you use the lock button on the key to lock the door, and then open it without using the unlock
button on the key, but just stick the key in the lock on the door handle to unlock the door,
the car may not always shut off the Sentry immobilization system, and the car will think its
being stolen, and shut down like you describe.

The red light on the dash is the alarm/immobilization system on light. Its there to
tell you that the car was locked using the button on the key, and the cars alarming
system is in use.

If it was still on when you got in the car, then the system was still activated, and
the car was shutting itself off so it could not be driven away.

Jim

No sir, the car was in the garage with the garage door shut so no need to lock the vehicle. I opened the drivers door to get in just the same as I do every morning. For some strange reason the sentry system rejected the key that morning. I am now using the other key I got with the vehicle.

Save

Brewdude

Discussion Starter · #12 · Nov 17, 2005

I could ask them to do this but the story I got from the service mgr was that since the car started and ran fine on the multiple times they tried it they're not certain just where the problem lies. So they weren't inclined to do anything.

In order for them to do something they need to have the problem happen while it's under their roof. So equally it could be the car's computer or a combination of the key and computer.

Not sure what they'll say if I ask them to do this but it's worth a call to find out.

Save

1 - 6 of 15 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month