Ignition question

Tiny
LOLFELLA
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 SATURN L200
  • 119,000 MILES
I am the owner of a Saturn 2002 L200 4-door sedan. My vehicle has two switches under the steering wheel that were once used for towing my car behind an RV. One switch kills all the electricity in the vehicle, the other stops the car from running. I let my dad borrow the car for a while, and found that he occasionally, if not frequently, hit the switches while driving, causing the car to come to an abrupt stop and ending all electric and other features of the vehicle at once. Aside from the jolt of the vehicle when this happens, I am wondering what else this could damage?

When he returned the car to me he said he had to replace the ignition system (the key, he said, stopped turning and did not allow the car to start). This was a costly $600 to replace, and I am wondering if the damage was due to the switches being switched while the vehicle was in motion? Or, if it is just a standard replacement on a vehicle of 9 years and 120,000 miles.
Sunday, November 28th, 2010 AT 8:54 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
I need to know what they replaced for 600?Was it the ignition cylinder and the ignition housing?Or something else?I know there known for having to replace the ignition cylinder's. Also if they didn't know the trick to free the ignition cylinder to remove and replace it without the housing that would have added extra cost for replacing the housing. The more detail's on that the better I can answer your question.I would take out those switches out they sound like a safety hazard if you turn the car off in the middle of the road that could be dangerous.
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Sunday, November 28th, 2010 AT 9:22 PM
Tiny
LOLFELLA
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Both the ignition cylinder and housing were replaced and were described as "faulty". Is that a general wear-and-tear situation or could it have been caused by the flipping of switches? I agree on taking the switches out, I will have to look into that.

Thanks much for your response.
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Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 AT 11:10 PM
Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
The ignition cylinder replacement is pretty common on those earlier L model saturns not so much with the housing though. What probably happened was the ignition key got stuck in the lock position and to replace the cylinder you have turn it to the start and run position to remove it to replace it.I have had about 95 percent success rate to get them to turn to those position's when they were stuck to replace them. The place you took it too probably didn't know how to get it to turn or they just couldn't get that one to turn so the had to replace the housing too. Replacing those part's is nothing to do with switches but I would remove the switches.
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Friday, December 3rd, 2010 AT 4:51 PM

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