1998 Cadillac Concours wiill not start.

KENNJ

MEMBER
1998 CADILLAC DEVILLE CONCOURS
V8
FWD
AUTOMATIC
89,000 MILES

The car, when trying to start will display will display a message of "security disabled" "remove key wait 3 minutes." After the 3 minutes time interval the display will indicate "start car." Sometimes, if I'm lucky the car will start, other times after two, three, most I ever waited was four tiimes (12 minutes) the car would restart. Now the vehicle is dead in the garage and will not start at all. The starter does not even engage. The Cadillac dealer that has looked at it twice has no clue and has given huge price quotes on something they seem to know nothing about. I sincerly hope you can provide some direction on this!

3 Replies

FACTORYJACK

MECHANIC
4,159 POSTS

My guess, and highest probability is the ignition lock cylinder. Funny that the dealer can't figure it out, at our dealer they are run-of-the-mill. There is two small white wires that carry the resistance value down the column, and these wires break over time.

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Thursday, October 15th, 2009 AT 10:06 PM

KENNJ

MEMBER
2 POSTS

You are exactly right. This is where the problem WAS!
I found a very useful web site explaining how to check and bypass the "VATS" system on this vehicle. The items needed cost just over $10.00 at the local Radio Shack store. After I measured and determined the correct resistance from my ignition key, the total reapair including removiing the the lower dash panel took about one hour.
Thank you for your reply.

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Friday, October 16th, 2009 AT 8:40 PM

FACTORYJACK