Starter does not engage?

KEN ALLEN

MEMBER
2017 CHEVROLET IMPALA
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
60,000 MILES

Going through a flooded intersection the car stalled and wouldn't restart. Waited 10 minutes and tried again, no luck. Here is what happens: pressing the brake, I pushed the push button, the instrument panel stopped working. I repeated this, instrument panel lit up, needles swung to the right and then instrument panel stopped working, this same exact scenario went on several times. Checked all items I could without tools or a meter, had a jumper on battery to make sure had juice. Opinion: water caused a short in PB starting circuit so whenever PB was pushed it shorted out as a safety circuit? Not knowing how the PB circuit worked, eventually it has to energize a power relay to the crank and with the start circuit locked in, the engine will start?

2 Replies

KNALN333

MEMBER
1 POST

PS. I'm now broke down 95 miles from home returning after the hurricane.

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Thursday, September 29th, 2022 AT 3:21 PM

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
42,822 POSTS

Sorry about the hurricane, that was a tragedy. The computers in the car don't like water, did you get water inside the car when going through the intersection? It sounds like the battery control module has gone out, but the BCM is inside the car which can cause the issue as well, we need to do a CAN scan which is easy to do, you can get a CAN scanner (Controller Area Network) from Amazon for about $36.00.

Here is a video to show you how:

https://youtu.be/u-4syLc-ifQ

and

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/can-scan-controller-area-network-easy

Amazon CAN scanner link for about $35.00.

https://amzn.to/3R9lJ60

Here is the location of the BCM and the battery control module so you can check it out/dry them out. Check out the images (below). Let us know what happens and please upload pictures or videos of the problem.

Images (Click to make bigger)