It sounds to me like you're having the same problem as thousands of other impala drivers.
The Passlock system is starting to mess up with you.
It's basically a theft deterrent system that prevents your car from starting. The problem is that eventually it starts malfunctionning and every once in a while it will prevent the car from starting for no reason. Usually it eventually starts, but sometime you have to wait up to 30 minutes!
There is a reset procedure that supposedly reset the PASSlock and let you turn the car on, but it involves spending 30 minutes resetting the car. Not an ideal solution, and it doesn't fix the problem permanently.
I would suggest to be very careful if you go to a chevy dealer because they will change all kind of parts (usually the ignition switch, the passlock sensor, passlock cylinder, the battery, BCM, new key) with NO real result. It may fix the problem for a few weeks/months but probably no more, and we're talking hundreds of dollars worth of work.
My wife drives an impala too, and I was fixin' to try to fix this problem myself, but after a lot of research online I found out that there's no much you can do about it. Some people have spent hundreds of dollars at GM dealers to get it fixed and they still have the same problem.
The 'good' news is, in most cases the car always starts after a while.
It happened to my wife about 4/5 times in the past two years. So it's not too bad I guess, for now at least. Something for sure though: we won't get another chevy product after this one!
There is a chevy service bulletin out there about this problem (I think the # is 040847003). So if you go to the dealer and they tell you they're not sure what it is but they can replace such and such parts, make sure you don't let them bull@%# you. Tell them right away that you've heard about this problem and that it is a KNOWN issue with Impala. Hopefully they won't try to rip you off.
Good luck.
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008 AT 1:31 PM
