Theft deterrent system is locking down my car!

DIREHELP

MEMBER
CHEVROLET MALIBU

I have a Chevy Classic (Malibu, I believe), with 55,000 miles; 4 cylinder. Ive spent countless hours and dollars on this God-forsaken vehicle! Im at my wit's end, and im presently out of repair money, thanx to swindlers! It churns, but it wont start; and ive come to the conclusion, from the things ive been told, to stuff read on this site, to common sense, that it is my alarm somehow.( Not to mention the continually blinking "theft system" next to the speedomoter) This has happened 3 times, WITHOUT tampering, or attempts at stealing the vehicle. I was originally told the fuel pump. It sat for 5 days before I had it changed. When it was done, it started up fine. 1 week later, same thing. Took it to a mechanic for a diagnostic, and it read the injectors and sensor/regulator. It sat for a week longer, he did the work on it, and once again, it started without a problem. Another week goes by. Same problem. NOW, this guy said he did the scope again, and it said injectors, but this time, he claimed to have checked a "sub-page" to the diagnosis, and it blinked, "theft deterrent system" repeatedly. All of a sudden, this so-called ASE certified mechanic has no idea what to do, and no idea about finding out what to look for, so im out of close to a thousand dollars, and still no vehicle. The dealerships are ALL talking in the areas of 700 and 900 dollars. Probably just to do something small, that'll only take 10 or 15 minutes to remedy, not even fix, and I just dont have that kinda money. IM DESPERATE AND NEED HELP PLEASE! My job has been on the line for 2 and a half weeks because of it.

2 questions: Is there a "killswitch", or override technique I could try in order to reset this theft system? Ive done the 10 minute wait and try again methods. The 5 minutes in on, 5 minutes in off method. Ive played with my remotes' lock and panic buttons REPEATEDLY. Still nothin'.

And is it possible that after all the repairs that was NOT needed, that the system resets ITSELF after a specific amount of time? Therefore being the reason why it keeps starting after it sits for a few days or so? NOT because of all the repairs. Cause the mechanic is tryin to get me to believe that these things STILL needed to be changed and/or repaired, and I know hes sayin' that so I dont go "postal" about not having the problem fixed, STILL! And is it possible to just disconnect the battery for a while, and hopefully it'll reset itself? If a donation is needed to get this answere truthfully, I might be in trouble, cause of all the money spent so far, and in such a short period of time; but ill work on getting SOMETHING donated if so be it!

3 Replies

ORLANDOFRED

MEMBER
1 POST

I have a '01 Malibu and have been living with the theft alarm blinking and car not starting for two years. My car only has 34,000 miles and my frirend had the same problem with his 2000 mailibu. GM won't admin they have a defect on the Olds Alero, Malibu and one other model. I've used turn ignitiion on for 10 minutes until the theft alarm stops blinking. Turn the switch off and then it should start. This usually lasts me a week or two but the last few months its been fine without any reoccurence. There is a fix (involves removing radio, cutting yellow wire, measuring resistence, etc.) I'll dig up article and send to you when I find it. PS-my neighbor paid over $300 to have fuel pump replaced but that was not the problem. I think all GM garages/certified mechanics should be WELL aware of this continuing problem with their theft alarm (passlock 2) systems. They just won't admit it.