So today I pull into the parking lot here at work. I turn the key to off and pull it out of the ignition switch.....car is still running. I had to kill the engine by putting it into gear. The normal lights you see when the key in in the first position are on. 03 WRX w/ alarm. No remote start or anything like that. I will try to add more info later.
thats my fear. I killed the engine, Warning/info lights stayed on (oil, abs etc) fan stayed on and the radio was off. Exactly like the key is in the first position. I restarted the engine just fine so the ignition works. Seems like either the switch or a relay wont unswitch. Thanks for the help guys, knew I could count on you. Any idea how to test the switch?
If you can find the ignition relay,( i have zero idea where it is) that might be easier/cheaper to check before getting an entire ign switch. You can PM me all the numbers that are on the relay and I can look it up for you too!
Get me some unearthly, as the liquor stores arent open sunday, AND, NOBODY has it up here. But it seemed like every store down there had it.
Ok, make this an intermittant issue. I had to run down the street, reconnected the battery and drove off. Shut the key off and the engine stopped as normal. I will still take the relay 3ric. See you sunday.
yea, sounds like ignition relay. there's a relay block clipped to the right side of the under-dash fuse box. it looks like it's probably the lowest relay, but here's a diagram of it. it is the B157 one marked.
Just got home from work. Engine will not shut off again. Both times it happened after a 45-50 minute drive. I disconnected the battery again, will reconnect in about an hour and see if it reverts back to normal. I just replaced the relay for the blower about a month ago..... hope I dont have some kind of electrical gremlin...... I just reconnected the battery, still messed up. However I did notice the steering lock was a little funky when I turned the wheel.
I'm hoping it just relays. The next steps are the alarm brainbox and the actual column ignition switch....
Sounds like the switch to me now, I cant bring the relay down sunday like I thought, as I was unable to round one up, I can get one monday to send out for tuesday. Try spraying your key with WD40 and put it in the switch.
Ok. New info.... 1. It no longer seems to occur after a long drive, it went from normal to messed up over the night and worked fine after I got home today. 2. My blower fan now goes in and out. I replaced that relay about a month ago. I am going to replace the relay and maybe the ignition switch soon. Anybody have any more ideas? Russ? 3rik?
Have you tried disconnecting your alarm unit? Not pulling wires out or anything, just unplugging the brain box.
I was contemplating that, but it does not have remote start so I didnt think it would cause the ignition to stay on. I will try it anyway though.
If it has ignition disable upon trigger it is tied into the ignition circuitry. I would pull it for a while and see if the problem persists.
We looked at the back of the brain box and it doesn't appear to have an ignition interrupt on it. Looks like it only uses a switched ignition source to do things like lock/unlock the doors/etc. I am highly suspect of the ignition switch myself, or the ignition relay. We tried pulling the bottom one of the relays to the right of the fuse box under the dash and it didn't do anything....but we weren't sure if that was the correct one or not. Josh, if you need help again tinkering with this let me know. -Steve
I had this problem on my old Neon. It was fine for the first 1 1/2 years I owned it But then it randomly wouldn't start. Finally took it to a dealer and they found that it had had an alarm on it at some point and the ignition disable was still being triggered. They removed a wire and problem was solved. I never had an alarm on it, it was the first owner's doing and the alarm was removed except for that problem. Disable or remove the alarm and see what happens.
Well, most alarms use a starter kill, so basically it just breaks the starter wire from the key switch. The main 12v and switched 12v are just to get the alarm power and tell the alarm the state of the key. Aftermarket alarms are way easier on the factory harness and components then a factory alarm. From what I remember from doing the alarm on my bugeye, I think the key switch harness had a disconnect about 6-8 inches downstream from the key switch. If that is there, you can always just unplug the switch. If the problem goes away, it is the switch, if the problem is still there, it is time to see what else is the common link. Russ
The blowers issue is increasing and as far as I can tell the ignition issue has only happened once in the last 4 days thus making it hard to work on finding the core issue....
