galaxygeeza

I have a 2.3 (2002) and I had a problem with the car not starting some time back. When I got in the car and put the key in the ignition it did everything it should do except for the starter motor kicking in!! Whenever this happened the red LED would flash repeatedly and as long as it flashed the car wouldn't start. This fault wouldn't occur all the time, just when you least wanted it to. I had it fault tested and the key transponder appeared to show a fault. This is the round black plastic unit that sits around the ignition barrel, it picks up the code/signal from your key and sends it to the immobiliser so that the car starts. I bought a new transponder and everything was o.k for a while until about 2-3 months later when it started playing up again.!! This time I actually figured it all out. The transponder has a short lead which in turn plugs into the immobiliser loom, it is the connector at the end of the transponder lead which comes adrift through vibration. When this happens, the signal can't get through correctly and the immobiliser won't disable, stopping the car from starting. It seems as though somehow, whether I have kicked the area inadvertantly or caused enough vibration as to allow the signal to get through, it eventually starts. To be fair, if I hadn't fitted the initial transponder in the first place I would never have guessed that this was the cause as I wouldn't have been aware of the connection. When it next happened all I did was reach under the steering column above the pedals and make sure it was pushed home properly, as soon as I did that it started with no problem. I fixed the connector in place more permanently and have never had a recurrence since.