hmm... so if i understand right... the pellet is just a resister and when they bypassed the VATS system they spliced in another resister of the same rating to immitate the key. so if they one in my key is going bad, and they took their reading off that key, the resister they spliced in might not be exactly right... wow, newer cars are complacated... maybe i'll try using my other key too...

any suggustions on how to clean the inside of the ignition?

well with what you guys had told me about the VATS thing and the security light i was able to explain this to the install guys where i bought my remote start. they checked the resister that they had put it and found it to be really close to the outter tollerance so he found a better match and used that one. so far no problems. thanks!