You may have had some slight corrosion on the relay tabs, pulling it out may have broke that loose. I would clean them up real good.

X2...and sometimes relays just plain old stick open or closed depending if they are (+) or (-) engaged.

Well I tried to just continue my thread but I can't find it! I only posted about this in the last week... logged into my account... and its nowhere to be found?!

Anyway, last week I had asked for some help regarding an intermittent starting issue on our 2002 Bonneville SSEi... sometimes when turning the key it would start... other times not so much. Then the problem progressed, it died randomly just driving down the road.

What I had done (at the local Pontiac service departments suggestion) to attempt to fix the problem was replace the battery... $145 later... some problem.

Took the car in this last Wednesday afternoon because my wife had a couple (in her words) "near death experiences"... while crossing busy intersections, the car just DIED! Left her coasting across busy, fast moving traffic on 45-55mph highways!

(1) So, this is what the dealership told me, and I am looking for the input from any of the GM ASE Certified techs who might be on the forum. I was told that it was the "power master module" located in the ignition switch. I was told it was a common problem with these cars. I was told that this switch handled controls to lots of different areas of power, handling 30A-40A of current. I was told that the later generation of this part had changed to a switch that didn't handle these kinds of currents... that it instead controlled a bank of relays.

(2) Now that we have the car back, it seems to be working fine. However, the display on our radio (factory Monsoon unit, AM/FM/CD/Cassette deck) no longer lights up completely. I know for a fact that it wasn't like this before because my wife and I are always getting artists names and stuff off of it so we can go buy new music. Called the dealership to ask about it and the service writer not knowing much about anything mechanical, he asked the shop foreman and came back and said that the "power master module" has nothing to do with the radio and that it must have just gave up... sorry, but not a good answer.

Okay, in my previous thread (which I would really like to know where it went) I had said that I was still not completely sure of our local Pontiac service department, so I'm looking for some reassurance that all is good in the world of service. First off, does the info in (1) sound correct? If its fixed, thats great... if that is a typical problem, great... I would just like to know that it happens... and that it wasn't just a loose connection on the switch or something. As for (2), if they did take the dash apart to replace an ignition switch, who'* to say they didn't bump or bang the radio around causing a failure of the display?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance... oh and WHERE'D MY THREAD GO?!

Well, not sure what I did, but I found my old thread and posts... one mystery solved! LOL

I have had similar experiences with engine ramdomly stopping while driving and staring issues, turned out to be the crank position sensor. I've also had ignition key switch problems, have to replace the key lock cylinder about every 2-3 years. I can't speak to the power module on rear of key switch, not a common issue that I've heard of or seen. Bumping around the dashboard is enough to finish off an old light bulb in a segment of the radio display, one of my segments has a burned out bulb as well. I hope the module fixes the problem you describe. I will note that the crank position sensor acted up when it was wet and as engine approached operating temperatures warming up.

threads have been merged and moved to the 2000-2005 section since it is a mechanical issue