97' SSE

so the other week I was going out to lunch while at work and my SECURITY light came on, usually that means my key is not the full way in the ignition, I went to push it in and it already was... weird. since then that light has not gone off.

It is not the goofy dongle in the trunk, as I disabled that a long time ago.

and to make things stranger I cut a small piece of electrical tape and put it over the chip on my key, and the car still started just fine.

Then I used my brand new key for a day, no change

now that I have the car back I'd like to get this resolved before it decides to leave me somewhere.

my initial guess is something in the ignition cylinder is broken. I may read out the resistance of the key and do the resistor mod to see if that fixes things. Am I on the right track or is there something else I am missing?

You could bypass the VATs https://www.gmforum.com/t279119/

alright I was just wondering the causes of it. I bypassed it for now with a resistor and the light is out. Seems it is time for a new ignition cylinder whenever I get around to it.

I wouldn't wait to terribly long , I waited and my '02 went into security lock out and would not start until I replaced the VTD module attatched to the cylinder. I'm not 100% sure of the similarity in security systems, but it could happen

totally different IIRC. The earlier cars use is a resistor in the key, and while doing some testing today the wires running down the column are showing open even with the key installed so something in the cylinder broke. Now I just have a resistor in place that is giving the car what it wants.

I see. Just hate the thought of someone else in the same helpless position