Me and the wife went camping this past weekend....Sunday night we wanted to listen to some music....Well after we were done my wife turned the music off....I didnt think anything of it.....a few hours later i went to get in and drive to the nearest town store....key was still on and the batt was dead and i couldnt take the key out of the igntion...called roadside assistance...they had a wrecker there in 15 mins...great service....well he hooked up the cables to jump me and we let it charge for a few....went to start it and nothing...wouldnt turn over, click, or anything.....key came out though....so i tried starting from the remote...it started...then i stuck the key in and the horn alarm went off and shut the car off.....the wrecker guy said since the dealership would be closed monday hed come back tuesday morning and tow me to the dealer............well got the car to the dealer this morning...all free of charge due to road side assistance....the dealer charged the battery and told me they had to re program my key...turns out when he jumpstarted the car it shorted out the Chip in the key...which made the anti theft light turn on and disabled the starter and fuel pump....so they reprogramed it and it is good as new now............So if any one ever needs jumped make sure to have the key OUT of the igntion before jumping it.....but in my case i couldnt get the key out till i put power to the battery....

 

How do you jump it without the key in the ignition?

jerij

 

dee dee dee

 

Maybe what he meant was don't put the key in the ignition to start it until after the jumper cable connections have been made. This would prevent any voltage spikes (from the intitial jumper connection) from wiping the programing from the chip. But then again I always thought the car system was programmed to accept the key...As I had to do with my 94 formula

 

More interesting info to put into the old memory bank. Sorry to hear that happened...but it ended up being helpful for the other forum members. Glad to hear it was something minor.

 

What chip, there's no chip on either set of keys for my 06 HHR.

 

Just a guess, but maybe if you don't have remote start there's no chip ??

 

Dose your key have a + on it? If so the chip is there

 

your exactly right...thats what the dealership who reprogramed the key told me...

 

yeah its been a long weekend...my 2 day vaction ended up being 4 days due to this issue lol.......
But your right after letting the battery charge a little while either shut off the car that is jumping you or disconnect one end of the cables...disconnecting is the safest way....after cables are disconected then try to start the car with the key.............The guy who reprogramed my keys told me that he has seen this happen a few times with other cars who didnt take of the cables before trying to start the car after being jumped....