Hi guys, I'm wondering if anybody can tell me anything about what's going on with my 2001 Malibu.

Some background, real quick: Last Sunday, I started the car to drive home from work... all during the drive home, the "Theft System" light on the dash stayed lit. Not knowing what it mean, and since it didn't seem to hurt anything, I ignored it for the time being... So, Monday morning, car starts fine... drive to work, go to lunch, come back, no problem...

Then, when I went to leave for home Monday evening, the car wouldn't start. It would crank over, but never start. It would seemingly *almost* catch a couple of times, but finally I spun it over until I killed the battery...

So, Tuesday morning I have the car towed to a local shop (not the Chevy dealership)... I didn't hear anything from them Tuesday, so Wednesday I called over there... they said they had a devil of a time diagnosing what was wrong, but finally replaced the ECM, and the car started fine after that, but that now they were having a time running something called "Crankshaft Location Variance Relearn" or something like that...

Anyway, late Thursday they call and say the car is ready, fine, good to go... I missed the call though, so I didn't get to go pick the car up until Friday morning...

So, Friday I pick it up, it starts fine, seems good... then I notice that there is a light on on the dash, looks like something about the airbag. It just stays on solid, anytime the car is running...

Otherwise it runs fine.. then tonight, I get in the car to leave work, and the first time I hit the key, it spun over for several seconds without starting. So I let off the key, and notice a message on the radio display saying "Cal Err" whatever that means. Anyway, I hit the key again, and it starts this time...

So I drove home, cut the car off, turned the key back on, and the "Cal Err" message is back... it started up just fine, but the whole thing has me a little nervous.

After browing these forums a little, I now suspect that my original problem might not even have been the ECM, but rather this "passlock problem" I see a lot of people talking about...

So now, I have a new ECM, but I'm getting weird messages on the dash, and I'm suspicious that I'm still going to have problems...

Any thoughts????

Take it to the dealer. See if it still under warranty or take it back to the auto shop.

Continuing this little saga... After I posted the original message, I had one incident where it wouldn't start. This time I was paying attention and noticed the "theft system" light was flashing. So, I did the "turn the key on and wait 10 minutes" trick and it fired up.

Then like the next day, the "theft system" light comes on when I leave work, and stays on till I get home, just like it did when this whole saga started...

So, like the next day I take the car back to the shop, explain what happened, tell them about the ignition cylinder stuff I found out about on here, tell them about the "theft system" light, etc.

They check it out, tell me everything's fine, as far as they can tell, and suggest that maybe I do need to get the ignition cylinder lock changed. So Friday I pick the car up, and everything seems good.. tonight I'm at work, get ready to leave, and it won't start again. This time, there's no blinking "theft system" light though. It just won't start. I tried the 10 minute thing, just to see if MAYBE it was that and the light was just confused, but no luck...

The shop swears that when I took it in the first time, their diagnosis indicated the PCM needed replacment... but this seems awful coincidental with this whole "theft system" business, but yet, twice I've had "no start" situations where that light wasn't on...

Uuuggghh... anybody have any experience with anything like this? It's going back to the shop tomorrow, but I'm interested in similar experiences or suggestions...

Oh, at least I did find out that the "cal err" thing doesn't mean much. Just the radio complaining that it hasn't been calibrated for the car. Still works fine though. Just wish I could say that for the rest of the car. :-(

Hi,
I just found this forum.. great info.
I had a similar problem, but not as convoluted. The car (97 malibu) wouldn't start, the 'theft light' was on and there was a clicking noise from under the dash. Had the car towed to the mechanic, and when it got there, it started right up. Guess the ride on a tow truck jolted something straight, anyways.. the mechanic cleaned out the battery terminals, and I havn't seen the problem again (this happened 1.5yrs ago). I think these cars are sensitive about the juice coming from the battery.
give us an update on your problem resolution.. thanks.
-zeeshan