Blower/Starter/SVS issue

Grand am 2002 se1 2.2 L61
Here come a weird one. This might be a single or 3 independant issues.

Blower:`Turning on sometime make it come up after a delay. This is from off to any speed. Changing speed in the 1-4 speed range never got any issue. Changing speed from 1-4 to 5 or 5 to 1-4 sometime cause a delay. Ex: blower is at 5, I set to 3. The blower turn off and 1-5 seconds later it turn on at the right speed.

Starter: I have the bad habbit of turning the key quite fast. 2-3 times it caused a no-starter. I assumed it was because I turned the key too fast. releasing and doing it again start the car.

Once, I turned the blower from off to 3 I think, the blower did not turned on, after almost 10 seconds, the service vehicle soon (NOT check engine soon) turned on, and the blower turned on. The light turned off at next start.

Today, after close to 30 start cycle, I finally got my hand on a scan tool. Sadly, no code is stored... So the SVS did not made any code to be stored or it already cleared it off the history.

Looking at some wiring diagram, I see zero monitoring on the blower.

Speed 1-4 is from one fuse, go to the speed selection switch, to the resistor pack to the blower.
Speed 5 is from a second fuse, to a relay, to the blower.
The relay solenoid is powered off the switch, so from fuse 1.

I did a quick test on the relay contact with DMM. low resistance contacts and strong contact, even when getting knocked, in both positions. Which make me beleive that the relay is ok.

Fuse 1 is from the ignition key, which I kinda doubt is bad (but who knows)

Starter relay is from the same main fuse as the ignition key.

I doubt the wiring or the fuse contacts is an issue...

In short, I can not figure out what the problem(s?) is...

Blower issue is intermittant...
Starter issues might also be the alarm system, who knows...
SVS... happened once, no code...

Don't hesitate to ask more questions and offer tests suggestions...

I suspect two issues. First the ignition switch appears to be going bad. Given the fact that you must turn the key more than once indicates that there may be an issue in the contacts at the switch. This could also be the issue with the blower. Since the power comes from the ignition switch it may be making intermittent contact and causing the issue. The first thing to do would be to change the blower motor resistor. That will eliminate that as a suspected cause.

Finally the SEL light on the Grand Am is not a trouble light it indicates a need for service on some issue like an oil change or air filter change it does not have anything to do with the PCM and those trouble codes. The Check Engine light is the one that indicated trouble with engine or emissions components.

But the SVS should store a B#### code, which I do not have.
Ex. of expected code: B1372: ignition a circuit low.. which I do not have... that is actually what I had expected to see if the ignition switch was faulty...

The resistor pack is fine, since it work.

Ignition switch... this is my current suspect, but wigling do not make any trouble appear, as I would expect from bad contacts... And since there is no code stored...

so far so good... pulled out the ignition 1 fuse in the hood and put back... since then it didn't happened a single time... Maybe it was oxidation on the fuse...

Finally, it did it again yesterday.
Today I got it to "reliably" do it.

I did some tests... after some pain and contorsion, I came to the conclusion that the switch was effectivelly bad. I got a quote of 160$ for the switch at canadian tire... With atleast 2 weeks delivery time! They got the finger and I went with plan B: dissassembly.

A note of warning to those doing the same thing: it is NOT a rotary switch. The engineer went a bit creative... Remove only and only the most back section. Removing the middle section is to be done very carefully. There is 5 pins and 5 tiny springs that WILL fall when you open it up. I then cleaned the contact with sand paper 2000...

Attached is the picture of the contacts, you can see 2 contacts (middle left and top right

Interressingly enought, the worse contact is the starter one, followed by the wiper/turn signal/multifunction switch... next is the blower. I'm wondering why I didn't got more trouble, but it might explain why sometime the car was feeling weird... probably that the contacts was so worn out that the PCM was lacking some power at time.


Now, time will tell if the cleaning will work, or if it's only temporrary and will fail miserably.

BTW, for those who want to do it, you need to remove the radio, the top cover of the steering, the bezel of the instrument cluster and the intrument cluster. It is recommanded to disconnect the battery negative and can save you some pain later on. You have 4 "wires" going to it. The first that you will notice is the shifter lock cable. Put key to on, shift to drive (not sure if it's needed), then under the key assembly there is a button to remove the cable. Then remove the 2 connectors for power and signals. For the passlock module... Key to on, under the key assembly there is a button, push on it and pull the key, the cylinder will come out, don't worry, it's ok and safe. This will also disconnect the passlock module, then you just need to pull gently on the wire and that's it. Then gently remove the back cover, it will expose the contacts. You will notice that the contacts can be removed, like in the pic. be carefull to not bend them. Do it at your own risk, there is a good chance of breaking stuff, so only do it if you can get your hand on a new switch and be prepared for it.

Rock auto sell the switch for ~65$+shipping, if it fail I might order there...

edit: Wiggling the key a bit can not cause the contact to change: due to the conception of the switch, the pins are in an hole, wiggling make the hole move without touching the pin yet... only big movement cause the bump to touch the pin, causing it to lift almost right away. This can cause huge diagnosis nightmare... I had assumed a rotary switch, hence why I had doubt: wiggling did not caused any change, both while in trouble and when working.