quick help needed

Hi,

May be picking up a 2000 intrigue but have question. This guy is selling it very cheap because it doesn't always start and has a SES light that comes and goes. I went and checked it out and it fired right up, AC not engaging (clutch) for some reason. I turn the car off to look under the hood and then go to start again and all it does is a single "click" from the starter i assume. I cycle the key on and off and on and off and still the same thing, just a single click. Also, when it was running, i noticed that the temp gauge and tach (maybe all of them i didn't really notice) would drop to 0 then back up, then back to zero again randomly.

Now i've been pouring over this forum for the past hour and my diagnosis is either a bad ignition switch and/or corroded battery terminals. Its the 3.5L engine, 108k miles. let me know, i'm making an offer on it tomorrow (assuming I can get it to start and drive it home to work on). THanks!

Also, could a bad ignition switch/bad battery cause the aC to not engage? Light turns on on the panel, but clutch never engages on the compressor.....

That definitely sounds like the ignition switch. That can also cause problems with the hvac controls, however if the fan works and other stuff on the controls, most likely is the compressor, or R134a leaked.

Does sound rather ignition-switchish, BUT ignition switches dont throw SES codes, so thats something to consider, but at the same time, if it runs and drives, there cant be anything tooooooo seriously wrong with it.

If you can get it started, take it for a driver and make sure that all 4 gears work. at 65 mph you should be turning almost exactly 2000 rpms.

I say if you can get a good price on it, go for it, there are too many things that are pricey to fix, the AC could be something simple, or something expensive, its hard to tell.