Have not yet had the ignition recall on my '02 addressed yet because I have an issue with them just inconveniencing me by increasing the ability to lose my key. They should replace the ignition, which is where the issue lies. Can they be persuaded to do what should be done in the 1st place, replace the ignition? Thinking about buying a new car and this issue has helped put chevy on the bottom of my list. My family owned Monte only has 57k garaged miles on her, but I'm ready for a change to a convertible.

 

I have an '03 SS, and have talked to my local dealer about this recall. They do NOT replace the ignition switch. All they do is insert a "filler" in the original keys making the hole smaller...all you do is bring the original keys and VIN number to the dealership....

 

That's what I have a problem with. How can a key be defective? The ignition is defective if it will not function like every other vehicle ignition on the market. In my opinion, Chevy is truly giving us a screwing and I was hoping that some class action lawsuit was in the works.

 

I guess their thinking is that this will prevent you from hanging 5 pound of crap from your key....FAIL. Saves them money for not having to actually re-design and replace the actual switch....

 

The problem is people today have a tendency to keep a lot of stuff on their key rings (hand sanitizer, beanie babies, a janitor set of keys, whatever, just a lot of weight). The ignition switch was not designed to have a brick of weigh hanging off of it. Plus, some times because of the low hanging content, the driver's knew may shift the objects and bottom line, the ignition switch slides away from the ON position.

Not that I 100% agree, but I see what GM's "fix" is supposed to do. It's to center the weight on your key. This way the weight it not resting on one side of the key, thus making it hard for a heavy key chain to make it pop out of the on position. Also, they are telling customers to not to have additional items on the key rings provided.

To my knowledge, there has never been a revised switch. Also, the switch in our Montes is 100% the same as the Grand Am, Malibu, Impala and multiple other GM cars (going back to at least 1999, maybe further). My friends and family have owned many of these cars and I have yet to see this "fault" happen. I believe this is all a preventive actions since a different ignition switch did have a real fault and a few reported issues came in about this design.

I have yet to have this recall done on any of my keys. Personally, I feel GM should have sent the consumer the pieces as a DIY recall (but if they do that, they cannot track which cars actually got the recall completed).

 

I don't plan on bringing my 01 in for either recall. The key recall is just a band aid for the real fix, and the engine fire one is a joke. I had an 01 Regal that I took in for the for the first fire recall, which was another band aid. All GM did was remove the plug wire bracket, put a piece of plastic around the plug wires and let the wires hang closer to the exhaust manifold. Somehow the Regal made over 200,000 miles without a fire before this "fix."

Now they plan to remove the engine cover and the long oil fill tube and put a new valve cover on the front head. No thanks. If I see the valve cover leaking I'll replace the gasket and keep going. The Regal had over 230,000 miles on it when I got rid of it and the Monte has 73,000 mile on it without a fire, so forget about it.