I have a feeling that it's just a faulty ignition switch, but we'll see. My boyfriend went out this morning to go to work and noticed that my headlights were on really dim, so he came in and got my keys and started my car. My lights were 'off' (according to the switch inside my car), and he didn't know what was going on, so he shut my car off and took the keys from the ignition.. but it stayed on. The only way we could get it to shut off was to pull a spark plug wire (which shut the car off) and then to get the headlights off (they were turned off inside the car), we took out the fuse for the starter. So this sounds like a bad ignition switch problem, right? Any ideas as to how much they go for used from a junk yard? I just really don't feel like taking it to a garage and getting it fixed because I'm sure it would be expensive, and my dad is a mechanic. Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

it could be a number of things. i had a co-worker with the same problem....could be wires touching that shouldn't...what happens when you actually turn the lights on like you normally would? any fuse blows?

 

No blown fuses that I've noticed, because I had turned the headlights on and off several times and they worked fine, they just wouldn't shut off. Before we pulled the fuse for the starter, you could still hear something electrical running.. kind of a buzz or something, so that's why we pulled the starter fuse. I don't really want to touch it again until my boyfriend gets home from work haha. I don't know what I'm doing.



OH! I HAVE COMMAND START!
I'm so dumb for not mentioning that earlier, but we called a garage and they told us to pull the wires from it. The switch under my dash was already turned off, so we pulled the wires from the switch and from the thingy above the rearview mirror and it didn't do anything, which is probably why I failed to mention it earlier, since it didn't work. Sorry!

 

Just as an UPDATE, I ended up getting a whole new steering column for relatively cheap instead of just the ignition switch. It's nice because my neon was originally in an accident before I owned it, where the airbag deployed, so it had all been repackaged and it was bulky.. so I'm pretty excited to have a new steering column with the cruise buttons and everything haha.

BUT - now I went out this morning and my gas lines are frozen. Fun, fun. First it would start and not shut off, now it won't start at all. Augh. I have finals tomorrow and I'm out of town, so my only resort is to have a wrecker come down and tow it an hour and a half back to where I live. I put gasline antifreeze in.. two things of it, and let it sit for awhile but it still won't start. Just makes a whirring noise.

I'm starting to think that paying $500 for this car wasn't really worth it haha.