Help with My non LS1 ISSUE - Satan's Buick!!!

[00Firehawk475]

Alright Guys and Gals - You folks always pull through when I come here with my problems and questions with my Firehawk... So here's the test....
It's still a GM product but its about as far away from a LS1 car as it gets

2000 Buick Century... (hey its a fun story at least)

OK here's the deal

My girl's buick (2000 century) with 117K miles on it.. she calls as
she's driving cuz all the gauges went dead (While driving). Gas, Temp
and Speedo - Plus the digital Odo and Gear indicator...but the car
keeps running no problem.

Ok so I figure the cluster is shot - so I went to get the resistors
(known problem with these gauge clusters). I get home and start to take apart the dash (here's where it gets "neat") I go to move the shifter down
so I can pull the dash apart.

I put the key in the ignition and turn it to RUN (so I can move the
shifter)- not pushed to the cranking position to start - and the car
Cranks and starts!!!

I figure maybe cuz the screwed up dash something is off.. so I proceed.

I pull apart and and sure enough 3 resistors were MIA. Re soldered
them on and put back in...

Once again Ignition in the RUN position NOT CRANK/START and the car
bloody starts on me again.

AND still no gauges working... So I figure maybe I fried the board.. I
swing to the junkyard and pick up a cluster with nearly the IDENTICAL
mileage (WHAT LUCK!!!) Get home plug it in and there it goes again
starting in the RUN position.. Now I'm thoroughly annoyed.

Thats when I realize.. HEY I STILL HAVE NO GAUGES WORKING!! Now I'm
beyond annoyed I'm just baffled on top of it.

Soooooooooooooo - WHAT is wrong with this possessed Buick???? Help me
out people.. I'm at a loss..

Apparently it's not the standard cluster is dead scenario here...

Oh and one more wonderful lil thing... I decided to disconnect the
battery (i dont know why) but it added to the fun... here's why... I'm
unbolting the battery and its doing that lil sparking (contact is
breaking a little before I got it all the way out)........ THE CAR
TRIES TO START!!!!!!!!!! I went to get the key out of the ignition..
ya.. There's not even a key in the ignition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's in
my pocket! car is in park.. ignition is "locked"

What the heck????

FYI... I do have a remote starter in it.. but it seems to be working
normally???? (and it wasn't what was starting the car when disconnecting the battery either - the lights didn't turn on first which always happens when using the remote starter - it went right into cranking)

And you can hear the starter almost like spinning after it starts like
its "freewheeling"

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[0rion]

wow, definitely some neat and weird stuff going on there. Have you looked at the starter for corrosion? The only thing I can think of right now is that the connections down there might be corroded and shorting down there????? Other than that I have no idea at the moment.

[1MileCrash]

definitely want to take a look at the starter and the starter solenoid and as much of the wiring as you possibly can.

did you have the key in the ignition when you were taking the battery terminal off the battery or was the key out of the ignition? if you didn't have the key in the ignition it would sound as though the problem does not lie within the tumbler or the key but rather some ciruit outside of that circuit.

[bigrondownhiller]

Pull the fuse for the remote starter first to see if that stops the mysterious starting issue. As for the cluster could be a bad or loose ground.

[0rion]

hmmmm, guess I missed the remote starter deal the first time I read it. I would definitely be looking there first. Disable it altogether like he said and see if the starting issues disappear.

[Orcus79]

I second the the remote start they can do funny things when they get old or are not installed properly. IF that fails tri the ignition switch at the bottom of the steering columb.