Fellow TC members, i need a trustworthy mechanic reference in the College Station or Bryan Tx area. Youngest daughter away in school and I am trying to troubleshoot long distance from home. On her 95K mile '01 Olds, one mechanic indicates an igniton changout ..$500 estimate.. Symptons are car will not start and when it does it runs a short minute and shuts down. Analyzer test shows ignition code problem. Tried startup/security reset from the manual..that did not help it. Online Olds forum yada yada suggests Aleros have bad ignition DNA. Local friend /mechanic sez it is an expensive job with the changeout. Thanks for your comments!

a friend of mine has the same car, and had the same problem. he had to do the ignition change and it has been fine since. i seem to remember him saying that it was about a 5 or 6 hundred dollar job

Common problem and not something you can easily do yourself since the theft system has to be reprogrammed as well after swapping out the ignition.

I have probably done a hundred since 1997! You can do the switch if you want but you are in need of a lock cylinder and the switch, the switch mostly doesn't cause this issue! You can change the switch yourself no problem, but unless you are familure with how to code a cylinder and have a stacking tool for the lock bar I would say remove it and take to a lock smith and pay the maybe $10 for him to assemble it for you. You will need to program the theft deterant system when you are finished though, which takes 30 minutes without the Tech 2 so if you are up to the chalenge PM me and I can walk you through it and the parts will be your only expense! It will take you maybe an hour to do since it will be your first. By the way 75% of the time it is just the lock cylinder that gives the problem and the switch is okay. It is just up to you as to whether you want to do both now or what and see if you need the switch also. ONLY USE GM PARTS THOUGH!!!