Thread: Car won't stop running..............

Here's an interesting thing that happened to me on my vacation weekend.

My fiance' and I were on vacation and headed to a little cafe' for lunch. She jumps in the car and the chime suddenly starts and all the dash lights come on. The key was NOT in the ignition and I wasn't in the car. (I open and hold the door for her) I get in, start the car and off we go. We pull up to the cafe' and I turn the car off. Wheel locks, dash and DIC turn off, car is still running. Hit the gas, car revs. Put key back into ignition and wiggle it, turn it on, off, acc multiple times. Car won't stop running. Pop hood, pull ignition relay, car stops. We go eat lunch.

Come out, girl gets in. Car starts normally. Get back and car stops normally but when key is removed, all dash lights stay on and chime continues whether door open or not. Wiggle key, nothing. Start car and turn off. Car stays running again. Pull ignition relay to kill car. Dash lights still on with key out and both doors closed. Start pulling inside fuses. Can get dash lights off but everything else still working. Pull interior relays. When pulled the one labeled "SEAT", everything goes back to normal. Car now turns off fine. No other problems noted.

According to owner's manual, the "SEAT" relay controls the power seat and lumbar. My car has power and heated driver seat only. With relay out, EVERYTHING still works. Lumbar and heater and adjustment work fine.

Sounds to me like a short somewhere and when my fiance' jumped in the passenger seat, something loosened up and hit ground or something. Anyone have anything like this happen? Maybe a wiring diagram handy? I've looked but couldn't find one. (I was also on vacation ad got "the dirty look" when I started looking at car stuffs.)

Thanks for looking.

No ideas eh?

Reading some other threads, maybe it's the ignition switch? Weird that I pull the "seat" relay and everything is fine.

The seat may be causing issues, but the ignition switch or crusty battery cables are probably to blame.

Originally Posted by darkhorizon

The seat may be causing issues, but the ignition switch or crusty battery cables are probably to blame.

Do you know if there is a good way to test the ignition switch? My problem with thinking it's the seat is she jumped in on the passenger side and that seat has no power/heat, only the drivers seat has it. It's hard not to think it's in the seat though since pulling the "seat" relay makes everything operate normally, including the drivers seat. Maybe I'll pull the seat and look at the wiring.

Anyway, thanks.