How did you trace it to the electrical portion of the switch? A guess, or did you check the wires with a multimeter? Which wires? Thanks!

 

Most of your contacts in the system are ground trigger, not 12 volts. So the switch sees ground when depressed.

 

So, that means that a reading of 0v is correct if the switch is depressed, and there is no need to unplug the two wires and bridge them with a paperclip to test it, right?

 

Just run a continuity test on the switch to confirm.

 

Holy cow, continuity test? You must think I'm smarter than I am

All I know is that when I attached my multimeter to the two wires on the clutch sensor, it reads 12V. When I depress the switch, I get 0V.

What is a continuity test? Thanks Stephen!

 

My post from another board, based upon a member suggestion to test the sensor:

Well, 99firehawk... you may have indirectly helped the cause! I unplugged the two wires, and connected them. Nothing happened. I then connected the two male spade ends that are attached to the sensor. Nothing happened.

So, I plugged the wires back in. I turned the key. The car started right up. I have NO idea why. I didn't change anything at all.

What do you guys think happened? I'm happy the car appears to start right up, but I'd like to know why in case it happens again. Thanks for all of the help and suggestions!

 

Well, 6 months later the same problem happened again. I had the car towed, and they traced the problem to the immobilizer. They were going to replace the part behind the steering column, but didn't have it in stock. The mechanic unplugged the wire inside the driver side vent (pull light switch up slightly, depress pin with screwdriver, pull switch off. Remove screw to take vent off). Plugged it back in, the car works. He said it's like rebooting a computer. Hope this helps someone out next time!

 

I wonder if disconnecting the battery would do the same "reboot"?

 

I'm pretty sure I tried disconnecting the battery. I'll be sure to try that if it happens again, though, just to be sure.

 

I just did a search under the 996tt section for Upsolute and stumbled upon this thread.

I have saved this thread in the event I ever encounter this problem in the future. Awesome work guys.

 

Out of all the car "fixes" I've had, this was by far the most frustrating! If it helps out one person, it was all worth it... well, maybe it needs to help out a few dozen before it was worth it

 

Hi Brian,
It seems like I'm having a similar problem with my 2000 C2 Cabriolet. The car cranks hard when I turn the key, but will not turn over. I was told to replace the starter relay, which I bought yesterday, but when I looked at the relay panel above the fuse box, all of the relays look the same. Which ons is the starter relay? Are there any diagrams of this that you might know of. Any healp would be great! My car has been stuck in the garage for almost a week now!

Thanks!

 

Diagram: