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Became obscenely obvious with a little more prodding; just loose negative battery terminal. I don't know who left it that loose; I don't recall having it off so some dumbass somewhere left it loose.
In my hurry this morning this did not quite register, I put my hand on it but not enough to realize it was loose like this.
Having trouble tightening it actually. Either it's seized (trying some spray, letting it soak now) or it's been like this for 3.5 years and I've been very lucky that it hasn't fallen off because it doesn't actually tighten any more? Geez.
EDIT: got that loose and then tightened onto the terminal properly. All is well. Thanks for the support guys. If I could have taken a little more time this morning I probably wouldn't have had to fret over this all day. Ah well.
One thing I would check is where the ground wire from the battery is connected to the engine block, bell housing, or whatever it connects to on this car. Even though you found the current problem on the other end of that same cable, when you get a chance check this too.
A very good penetrating oil that's available at any Wally World is PB Blaster.
I am running into the same problem now. 3 times within the last 3 days. I open the door, dome light is bright, I turn the key to on, lights come on for half second, then power goes out. I noticed that the dome light then turned dim and very slowly came back on. I turned the dome light off and left the key in ignition in the on position and shifted the battery around a little and it soon came on. First the engine made a low volume humming sound and then I was able to start. The whole ordeal lasted 5 or 6 minutes at the most.
I am running into the same problem now. 3 times within the last 3 days. I open the door, dome light is bright, I turn the key to on, lights come on for half second, then power goes out. I noticed that the dome light then turned dim and very slowly came back on. I turned the dome light off and left the key in ignition in the on position and shifted the battery around a little and it soon came on. First the engine made a low volume humming sound and then I was able to start. The whole ordeal lasted 5 or 6 minutes at the most.
Did the car start? If it eventually acted "normal" I would suggest your first action would be to check your battery cable connections.
I was just telling someone else about this here and realizing I didn't check that simple thing! With a little bit of thought that might give me a clue. If the stuff that should work without the ignition on doesn't work (like the dome light, etc), then it's probably not the ignition switch at least.
God I hope it's not a bad ECM, eek. I don't think it's anti-theft because the only thing it has is a chipped key. I've experienced what happens with that before, and all it does is not start, the electrical still comes on.
I have a code reader. I'll check that when I get home. Although normally the key has to be on to read them.
Don't have a battery charger and don't even have a meter I can use. Might have to get one but looks like I can check and rule in/out a few other things first when I get home. Have a continuity tester maybe, although maybe it isn't, it might be only a 110v voltage tester which won't help.
Thanks for the thoughts! Any others still welcome.
Don't make this harder than it needs to be by even contemplating a bad ECM, etc. Everything points to a bad connection at the battery.
Don't make this harder than it needs to be by even contemplating a bad ECM, etc. Everything points to a bad connection at the battery.
Don in Austin
My original post is old. My problem was in fact a bad connection. With any luck it is the same for new user "elthe3rd" who just bumped this thread yesterday with apparently similar problem. Check the connections thoroughly! This is what I did not do that morning, then I had to stew about it all day when the reality was a very simple problem.
I can add to this story. I ask a lot of questions. I try to logically think my way through things though I am not a car mechanic but I like to find out how things work so bear with my long story.
On Tuesday when I left work to start my car & turned the key absolutely nothing happened. No click no engine turning over. Nothing. A co worker came out with a charger and it did not do anything (The lights still worked fine and did not dim when I turned the key to start). Another co worker came out with a hammer to hit the starter. It still would not do anything. But then he told me to put the key in accessories on and he pushed down on the starter bolts(with the hammer) and the car started right up (I was outside the car with him... nobody even turned the key to start it was just in the car by itself in the ON ACCESSORIES position).
At this point the car clock now read 12:00 and the security light stayed on. The next day I got the security light off by using my fob to lock and unlock the doors and then I put the key on ON for about 20 seconds and SECURITY light went off. After that the car started fine (about a dozen times over a few days). Even when it was -15 below zero yesterday morning the car started fine. But when I took the car to AutoZone to have them test the starter they said my battery was low so they could not test the starter.
I wonder what in the world happened. My car has been starting fine all cold winter. I checked the connections at the battery and they seem okay. The battery is probably old. When the co-worker touched the starter with the hammer sparks flew like crazy so I suppose that could have made the battery go back to 12:00.
Oh yeah in the 2 years I have had the car about every 15th start or so it would chug and die before starting. This time nothing no click nothing. I have had passlock security problems on Impalas before (but never this one) where the security will not let you start the car if it believes an incorrect key is being used. After about 10 minutes of waiting (or taking out a fuse that I believe unhooks the battery power) you can restart the car.
Finally today I undid the negative terminal on my battery to check for corrosion but it looked good .There was red fluid on the threads (this is a side terminal battery cable so a closed system)... when I hooked it back up the car did nothing when I tried to start it.. even the lights were off. I unhooked and rehooked the negative terminal and saw sparks and the dome light was on when I opened the door. I turned the key to start and everything died and went off. I thought I had broke it. But I went inside and 30 minutes later everything was working fine again and the car started right up as if nothing had happened. It seems odd if there is a loose connection that the car would start up when I just let it sit. I am thinking my battery has a bad cell because the guy at AutoZone said it was testing low.
As I said I am not a mechanic but I love to learn.
I went to the local store and was looking at battery cables you could buy to replace your own to see what they look like and how they might connect.
I believe the red cable from the battery connects to the starter (with 2 wires) one wire clamps to the Starter solenoid bolt via a circular metal piece. The other end connects to the smaller solenoid bolt via a smaller wire which ends with a yellow crimped piece. It looks okay under my hood but my solenoid bolts appear to be very corroded and perhaps that is why I am having the issue. Also the red positive wire from the battery travels almost the entire way to the starter inside some sort of protective plastic sheating so I cannot really see what is happening between the battery and starter.
The black negative cable comes off the battery and I assume this just grounds out to a metal part of the car frame but I have not really checked along this cable.
Does the black negative come back to the battery? What I mean is does the power from the battery travel out the red to the lights, starter etc. and then return to the battery along the black wire? If the red positive wire is partly broken going to the starter would that kill all power to the car since there would not be a complete circuit??
The car in my last post is a 2005 Chevy Impala with 156,000 miles.
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With a little bit of thought that might give me a clue. If the stuff that should work without the ignition on doesn't work (like the dome light, etc), then it's probably not the ignition switch at least.
With any luck it is the same for new user "elthe3rd" who just bumped this thread yesterday with apparently similar problem. Check the connections thoroughly! This is what I did not do that morning, then I had to stew about it all day when the reality was a very simple problem. 
