I have a 97 Cavalier, with the Anti-Theft light on solidly. It will not start or crank. This car uses standard keys, not the ones with the pellet. I have tried the relearn procedure, (Key in start position, then in "on" position for 11 minutes until the light goes off, repeat
2 more times) but the anti theft light never goes off.How this started: Monday I went to start my car, and it didn't even click, and no accessories came on. I have not had any signs of a weak battery before this. I put a charger on it, then tried jumping, with no luck. Took the starter off and had it tested, it worked fine, put it back and it cranked if I supplied power to the solenoid. That is when I noticed the anti-theft light wasn't going out.
I have tried to search for an answer, but there are so many variables and nothing I have found seems to match my situation exactly, and most assume that the key works sometimes.
The car is an automatic, 4 cylinder basic model with 88,000 miles. I've had it for several months. One other electrical problem that I assume is unrelated--The wipers park straight up and down when you turn them off, but they pause where they should on intermittent. . (I'm not trying to fix that right now, just including it in case I'm wrong about being unrelated)