My girlfriend has a 1994 Olds 98 with 200k+ miles on the odometer. Recently the security system in her key went haywire and wouldn't let her start her car. Supposedly a dealer charges $500 or more to fix it. We fixed it for $50 over the course of 5 hours this afternoon. $20 in tools (soldering iron), and $30 in parts (wire, transistors, heat shrink, bullet connectors, solder) of which perhaps $1 was actually used for the fix. Turns out Radio Shack doesn't sell eight-inch lengths of speaker wire, can't imagine why.
We used
this tutorial and
this reckneck's video to learn the auto fix and
this video to learn the soldering.
Learned some good skills in the process, too. Learned how to use an Ohmmeter to measure resistance, then I learned how to shop for transistors, how to solder (super fun, will look for more excuses to do it in the future), how to crimp connectors, and how to use heat-shrink wire wrapping. Slightly less marketable skills learned included how to remove the kickplate and bottom dashboard fascia for a 1994 Oldsmobile 98.
Overall a pretty good day. I have to give credit to my girlfriend -- she is the one who was brave-slash-foolish enough to try tinkering with the dashboard wiring. I would have would have wussed out and started looking for a new car pretty much immediately. We bonded a lot as we worked together to fix this thing despite several hiccups. And man, when that engine finally turned over for the first time in over a week, we felt like superheroes. :)
