Battery Cable problems of the 2003 Chevrolet Impala

Recently, when I arrived at a local business center, I attempted to turn the ignition key to off and I could not. The key was stuck in the acc position, and thus could not be removed. In addition, all the accessories were on. Reluctantly, I had to leave my car in a public parking lot with the power on and my keys dangling in the ignition. When I drove home, once again the key would not rotate to the off position -- it remained at acc. I attempted many fixes for the problem -- repeatedly shifting into park, turning the steering wheel, etc. I was forced to leave the car on, and with the key in the ignition. My battery in time would be dead. Perhaps worse, my car was just sitting there waiting for an opportunistic thief. I searched online for help and found scores of reports of Impala owners who had the identical problem. The ignition key gets stuck in acc and can't be removed. It's an intolerable situation because you can't secure your car. Not to mention that you can't turn the accessories off, so you have a guaranteed drained battery. . Read more...

(1) nothing appears to lead up to the failure. At least there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. (2) the failure is the car will not start at times. We bought the car used with approx. 26m miles on it. It did not do this for the first couple of years we had it, then it started it. At first we thought it was the battery since the car was about 3 years old at that time. That didn't stop it from doing it. Someone where we go to have the oil changed said he knew what to do when it does it which was disconnecting a battery cable. That seemed to work for awhile and then that stopped working. At first when it did it, it would only be approx. 15 minutes before it would start. Now it is up to over an hour. (3) the only money we have socked into it has been for a battery. From what I can gather on the internet, this is a very common problem.