2013 Equinox starting issues

MiniMax_Dad69

My daughters 13 Equinox has an intermittent starting issue. Occasionally, she will put the key in, turn it and get no response. Guages, lights, seat controls... everything is dead. Until, you push the car, front to back, several times. After a few rocking motions, the gauges, lights and chimes come back to life and the car will start. I've tested the battery and checked the connections. They are good. She mentioned to me that when this happens, the key inserted in the ignition, will get hot.
I've read thru a few other discussions here but havent seen the same scenario.
Who has an idea on this one?

thecardoc3

Sometimes the description of a problem can help lead to the source and sometimes it doesn't. The ignition switch is about four inches away from the ignition key cylinder at the opposite end of the housing. It also does not directly power the vehicle and is only a command to the body computer though a five amp fuse. I attached a portion of the schematic here. The report of the ignition key getting hot at this time seems misleading and would need to be confirmed.

As far as rocking the car back and forth what "could be" in play might be a wire or portion of the engine/transmission wiring harness losing and making connection because of the movement of the engine and transmission. Is it correct to interpret the rocking of the vehicle that you describe as occurring against the transmission while it is park?

I could attach power and ground distribution schematics, but the short answer is since items that are not controlled by the ignition switch are also inoperative, the problem has to be battery and battery cable related which includes the other ends of the cables at the fuse block (power) and the engine (ground or negative).

I would start by getting the car to act up and go straight to testing with a regular 12v incandescent test light without moving the car and getting the problem to go back into hiding. With the key in the ignition and turned to the run position, connect the clamp of the test light to the chassis or the engine block and then touch the probe of test light to the positive post of the battery or you can choose to go to the red lead from the battery to the under-hood fuse block. It should light up. If it doesn't move the ground to the battery negative post. This will make sure that the light does work as well as if the negative cable is the source of the problem. For example, the test light lights up when connected to both battery terminals but does not light up if you connect the clamp to the engine while the probe is still connected to the battery positive. The same thing applies to the positive side. First prove that you have power at the battery connection, then you move to the fuse block connection, and then check for power to the fuses that should be hot at all times.

Practice the test steps a few times when the car is working normally so you know what to expect. Then when it acts up, it will be obvious where the failure is.