Hey to ya`s, with engine idling in drive, when the shifter is moved into neutral the starter engages. Sounds to me like a sticking relay or maybe a neutral safety switch. It only happened once. I shut it down in drive put it in park, restarted the engine and all was fine. What do ya`s think. I sure would hate to ruin a 200 dollar starter and flex plate.

This used to happen to me when I would use a spare key that was hefty. The weight made the key stick partly in the start position. Like another respondent said, the SRS light stayed on then. Once the cylinder was worn from a heavy key, nothing helped except to make sure it didn't stay stuck in the start position.

I put in a used switch that I had and the other day the starter stayed engaged after starting. I turned the switch off and restarted the engine with no problem. Time for a new switch. thanks for the reply. Larry

Hi Ledfoot,

That looks like a bad ignition switch segment, pin 50 shorted to +12 volts.

You can get new starter motors for as cheap as $66 at Parts Geek and Ebay
and strangely the cheapest starter solenoid is more money? Go figure.

Bill

Thanks B.B. that seemed to work just fine.

Hi Larry,

Glad you solved that problem.
Was it a croaked ignition switch?

Bill

IT must have been bad. Thanks again. I have put a couple thousand miles on it with no recurring problems. 220 thousand miles on the ole girl and still going strong.

A sticking ignition switch in the start position prevented the transmission shift lever from coming out of park. The SRS light stayed illuminated as well( tell tale sign) Physically rotating the switch to the run position reverted everything to normal.
This happened to me when I first got the car.

Thanks for the help. I will check that out. I have a wiring diagram green book and will trace that circuit out to understand it better. I have plenty of used switches. It does make sense. Thanks again. Larry