Greetings from the past, mia familia.

Quick post to relay my recent issues and fix in the event anyone ends up with the same problems.

Mileage: 101,800ish

Symptoms:

While driving on the highway, I noticed my green cruise control light was illuminated. I never use cruise control and hadn't depressed the button. I pressed the cruise control master on/off, but the green light remained on. A few miles later, the airbag light illuminated.

Once I exited the highway and had to start shifting, the car would buck during shifting-- like I didn't know how to drive a manual. As soon as I depressed the clutch, I would get a clunk, the RPMs would drop out, and when I completed the shift, I'd get another clunk on reengagement.

Really weird.

I got her home and put her in the garage. She had been sitting for about 4 weeks prior to that, and I didn't have her on the battery tender, so I thought maybe I had some low-voltage gremlins going on. Put her on the Battery Tender and came back to her 4 days later. Checked voltage via hidden OBC menu and she looked good. She started right up, and I drove her about 70 miles that day mixed highway/surface streets with no issues.

A few days later, I went to start her up and noticed there was about a 1 second delay between when I turned the key to the start position and when the starter engaged...

I backed her out of the garage and started driving and immediately got the green cruise control light, airbag light, and bucking condition again. Pulled off into a Wawa to shut her down and hoped the gremlins would disappear on a restart.

Rookie error...

The starter wouldn't engage at all. Good voltage via OBC, but nothing at all when you turned the key.

I sat and Googled the symptoms on my phone while I waited for someone to come scoop me up. About 10 minutes later, I turned the key for the umpteenth time and she fired.

Limped her home with the previous symptoms plus random interior lights illuminated.

Got her in the garage. From there on out, I was not able to get the starter to engage again.

Troubleshooting:

Googling yielded several suspects-- corroded engine ground strap, ignition switch, bad battery, clutch switch...

After running through some differential diagnosis, it seemed that the random lights illuminating in combination with the failure of the starter to engage with good voltage pointed to the ignition switch as the most likely candidate.
I ordered one up from Tischer and got to work on her this morning.

The DIY:

Very easy DIY. Loosen the plastic skirt below the dashboard and remove the bottom clamshell of the steering column. Loosen the two little set screws for the ignition switch and remove. Release the wiring harness.

Reverse to reinstall.

Problem solved.

She fired instantly and I've had no issues after several startups and about 50 miles driven today.

Hope the family is doing well.

Back to the grind...