ShoeDg1

Okay, on occasions the "security" light on my car will come on, and the car will not start. So usually I have to wait for about a half-hour before it will start up again. Someone once told me they thought it was the little chip on my key...could this be right? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone help me out, I went to nethirdgen.org, and they deleted my post. This has happened several times, some very inconvienent to note. So any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated....

NHcamaro

didn't the third gens (not sure what years the later ones) have something called VATS.. that disables the car ?

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GMTech

Its possible the chip is bad or very dirty, but 90% of the PASSKey/VATS failures are the lock cylinder. To learn more, check out: PASSKey/VATS

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[This message has been edited by GMTech (edited August 07, 2001).]

ShoeDg1

Thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it. Just to mention, the damn thing shut down again last night, when I was a half-hour away from home......

anesthes

iTrader: (12)

I yanked the two grey wires out, and replaced my column an vats went bye bye.

-- Joe

Stuart Moss

At 103K miles, yesterday was the first time that I ever had a problem with my VATS . The starter would not crank - nothing. A dead giveaway that it was the VATS was that the "secruity" light would not go out like it should after two seconds.

After fiddling with the key and cylinder for several minutes, the car started right up. When the "security" light goes out after two seconds, you know that the VATS is working okay and has detected the proper key resistance.

I didn't want to chance being stranded by the same problem again, so today I bypassed it - sortof. My intention is to get the best of both worlds.

I hid a DPDT toggle switch to the VATS. This switch will allow one of two conditions:

1. select normal operation (using the ignition key pellet) or;

2. provide VATS with the proper resistance by resistors soldered on to this switch.

The switch is not easily accessible, but accessible enough to get to in case VATS is not reading the proper resistance from the ignition key pellet.

If you want to get fancy, you could use a "center off" switch. This would add a third position, which would keep the VATS disconnected from either the pellet or the resistor, or infinite resistance. In other words, the car would not start unless this switch was in either of the other positions.

If you want to eliminate the pellet key completely, you could wire a toggle switch to switch in the proper resistance instead of permanently wired. This will allow a little more security if you remember to toggle the switch so the resistance if out of the circuit.

I don't know if VATS needs the proper resistance to just start the vehicle, or if it needs it all the time to keep the injectors enabled (via the ECM). If it only needs the resistance for starting, then you could just use a push button switch with a regular (non-pellet) ignition key to start the car. Hide or disguise this switch for added security. If it's a push button switch, you wouldn't need to remember to always toggle a switch when turning off the car. But this is only if VATS enables the injectors upon startup, otherwise, a toggle switch (or special circuit, i.e. relay/SCR) would be needed.