I was reading about the VATS system on this site and i know my car has gone into the shop twice for this problem and 1200 bucks of repairs later its still not fixed. I tried doing it myself last night and didnt see any 2 yellow wires coming from the steering column let alone the box connected to. Please help! either post her or ICQ: 39902974, AIM: Brian of Smeg me please!! very frustrated over this stupid thing.

 

Hello,

I had a problem with the VATS in my 89. It turned out to be the wires from the ign. lock cylinder that ran down the column had chaffed on the steering and grounded them selves on the column. I had to replace the lock cylinder to fix it. $$$$ plus new keys. I believe that those wires you speak of are sheathed in a orange casing. They sould be run by themselves straight down the column. Pretty noticable. Very bright color. Plugs in at the base of the column. Don't know where it goes from there. Lock cylinder was under $50 and keys were like $20 a piece. Not hard to changeout.

Hope this helps?

 

are they in the steering column itself or in the panel above the pedals down by the fuses?

 

Look for thin orange or yellow wires at the base of the steering column. In the later airbag equipped thirdgens, be warned that the yellow wires are for the airbag. Probing airbag wires with a testlight or ohmeter can have deadly consequences.

Additionally, keep in mind that there's a lot more to the vats system besides just the key cylinder.

 

Ive taken that panel off under the steering column (above the pedals which is where the fuses are near) and found no wires that would be for the VATS. . there is ONE big mess of wires tied together but thats it.

 

you can also grab the wires at the vats decoder module. on 89's the two wires you're after are ppl/yel & wht/blk.

 

i just swapped my car to a carb setup and i had a problem with my car not starting. i found a relay in my kick panel that had two thick gauge wires one turned on when i hit the key but the other didnt so i bypassed the relay by connecting those two wires together (yellow and a green but not to sure of the stripes on those wires) after that my car cranked right over.

 

you want to look harder at the steering column area. The wires run the length of the column.
Yah, an exploding air bad could be a problem for the complextion.

 

actually my car doesnt have the airbag option . i dont think airbags where a feature till the 90 firebirds.

 

i also had a problemw with VATS one time. it also turned out to be the lock cylinder wires. 2 very thin white wires inside an orange sleeve that run inside the column down to the base of the column to a connector. should be easy to change especially without an airbag.

 

I just did the same thing. I just installed the F.A.S.T. system and the car would not crank. I thought my p/n switch was bad at shifter. Removed console and I had no power at purple wire to p/n switch. There is a VATS relay visible with driver's kick panel removed. It has a thin yel. and a thin pur. wire as well as a heavy yellow and heavy purple wire going to a relay. I simply cut the two heavy wires and soldered them together. The car cranked, but the relay made a buzzing noise. Unplugged the relay, and all is good. You no longer have a theft deterent after doing this however. I installed a kill switch at the shifter when installing megashifter.