First, hello to everyone and this is my very first post. Major newbee here to a gen3 but not to the chevy camaro. I recently purchased a 91 z28 vert to add to my garage(not a daily driver yep). Ive been slowly fixing all the little things with it. The previous owner gave me one set of keys. Somehow I get the feeling the vats may have been bypassed. Is there a way to test this before I make keys. Can I just put tape over the key resistor and try starting it or is the key picked up by some sensor in the ignition hole. Thanks

 

VATS is the reason I wanted an 87. A lot of the VATS cars I looked at had the system either bypassed or there were problems with it. Im glad my car doesn't have it.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/vats_passkey_system

Bear in mind
there is the VATS "bypass" that uses a resistor to " fool " the VATS into thinking the correct key is being used ; all the VATS functions are still there and operational
and VATS delete in which a device electronically supplies the fuel enable signal to the ECM that usually provided by the VATS module
In the latter case the starter enable relay as to be bypassed to completely remove VATS

 

This morn I went ahead and put scotch tape over the key resistor and it started up. So I take it that the previous owners bypassed the the VATS then. Now I can just go to Walmart and have a spare set of keys made. I looked under the dash cover to check if a resistor bypass was done and I wouldnt want to try restoring the VATS it looks like a wire mess in there. Thanks for the input.

 

Hey guys, on a similar note, my 1990 IROC won't fire up this morning, ran good last night. In regards to the VATS being a possible culprit, will the CEL flash a code to determine if it is the cause

 

On the link posted by vettoz, it says code 53. But you can diagnose here https://www.thirdgen.org/vats