So I recently bought a 1990 Pontiac Formula, which the previous had installed a push start. And in doing this, I found out (thanks to my mechanic) that he had wired the starter wrong and grounded out the VATS system, burning out the system and killing it. Which it specifically says not to do! And if that wasn't enough, the previous owner somehow bypassed it by jumping fuses and ultimately hot wired the ignition to the starter. Making the car a ticking time bomb for disaster. Now if the starter or any of the wires get mess with the car will die. Is there anywhere I can get a VATS System for my car even though they're discontinued? or is a VATS Bypass System the thing to get? Any help would be great.

 

Locate the 2 wires within the orange sleeving which runs down through your column. U der the dash it has a connector which plugs in the column harness to the ecm. From the ECM, measure the resistance across the two wires and record that value in ohms. Now, go to radio shack and ask for a VATS resistor pack-its bout $8 and will have an assortment of resistors. Combine any number of them in series to get at least +/- 50 ohms of your recorded value when you started. Connect each end to the leads from the ecm and you should be on. If it works, I'd say for now just cut the connector off and solder your resistor chain onto each wire lead thus satisfying the ecm's resistance to the VATS it "thinks" it now sees. If you somehow fried that part of the computer however, it a little bit more of an issue now since you'll need to replace the computer.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but the op says the VATS module is burned out. The resistor bypass won't work because it connects to the VATS module, which doesn't work. It's the VATS module that sends the correct signal to the ecm to allow the car to start and run. Because the VATS module is bad, probably best to have VATS programmed out of the ecm and jumper out the starter relay. If the starter cranks the motor, starter relay is probably bypassed already. You could search around for a VATS module, possibly someone has one for sale in the classifieds. You could then re-wire everything back to original, if that's what you prefer. Probably best to go over the previous owners wiring anyway to be sure everything is correct. There are wiring diagrams available so it should be pretty easy. HTH