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Hey all, Happy 4th! Could use some more help from the folks here I have a bone stock 1988 GTA, 5.7L, Auto. About a month ago, I had the infamous VATS failure at a gas station. I was able to source out a resistor module from eBay (Pic 2)), and plugged it in, and voila, car fired back up! Also, if you have an 88 GTA with the VATS, the VATS wire is most definitely not orange, like the other years! But this is the important part-before I had the failure, the car would on occasion not turn over at all with the key in run position. The dash would light up, but nothing else, and it and would take a couple tries before firing up. I later thought that was maybe my VATS system going out before it completely crapped out, since those are very similar symptoms. Anyways, I've been running the car for a couple weeks now after replacing the module, and it's been great. Yesterday however at the store, it again did not fire up for a couple of tries, before starting up. This was identical to what it had done in the past before the VATS crapped out. Now I'm wondering if they aren't different issues, masked by similar symptoms. I ran a couple of checks yesterday after this to rule out the actual VATS module going bad. I pulled out the resistor module, and plugged in the old ignition cylinder VATS signal wire. As expected, car wouldn't fire, SES light came on, and I got the code 46. Unplugged the old ignition cylinder wire, plugged the resistor module back in, and the car fired right back up, with no codes. So I know for a fact that the resistor module is good, and the ECM is definitely able to read a VATS failure. At this point, I'm wondering if the occasional nonstart issue is a possible starter enable relay going bad (the relay behind the driver side kick panel). Curious if anyone else has had this issue and has any insight on this. Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The code 46 is ecm not seeing the 30hz from passkey module. Fancy bypass for key reader should have just bought a matching key resistance resistor. To fully bypass the enable relay and vats read the vats delete from @QwkTrip
Btw the no start is it cranking and no start or no crank ?
When it does occur, the no start is no cranking at all, just like the VATS is going off. Which is why I was now zeroing in on the starter enable relay as a possible cause, since I fixed the VATS issue.
Yes it is possible. Yes has happened. Yes it's very cheeeeeep and eeeeeeezy to do a preemptive first strike against, if you suspect it.
Thanks! I'll check it out. Glad to hear it's a possibility. Was looking for more experienced opinions since I didn't want to go chasing nonexistent issues down a rabbit hole!
When it does occur, the no start is no cranking at all, just like the VATS is going off. Which is why I was now zeroing in on the starter enable relay as a possible cause, since I fixed the VATS issue.
bypass the relay , see if you get a crank no start. Sounds like a bad relay or passkey module. Most people just do away when issues like this happen
bypass the relay , see if you get a crank no start. Sounds like a bad relay or passkey module. Most people just do away when issues like this happen
Yeah, I'm planning to do method C on QwkTrip's post, which is eliminate the start relay. That way I figure I'll remove the VATS control over the relay, and only have the VATS controlling the fuel injectors. After that if the issue still persists, then I guess it's most likely a bad VATS decoder module itself, which is hopefully not the issue. I'd rather it just be a simpler relay going bad.
I have a bone stock 1988 GTA, 5.7L, Auto. About a month ago, I had the infamous VATS failure at a gas station. I was able to source out a resistor module from eBay (Pic 2)), and plugged it in, and voila, car fired back up! Also, if you have an 88 GTA with the VATS, the VATS wire is most definitely not orange, like the other years! But this is the important part-before I had the failure, the car would on occasion not turn over at all with the key in run position. The dash would light up, but nothing else, and it and would take a couple tries before firing up. I later thought that was maybe my VATS system going out before it completely crapped out, since those are very similar symptoms. Anyways, I've been running the car for a couple weeks now after replacing the module, and it's been great. Yesterday however at the store, it again did not fire up for a couple of tries, before starting up. This was identical to what it had done in the past before the VATS crapped out.
