I have a '90 RS, 305, TBI, T5 and I went home for my lunch break today and the car ran fine, I had something to eat and left 10 minutes before I was supposed to be back at work and turned the key and nothing.

There was power, the radio was on, the fan came on, the security beep or whatever it is sounded, but no crank at all, not even a solenoid click.

Anyone have an idea what it could be?

 

Got VATS?
Have a different key to try?

 

I have vats, but I do not have another key to try, any suggestions?

Any way to tell whether vats is faulty?

 

i dont remember if there is a warning lamp that year but i remember a common prblem was wires breaking on lock cylinder. check resitance of key chip, put key in ign. and check for same at lock cylinder pigtail w/ connector unplugged. i think you'll find meter indicates open circuit.if so start column disassembly to replace cylinder

 

Carefully and slowly insert the key into the cylinder, while watching it - if you look really really close, sometimes you can see the contacts inside the cylinder touching the pellet on the key - check to make sure they are contacting correctly. You might try jiggling the key while ever so gently turning it to see if it'll make good enough contact to start.

My 1997 Z28 - the contacts inside the cylinder wore out - the little tiny springs behind each one failed and the contacts wouldn't push out far enough to touch the pellet - I ended up bypassing VATS in that car as I just never got the time to replace the ignition cylinder.

If this seems to be the same issue for you, you can either replace the cylinder (about $50) and get new keys cuts with the pellet value from you old key and the "cut" of the new key (any ACE Hardware can do it for $25 per key), or bypass the VATS with a resistor from Radio Shack for $1 (refer to www.thirdgen.org/vats).

 

I checked it this afternoon, same situation. I tried to look at the key as it slid into the lock and it looks like the key is making the connection, I tried jiggling it in all sorts of ways to make the proper connection with no success.

What would you guys recommend doing now?

Are we pretty certain that it's the VATS, it really sounds as if it is.

 

i would be certain of a broken wire on lock cylinder ......ran into this often on older gm products w/ vats.try procedure i previusly recommended.its easy to do and very conclusive.let me know how you make out.

 

I measured 5.93 m ohms across the key resistance.

I'm having trouble picking up resistance on the side of the connector that goes to the ECM (not the steering column side of the connector)

What does 5.93 translate to in standard ohms?

 

Looks like #12 on the chart...

https://www.thirdgen.org/vats_passkey_system

 

As in the key is displaying an allowable resistance?

I don't see what else it could be besides this.

 

if it is indeed 5.93 M(megaohms)that would be more or less infinite resistance.the values on chart are thousnds of ohms.if it was 5.39K(kilo) this would be one of acceptable values=5390 ohms. the resistance your reading is off the chart.at this point i would recommend contacting a good mobile locksmith.they have equipment to decipher whitch key resistor is needed and to test your key and lock cylinder.

 

So what does that mean? Is my multimeter bad?

I really want this problem fixed, what's a surefire way to determine whether it's the VATS?

It seems as if we're almost certain that it's a vats related issue.

I tried to measure the resistance on the ECM connected wire but I could not get a resistance due to the difficulty of holding the leads on the small connector pins.

Anyone have an idea as to what I should do?

 

Print the chart, go to radio shack and get one of each of the resistors, install one, see if it works, if not, wait 5 minutes and try the next one, until you get one that works. If none work, then it's not a VATS issue. It's not the easy or quick way, but it covers the bases.

 

Okay, thanks a lot. I'll try it asap.

 

I do not have access to a cordless solderer or an outlet near my car, is there an alternative to soldering?

 

if you said you have a t-5 it maybe your switch at the clutch pedal

 

I was under the impression that we don't have a clutch switch in our cars.

I'll double check the haynes manual, can anyone back this up?

The reason why I never thought it had one is because I normally don't have to hold the clutch down to start it, it will start in neutral with no clutch.

 

I went to the GM dealer this morning and they said I have key blank #12.

I ordered that corvette vats disabler for blank #12, hopefully that works, if it doesn't I'll have to go from there.

I'll be sure to post what happens when the disabler arrives.