alright heres the deal,we went out to the store car was fine,come back out and try to start the car and nothing,no click no crank.i bang on the started try again and nothing,then i notice the security light is on,so i clean off my key and try again,still nothing.so i turn the key to the run possition and jump the starter it cranks but wont start.i smell fuel so i check for spark,and it has spark.

i ended up ho9lding the throttle wide open while jumping the terminals on the starter and it fired.(motor was flooded for some reason).the car fired and idled just fine.drove it home.
while driving i noticed the security light was still on,get home and shut the car off and for the hell of it try starting it with the key again.nothing.

i check the starter wire with a test light with the key to the start possition and it dosent have 12 volts.which i had already known since i had to jump the starter with a screw driver.but i just wanted to be thurogh and dbl check anyways

any ideas if this is a vats problem,or maybe just the wire down to the starter is ****ed up

and what does vats do exactly when its enabled
is it supposed to kill fuel and ignition or just the starter

thnx in advance
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I think that the vats will kill everything. So your engine shouldnt have been flooded if it was a vats issue. Also you would have to wait 5 min, I think, in between ignition tries.

 

I'm speaking from *intimate* personal experience here...

VATS kills the starter on my car and disables power to the fuel injectors. This is why you think it flooded. It really didn't have any gas at all. I don't know why or how your fuel injectors started working again, perhaps the system is not original?

Your initial issue (no starter crank) was most likely VATS, your indicator is the security light staying on.

VATS causes a timeout of 180 seconds (thats 3 minutes.) Any attempt to restart with an invalid resistance inserted (your resistor pellet) will cause the timer to reset. If you manage to start the car, you are still violating VATS and resetting the timer. So you can try one time... wait 3 minutes, then try another one time. I've been stuck for 48 minutes once....

You didn't say whether or not the security light was still glowing at this point, but I bet it was.

This will help: http://tpiparts.net/vehicle_anti_theft_system__vats_/

You say you smelled fuel, but maybe you smelled the canister? Or your fuel rail isn't 100% and the build up of pressure from the power-on priming leaked?

In any case you should never smell fuel in an MPFI equipped car even if you crank all day long with no spark. Unless its made it ALL the way out the front of the intake, and out your air filter.

Enough of that, your looking for a fix - follow the link above - get a multimeter and measure the resistance of your "pellet". Its tricky, but its just a resistor, you'll get it eventually. Now take that value down to radio shack and find a resistor within the "acceptable" range.

Now go the the frontpage of thirdgen.org and follow the "Tech Articles" Link. CLick on "VATS Malfunction Diagnosis and Bypass".

Yes, unfortunately the current owners of this site find it useful to put information 2 clicks from the front page on how to easily steal all of our cars.

 

just wanted to be sure before i cut anywires


the orange wires i have my hand on is the correct wire????

 

YES. those are the vats wires. instead of cutting it and soldering, just for test purposes unplug it and use some spare wirew to attach the resistor without soldering. then if it starts you KNOW you have the right wires.

goodluck.