I'm fixing my VATS

[justinmc978]

so yesterday i went to freebirds to get a burrito and when i tried to leave she wouldnt start, (as shown) i played with it for about 3 hours until i gave up and had to get it towed back to my apartment. never delt with the system acting this way, as explained in the video it normally acts differently. i'm getting the resistors to try to fix it under the steering column with the common fix that we have stickied, and if that doesnt work i'm really going in deep and am going to try to screw with the BCM, thats what i'm wondering if anyone has any experience with, that thing in the glovebox,

heres a vid:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrEze0MpRc[/ame]

[bluehawk2000]

i had similar problems with my 97 firebird, it would pull little stunts like that on me and i would just get out leave it for 10 or 15 mins and come back and it would start right up!!

[justinmc978]

i had similar problems with my 97 firebird, it would pull little stunts like that on me and i would just get out leave it for 10 or 15 mins and come back and it would start right up!!

ive tried it hourly since yesterday, no progress, something finally snapped for good i guess

[tep98ws6]

may be a long shot but did you make sure your key is clean / don't have a ton of crap hanging off of the key? i had a similar issue back a few months ago and it's because my key was dirty

[justinmc978]

may be a long shot but did you make sure your key is clean / don't have a ton of crap hanging off of the key? i had a similar issue back a few months ago and it's because my key was dirty

the very first thing i tried was the good old fashoned wipe it clean with your shirt method, no luck

[9T8W66]

Seems to me that the VATS is stuck in Pass/Fail mode (reason why your Security Light doesn't stay on). I delt with VATS problems on my Formula for years before finally doing the bypass after the car stranded me.
You are correct in assuming the problem is in the lock cylinder. The reader in the cylinder isn't reading the chips resistence so the bypass should take care of your problem.
Heres a couple links to help you out.
On the first one look for the Pass Key pellet values.
http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html
http://shbox.com/1/vats_bypass.jpg

Just make sure all your connections are soldered good, any break in contact and the bypass won't work.

[justinmc978]

Seems to me that the VATS is stuck in Pass/Fail mode (reason why your Security Light doesn't stay on). I delt with VATS problems on my Formula for years before finally doing the bypass after the car stranded me.
You are correct in assuming the problem is in the lock cylinder. The reader in the cylinder isn't reading the chips resistence so the bypass should take care of your problem.
Heres a couple links to help you out.
On the first one look for the Pass Key pellet values.
http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html
http://shbox.com/1/vats_bypass.jpg

Just make sure all your connections are soldered good, any break in contact and the bypass won't work.

thanks for the wisdom man, i unplugged the connector under the dash, tried and its doing the same thing, (whereas if it acted differently, it might suggest the problem isnt in the lock cylinder) i'm heading to radioshack whenever i can get a ride, if that doesnt work i'm thinking i might have the vats tuned out of the pcm so i wont have to worry about it ever again

[9T8W66]

thanks for the wisdom man, i unplugged the connector under the dash, tried and its doing the same thing, (whereas if it acted differently, it might suggest the problem isnt in the lock cylinder) i'm heading to radioshack whenever i can get a ride, if that doesnt work i'm thinking i might have the vats tuned out of the pcm so i wont have to worry about it ever again

Well just a word of advice I tried having someone tune out the VATS aswell and it didn't work for me. Something about the VATS was BCM controled (which it is) and the PCM tune couldn't do anything about it. (Not sure may be a `98 only thing)
Also I did the bypass two different times and used less resistors on the second try so the resistence wasn't dead on the Pellet value but was within the high and low area. The first attempt used 4 resistors, the connections weren't the best and it failed. The second I used 2 and It worked perfectly (Live and learn).

[Vexzer]

i'm thinking i might have the vats tuned out of the pcm so i wont have to worry about it ever again

While you are spending money on the basic programming have them load their favorite tune for your mods, turn off the unneeded secondary CO2's, turn off the Skip Shift / CAGS if stickshift or massage the shift points if auto trans, screw the speed limiter, fix your speedometer if needed, and turn off some of the emissions related solenoids that would only cost you money to fix.

[justinmc978]

Well just a word of advice I tried having someone tune out the VATS aswell and it didn't work for me. Something about the VATS was BCM controled (which it is) and the PCM tune couldn't do anything about it. (Not sure may be a `98 only thing)
Also I did the bypass two different times and used less resistors on the second try so the resistence wasn't dead on the Pellet value but was within the high and low area. The first attempt used 4 resistors, the connections weren't the best and it failed. The second I used 2 and It worked perfectly (Live and learn).

i PM'd Frost earlier about the tune, hoping he can give me some info on it,

and i wouldnt doubt that your right, if anything will go wrong with an f-body pcm, it'll more than likely be a '98. i cant wait to get a second/different one, either an '01 or an '02

[justinmc978]

While you are spending money on the basic programming have them load their favorite tune for your mods, turn off the unneeded secondary CO2's, turn off the Skip Shift / CAGS if stickshift or massage the shift points if auto trans, screw the speed limiter, fix your speedometer if needed, and turn off some of the emissions related solenoids that would only cost you money to fix.

thanks for the reminder! i'm considering removing the egr functions for a possible future header swap.

[9T8W66]

i PM'd Frost earlier about the tune, hoping he can give me some info on it,

and i wouldnt doubt that your right, if anything will go wrong with an f-body pcm, it'll more than likely be a '98. i cant wait to get a second/different one, either an '01 or an '02

`98 PCM's arent really Bad their just different. Keep in mind if you want to swap out the PCM you'll need to do the harness aswell, so it may be more trouble then it's worth.

[justinmc978]

`98 PCM's arent really Bad their just different. Keep in mind if you want to swap out the PCM you'll need to do the harness aswell, so it may be more trouble then it's worth.

ah sorry i meant second/different f-body

[josuemaximo21]

try to hotwire the starter for turn it on if u have no gas going to the motor then turn the baterry off to reset the computer.and see if that works.if that
does not work try to check the car with the computer to see the errors.

[justinmc978]

try to hotwire the starter for turn it on if u have no gas going to the motor then turn the baterry off to reset the computer.and see if that works.if that
does not work try to check the car with the computer to see the errors.

well i'm looking for a perminant solution, ive reset the computer already, no luck, its definatly vats related

[godless-phoenix]

oh man, i had this problem, really freegin annoying! i had the vats bypassed, that didnt work, then i had the bcm replaced, that kind of worked, but it would shut off right after it started, then i had the pcm and or the ecm replaced, cant remember witch, but im pretty sure it was the pcm, and then it worked again! my security light still comes on every time i start the car still, but i think thats because the vats is still bypassed, but hadnt had any starting issues after all that was fixed...

[0rion]

just follow that vats sticky and that should fix you right up. Take your ohm reading off of your old key so that you're 100% sure it's a good key and use the chart to find your range then hook resistors in a series to get to the median of that range and use gold band resistors which have a 5% variance.

[justinmc978]

just follow that vats sticky and that should fix you right up. Take your ohm reading off of your old key so that you're 100% sure it's a good key and use the chart to find your range then hook resistors in a series to get to the median of that range and use gold band resistors which have a 5% variance.

i'm getting a 6.05-6.06 on both my old and new keys with the ohm meter set to 20k, what key number do i have?



with the key in the ignition i'm not geting a reading at all when i hook the ohm meter to the leads on the orange wire further leading me to believe its the lock cylinder

[0rion]

looks like you have the #12 pellet.....try to get a series as close as possible to that design ( median) resistance and you should be good to go.

[justinmc978]

looks like you have the #12 pellet.....try to get a series as close as possible to that design ( median) resistance and you should be good to go.

thanks! muchly appriciated!