I went out to satart mt car and when I put the key in the run position, the fuel pump comes on and all the lights on the dash come on but when I try to start the car I get nothing. The Security light came on and stayed on, it wont go off??? Its never done this befor. Anyone got and ideas?

 

TTT.. come on guys I'm not at home and can't get my car started!

 

Its your key ..........or the eye inside your ignition not reading it ."detecting resitance " You will need to do one off a few things . There is a way to try and reset it that works very rarely . " Put the key in and out like 20 times with ignition in start run position , then pull it out and tirn the ignition off . Let it sit for like 8 minutes . I dought this will work , but some GM tech's say to try it . If thats not the exact procedure im sure its close .
Anyway , there is a wire that runs to your ignition ...It will have to be sliced and mated to another wire , under the panel , below your steering wheel . It takes roughly 10 minutes . If you are goingto do this , do it right . Or you can replace the ignition . I did that once already in my LT1 firebird . It was a pain in the Azz .
BTW , before you try and reset it make sure you wipe off your eye on your key .

You may also unhook your battery and let it reset , Leave it unhooked for about 20 seconds , wipe off the key , and put it in , and try to start it . ...Try this first .

Good luck man , Robb

 

there is a bit of missinformation here. No offence. but when you turn the key to the on postion the secuity light will come on. But should go off within a few seconds. does it? does it flash? I ahve never seen a no crank situation with a light not flashing ut I would assume it;s possible.

One thing you can try is unhooking the neg battery termonal for about 30 seconds. i;s a shot but might not work. does the starter click at all? I'll post what I have writen so far of a tech artical on the system that I am writing...




Since 1986 GM has used the pass key system as an anti-theft device. It started in 86 with the vette and in 88 on the fbodys. Since then it is on many GM vehicles.

The system has 2 functions.
1 starter interupt and
2 it can disable the injectors elctronicly if the correct signal is not recived from the pass key system.

There are 4 components in the pas key system..

1 The key. it's a special key with a resister pellet on it. There are 15 different key blanks and 15 different pellet resisters.

2 The lock cylender... It is the same as a regular cylender exept for a pair of contacts for the reisiter pellet and a pair of leads witch connect to the vehicles wiring harrnes..

3 The pass key decoder module... a solid state module that checks for the correct resistence value so that the engine can be started.

4 the starter enable relay... it is betwwen the ignitio n switch and the starter relay. it allows power to the starter relay if it recives the signal from the decoder module...

if the vehicle has a NO crank condition then the pass key decoder module is not sending the "ok" signal to the ecm.. here is what you do...

If the light is flashing the passkey system has disabled the starter function. even if you suply power to the starter seliniod the car will still not start due to the injectors being disabled.

The most likely component to fail is the lock cylender ( mine broke 3 days after I got my car) First check the key and make sure that the pellet is not damaged or teh pellet missing..

If you have an ohm meter you can test the system. USe the ohm metter with the leads across the pellet and record the reading. I have the table with the correct resistences if you post them and can tell you if the key is bad..

Next,locate the 2 wire conector under te dash (should be white and orange wires) near the base of the steering colum and dissconect it.. incert the key and turn it to the start postion while measuing resistence between the 2 termonals going up the steering colum. This reading should MATCH the resistece of the key it self. and difference will set a no start condition. if there is a differnce. or in most cases No continutiy (like mine) you need a new lock cylender

 

Yeah , thats basiclly what I was saying, in alot less words . . The light will stay on too . If he unhooks the battery for a few seconds it may do the trick . But something set it off . Like maybe the key is dirty or needs replacing or maybe the cylinder needs replaced . Like you said .

 

to bad your cars a A4 I would have said to try and kick start it.
it is posible that there is a problem with the anti theft system
or it could just be a symple thing like a bad starter.
I'm actualy not sure if the security light should turn off even with the engine not runing. If I had some tools I would jack up the car and see if there was a start signal going to the solinoid and also try jumping the starter solinoid to power

 

With the security light on , the fuel pump is disabled . Its in the owners manul of the car .

 

Even if you do get it to crank.. then there is a pass key fault it will also interupt th einjector control so you will not have fuel anyway..



I need to finsih that damn artical one of these days so I can just link people.. so much easier..



Here is another tip. if there is a pass key fault it will store a code that can be scanned..

 

sounds like someone knows his SHeOt

 

Assuming the security light is staying on and VATS is the problem..

1) Clean the resistor pellet on the key

2) Try a different key.

Now it gets more complex...

you'll need to find the resistance value of your key and go buy a resistor of that value at RadioShack.

Unplug the little wire going to the lock cylinder. Jam the ends of the resistor in the harness going to the VATS module.

Test it

If it works, replace the lock cylinder or permenantly mount the resistor.

if it doesnt work start looking at the VATS module behind the glovebox and the connections to and from it.

Shoebox has some good pictures and charts of resistor values on his website.

 

lol.. well. 3 days after I got my car the wire carrying the 5 volts to the key cyl broke and left me stranded.. I learned a lot about the system then and even more doing work on customers cars ( i'm a mechanic at an independent shop) I also had some good info from a GM seminar I attended... But thanks. I'm working on the artical now. if I finish it i;ll post the link for you and everyone..