dellyman

Car won't run. and security light keeps flashing. I've read the posts on this subject. tried the all the different resistors that match the 15 different ohm codes. whitch is 8 they had that matched. could not find anymore at radio shack that matched ! talk of Tunercat software.
but what type of hardware system would use it ?
any help please???
this is my only car

RMC

Here's a trick if you have a spare key.
Take two seperate wires, put one on each side of the pellet in the key and hold them there, stick the other ends of the wires into the connector for VATS (not the side going up to the column, but the ends going up into the dash). There's pictures in another recent post. Take your other key and try to start the car. This may take some extra hands but will tell you if it's the VATS for sure.

But about the resistors, you should only need to try one. You didn't specify much info so I'm starting a little basic here. Do you know what a multimeter is? Sometimes called a voltmeter. If not well it checks volts and ohms. It has a setting for checking resistance, or Ohms. It's symbol is a greek letter (Omega), sort of an upside down U.

If you don't have a voltmeter, go to radio shack and bring your key. If they have any meters with batteries in it, turn the *** on the voltmeter to Ohms. Stick the red end on one side of the pellet, stick the black end on the other. It will give a reading 1.5K or some other resistance. There's only so many different possible values that GM used, and I'm sure someone has the chart.

Anyway if they don't have a working display model buy the cheapest digital one you can get and test for the exact resistance of your key pellet. Then make sure you buy the resistor with the exact same resistance as the key.

Fastbird93

What exactly is your problem??? Can you not start the car, or is it intemittent, or what?

dellyman

I lost the other key a long time ago. and yes I do know how to read the resistors 1st digit second digit third digit is the maltiplier =number of zero's Measured resistance on the key was less then 1.5 ohms. dealer said the key but last i I towed it in and found out the key wasn't working (my daughter washed them) replaced the key cost me $207.36 dollars. and they told me. if it would have been in the igition system. it would have been alot more
i've spent close to 2500 dollars at the dealer in the last year DON'T want to spend anymore! trust me

RMC

Some of that reply was not making sense...

I'm not sure what you were trying to say there, but for the key resistance you have to know the exact value. Are you saying you are getting almost 0 resistance at the pellet?

If you're certain it's VATS, but don't know the exact value of your key pellet or it's already bad, here's a list of all the possible resistance values it could be.

Pellet Code Key Resistance in Ohms
Nominal Low High
1 402 386 438
2 523 502 564
3 681 654 728
4 887 852 942
5 1130 1085 1195
6 1470 1411 1549
7 1870 1795 1965
8 2370 2275 2485
9 3010 2890 3150
10 3740 3590 3910
11 4750 4560 4960
12 6040 5798 6302
13 7500 7200 7820
14 9530 9149 9931
15 11800 11328 12292

ramairta94

The relay for the vats system is located in the passenger kick panel.Its hard to see once you have the side panel off,you have to kind of look up into the the dash.Its secured up in their with a plastic clip.Pull the whole thing down where you can get a better look at it.Just jump the purple and yellow wire and that bypasses the whole vat system.If your not firmiular what relays are or what they look like get some help or dont do it.Its a little bigger than a bosh relay and its gray.Be careful their is air bag wiring and componets in that area.I had mine hot wired for a couple of years.This was on a 94 model i have know idea if it has changed.If you have a problem finding it just ask your dealer for a diagram of its location,thats what I did.

dellyman

ok I jumped. the faded yellow wire. to the purple one. car starts but now the car die's Immediately. after it starts if I try to rev up the engine. smokes badly and die's anyway. this is really starting to get to me
but anyway thanks to all who replied to my post and if any has got an idea I would love to here it thanks

jay g

when you tried all the resisters did you wait 2-3 min between them, the car times out for about 2-3 min if it is the wrong resister,

Zerosheaven

cant you remove the whole VATS system with tuning software?? costs about 50 bucks if you have a a cable/laptop and you can tune other**** while your at it like fan speeds or other mods on your car

slopokrodrigez

The wires at the base of the column when I did it were in an orange overwrap and the 2 wire colors were white/black and purple/white at the mating connector.

The security feature will only prevent the car from starting. It won't shut the car off once it's running. Trust me on this one, I found out the hard way. You obviously have another problem. BTW, washing the key should not harm it either.

A new key could be made from the mechanical code on the ignition lock cylinder. Or the key code bureau of chevy at 800-243-8957 can give it to you. However, as I said before, if the car was running and shut down, you have another problem.

Perhaps some more history might help.

shoebox

That does not bypass the whole VATS system. It only bypasses the starter relay. The VATS also supplies a fuel enable signal to the pcm. With the relay bypassed, the car will then crank but will not run (which is just what he found out, later).

dellyman: just measure the resistance of your key, go get a combination of resistors that closely match it, plug them into the connector at the base of the steering column and be done with it.

Fastbird93

Yes. In tunercat, in the ECM Switch Table, there is a selection for VATS. Simply click on the X to remove it and deselct the VATS Diagnostic also. Easy as pie.

Not the cheapest way to do it though, unless you can find someone with the proper equipment and a tune file matched for your car, and said person would be willing to hook you up.