Well, it happened today..Left a local forum cruise in and headed over to the local PD to file a report for an accident I had the prior day.

Ive seen other VATS threads over the years but never opened them as Ive never had an issue and avoid dealing with my weakspot, which is anything with wires under the dash.

Car wouldnt crank, nothing. Noticed ALL the lights in the DIC came on when key went to "on" position, dont recall seeing that ever.

ANyway Im understanding that for every time I turn the key and trying to start it the computer waits 4 minutes before allowing the starter to crank.

Wound up walking my sorry butt down the road, sat down and had lunch, came back and she fired right up. Got it back home parked it, shut it off and it restarted .

Weird...NOW. I did try the MacGuyver bit, did the door lock with my key to reset (guess I tried the ign too may times and the timer was still running), disconnected the battery, checked key pellet for dirt, even rubbed the key with a plastic bag to create static which Ive heard work (it didnt).

THis sounds intermittent which bothers me. I could go to MAM and buy a bypass but it would be nice to keep the system working.

The starter relay, CCM and what else is involved here?
Relying on you guys to educate me about the system and what VATS is tied to. Dont need a repeat of this.

I have a Painlessperformance VATS delete system that I bought from Summit (I think?) years ago and never used - I had it removed from my PROM instead. I think it's for all years. If you want to try it I'll send it for shipping cost...

It has happened to me, too... the key, so to speak, is waiting out the 4 minutes.

The 1990-1996 system uses the CCM. It is looking for the chip rating. Once it gets that, it sends and ok to the ECM and fires some starter relay thing.

If you want to avoid a future problem, you can put a resistor on the circuit to emulate the key. Use a DVM to get the resistance.

Spectator. that would be great. ANy way I could hook a toggle to it so I could turn it on/off? Not really worried about the car getting stolen...
Let me know how much..where to send
Is it an easy install?


Where is the starter relay on this car anyway just in case?

I lucked out with my '96 - had it happen to me twice last summer, but I have 2 sets of keys, and switched to the other set, and no problems after that.

PM sent, I'll ship it over and you can try it.

In addition to not enabling the starter relay, VATS won't allow the injectors to fire either.
This happened on my 92 last month.
Cuisinart, the starter relay on a 92 is under the instrument panel, driver's side, left of the steering column, maybe your 90's this way.
Did you pull codes after this happened? On the 92, I got code 51 in mod 9 "pass key error". There's also codes 52 & 53. 1990 codes are probably different.

I have to wonder on waiting 4 minutes and trying a restart. I tried this and got nothing. NOTE: every time you try start the car, you restart the timer.
I let mine sit for 1/2 hour and it fired right up.
I have to wonder if the timers run a little longer than stated on the manuals.

At least the VATS connector ( on the 92) is a separate one, so it will be easier to work on. ( on the 92, it's a 2 position connector, lower steering column, with a purple/white and a white/black wire.