New problem. The car won't start. The starter won't engage at all. The fuel pump kicks on, but when trying to start, nothing. Battery is good. The security light goes out when the key is turned on. Starter is new. 1990 L98 6spd.

When VATS is tripped what all is disabled? Just the starter? Will the fuel pump still kick on? Does the security light flash?

Neutral safety switch?

Starter relay?

I haven't had a chance to diagnose it much. I am at work and had to leave the car at a fast food joint.

Any help is appreciated.

if it's vats, it will crank, won't fire...

Leave it sit for 10 minutes and retry.

It could be a loose connection, too. They must be tight or they won't work at all.

Actually VATS does control starter engagement, there is a starter enable relay under the hush panel drivers side. Pump will run, injectors will not fire.
Do you have a spare key? Try that if you do.
But like Andy said, check connections anyway.
Could possibly be the neutral safety switch.

Joel

Car started back up no problem when left alone for a while. Makes me think the "new" starter is having issues. Maybe the starter solenoid on the new starter gets flaky when hot, or something. I will check connections, and check the neutral switch. At this point I guess I have to park it again until I get these checks done. Bummer.

Yes, the VATS does effect the starter... has happened to me a couple of times... thinking about it now!

So it more then likely was the VATS...

Clean off the key with some brake cleaner... and if you have a spare, use that.

Quote:

Alcohol works well too at cleaning the pellet, if that's the issue.

Yea, clean the key.

When VATS doesn't recognize the key, a timer starts.
It's supposed to be around 10 minutes but some go a bit longer.

And, If you try and start the car within those 10 minutes, you reset the timer and it will take another 10-15.

If you want to see if it's VATS or the solenoid, you'll have to wait until you get a no start again. Put a voltmeter on the small "start" wire on the solenoid and turn the key to "start". If there's no voltage, then it's VATS (or the starter enable relay, but that's unusual).
Doing this will reset the VATS timer so, wait 15 and try to start. If the starter spins, it's the VATS system.

As Andy said, sometimes this happens and then goes away. I had 3 VATS no starts in one year then it hasn't happened again (6 years).

IIRC, you can pull the codes to confirm a VATS issue on your year. I know you can on 92 & up, you'll get a "pass key error" if it's a VATS problem.

When I had my chip burned I had PCM eleminate VATS . On my 87 it would go months or just days for it to arm. When I finish the SR install I will hopefully have stopped that problem.. Tired of waiting for it to disarm.

can't do that so easily with the later VATS... it's integrated into the CCM and ECM... yuck-o-rama.

easiest solution? get some resisters that match the key and bypass accordingly.

I still need to get a new key. It is probably VATS because I just ordered my new tune from PCM4less and didn't remove VATS. Now enters murphy and kicks me in the a$$.

Have you revisited this at all?

AFAIK, you can't program it out... there has been past discussions on it.

The CCM is sending a handshake and it's weird... Perhaps the tuners have figured it out.

Clean off the key, try again.

The car seems happy at the moment. Havent found anything loose yet. I cleaned off the key (didn't look dirty). I will continue to monitor it. There may be a VATS bypass in my future.

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If VATS is programmed out in the tune on a SD car, the ECM will not look for the required fuel enable signal from the CCM ;
exactly the same as happens with the VATS delete on earlier MAF cars with the standalone VATS module

In any case ,you have to manually bypass the VATS operated starter enable relay to fully remove VATS from the car

Resistors only work to "fool" VATS into thinking the correct key is being used.If there is a fault with the VATS system itself , the resistors will do zilch