This isn't for me, but rather for a friend in a Z-28. When he bought this car it had some issues. Basically the previous owner had busted the steering column and tried to hotwire the car. Well he didn't succeed, but rather he screwed up the turn signals and the brake lights, everything BUT the ignition. Apparently in another attempt they had tried to bust the ignition tumbler, the plastic housing was gone and so was the metal. The key has the resistor in it and everything, but the tumber was busted so far that the resistor wasn't even read by anything, it was just floating in the air.

Somehow these guys had bypassed the VATS so the car would still run because there is no way it reads the key. Anyway, we replaced the steering column, which of course comes with a new key. I thought it MIGHT be a problem being that the new key probably didn't have the same resistance of the old one. Well the car runs just fine but his SECURITY light still stays on. This tells me that somewhere they have bypassed that feature, and done so badly. All of the wiring on the car seems to be intact, it really doesn't look like anybody has been messing with it.

Where might we look to find the problem and turn off his security light, and when we do this will it re-enable the VATS, probably causing his car to not run due to the resistance of the new key not being the same as the old key?

Thanks guys

 

seems to me if they went through that much trouble in the column, they probably did some damage elsewhere under the dash. I think the Camaros had a VAT sending unit under the dash, but im not sure. If the VAT is connected at all and still messed up, chances are the car would not run at all. VAT is pretty good at not letting the car run if it is not 100% operational.

Mine is bypassed btw, no resistor... :)

Anywho, the security light may be active because of an aftermarket alarm system that was tapped in to the thing or maybe they have it shorted.

Hope this helps..

Rich

 

That's pretty much what I thought. The light is plenty annoying though. Anybody have any ideas on that? He is going to be doing some mods to the car and getting the computer reprogrammed eventually, can the VATS be turned off in the computer to turn off the light?

 

Nat -

There's a couple threads in the Archives telling which wire under the dash has to be jumpered to disable VATS. I haven't looked into it, but from what I recall from the threads, the EPROM disabling is not all the job; the relay still has to be jumpered...

 

well he can buy the vats bypass kit that is available in here in the mall I think. But I am unsure if it will work correctly on the camaro application, probably will though. My security light works normally, in fact my factory alarm is still functional including the courtesy light delay with my vats bypass. I think if you do it correctly you can avoid any unpleasantries.

Rich