No Start Issue 1987
Thread Starter
5th Gear
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Montrose PA
No Start Issue 1987
I tried to start my 1987 Corvette this morning and it would not start. When I put the key in and turn it, the gauges light up and the radio comes on but it does not even try to start, no clicking or anything. I drove the car about a week ago and had no problems at all. The alternator and battery are both less than a year old. I am puzzled that the car does not even try to turn over. The volt meter was reading 11.6 on the dash, is that too low to start the car? Could this be a VATS issue? Any ideas or help would be great.
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 3,660
Likes: 22
I tried to start my 1987 Corvette this morning and it would not start. When I put the key in and turn it, the gauges light up and the radio comes on but it does not even try to start, no clicking or anything. I drove the car about a week ago and had no problems at all. The alternator and battery are both less than a year old. I am puzzled that the car does not even try to turn over. The volt meter was reading 11.6 on the dash, is that too low to start the car? Could this be a VATS issue? Any ideas or help would be great.
Exactly..
leave it alone for a while and it will most likely be ok.
Sometimes the system just does'nt like whats going on and shuts down.
Inconvenient, but worth it knowing the car thieves don;t have a chance.
If it continues there may be a failed starter enable relay or VATS module.
Thread Starter
5th Gear
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Montrose PA
Thanks for the response. After thinking about more, I think I may have put the key in upside down and then pulled it out and put it in the correct way, could this have caused the problem? I wish I was at home to get this figured out...
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 9,272
Likes: 17
if you havent tried it again, do so, the vats resets in bout 10 minutes. if its an auto, make sure the shifter is all the way foward, if a stick, make sure the clutch is fully depressed. if the key is the issue and you can find the resistance of it , you can wire the correct value resistor into the two wires under the dash to bypass the key. it gets spendy and time consuming after that.
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
Thats exactly what my 86 did, sometimes it would start right up then out of no where it would do this. I'd wait about 10 mins and it would start but eventually got to where it would do it everytime I went out to start it. I finally had someone tell me what it was the VATS (on this forum I think) but ended up getting rid of it before I had the chance to fix it.
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Advanced
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 81
Likes: 6
From: Baytown, Texas
On my 94 it was the Ignition Lock Cylinder, one of the wires broke causing it not to read the key. Took the lower dash panel off and unplugged the wires to the VATS (Orange casing with two white wires. With my key in the ignition used an ohmmeter to see if it read my key and it didn't. You may want to see if your key reads first before going further. I posted a NO START SOLVED in General Area. GOOD LUCK!!
