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As I sit here in a hot parking lot stranded again by my VATs pass key system waiting on my wife to come get me I ask myself how the heck do I disable this god forsaken system? It always seems to start eventually. Sometimes it takes hours. I am officially over it. If I can’t disable it, I am selling the car. I have read stuff online as to how to do it but wanted to get some fresh information. I did measure the resistance across the pellet and I read that if I can make a resistor that matches it, there is somewhere under the dash where it can be jumped. Funny thing is it always seems to happen when I am parked near high tension power lines.
Yes, it can be disabled. All that's required is a resistor of the same value as the one in the pellet in your ignition key, patched into the circuit to mimic the presence of the key.
Have you replaced the the lock cylinder yet, the contacts inside can grow poor over the year's. It's not a bad job but it can take some time to the novist.
beside getting a bypass kit or doing the correct thing of replacement of cylinder you can buy a new cylinder plug it in and leave a key with correct chip in it and do what a friend of mine did. He cut a hole in the kick panel and mounted the extra cylinder in the hole so if he wanted to disabled the car he would pull key from kick panel
Last edited by s carter; Aug 28, 2021 at 05:06 PM.
Sorry guys a mature mistake but I was sitting in a parking lot….. again and pissed. The car is a 1995 ZR1. My wife came and picked me up and we went and had a bite to eat and she brought me back to the car and it started right up. I just want the VATs gone. It has inconvenienced me more than any criminal. What thief in his right mind would want to steal a 1995 C4? He better have a good set of tools and wife that will pick him up.
A '95 and an LT5 it can't be assumed to be a VATS issue. It very well could be the starter motor solenoid contacts & plunger have failed or maybe worse. Lots to check for correct diagnostics. You could maybe fabricate a jumper for the Clutch Safety Switch and if it happens again try that first. Hot Do Not Start are known issues for '90 - '92, thought to be less likely on '93 +. There's many good reads.
**Security light on steady would be first check the next time you get a 'Does Not Crank'
The clutch safety would be easy enough to check but before I think I would prefer to try bypassing the VATS before I pull the starter. I do have a problem where I sometimes when I try and start the car, the starter makes a noise like it is engaging but stops, the car then starts when I try it again. Been doing that years. This issue with not starting seems to come and go. It won’t happen for a while then a lot. Almost always I am near high tension power lines when it happens. Very strange and very annoying.
The clutch safety would be easy enough to check but before I think I would prefer to try bypassing the VATS before I pull the starter. I do have a problem where I sometimes when I try and start the car, the starter makes a noise like it is engaging but stops, the car then starts when I try it again. Been doing that years. This issue with not starting seems to come and go. It won’t happen for a while then a lot. Almost always I am near high tension power lines when it happens. Very strange and very annoying.
Check resistance value towards base of column and if it deviates from the key insert a resistor at that connection. That would theoretically bypass 'CRANK'. How many keys do you have?
Check resistance value towards base of column and if it deviates from the key insert a resistor at that connection. That would theoretically bypass 'CRANK'. How many keys do you have?
I have 2 keys. Are you saying check resistance with key in ignition? Where do I check it? I have read there is a plug at the base of the column. What color wires am I looking for?
When it does it, is the SECURITY light on SOLID with the key in run?
In a 95, this is REALLY important info to know!
If the SECURITY light is OFF with key in RUN, it isnotVATS related.
This is the most important question to be answered. The security light should not flash. VATS get blamed for everything and you need to know if it is a VATS problem at all. In addition putting a resistor in place of the key pellet is not disabling the system (just bypasses the key). And you can always check the resistance of the key in the cylinder by disconnecting the connection at the base of the steering column and measure back into the key cylinder contact but that's a whole different effort.
My off the cuff thought is the solenoid on the starter is intermittent and might respond to heat.
A read of the FSM 8D section would be quite valuable. There's much that can be done using CCM diagnostics available using DIC. There are various 'PASS Key®' DTC and polling the CCM it might be interesting to see if there's any stored History codes. For a '95 there's various jumpers of the DLC/ALDL that can be used for diagnostics. The last paragraph in the DTC 51 explanation is an 'interesting' read.
Bull. Under certain conditions, it is perfectly NORMAL for the SECURITY light to flash. Like, every time a door is open with the key in LOCK, OFF or ACCY. The SECURITY light should flash with a door open, key in OFF, Power locks have not been locked. This indicates that the Universal Theft Deterrent (the alarm) is not armed.
The VATS system uses a solid-ON light to indicate an active VATS disable. "Flashing" SECURITY has nothing to do with VATS.
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That it happens near high tension power wires is intriguing, but I have no idea what the correlation could be. Because he indicates a different starter behavior, it is possible that this is a starter or starter-circuit problem (not generally a problem on the 93-95 LT5) and not VATS. Knowing what the SECURITY light does when it won't crank would be really l helpful to know. I think the OP is weary of his car not letting him start it. I'd suggest doing the signal generator and starter relay bypass and completely eliminate VATS as a contributing possibility. If starter problems persist, move on to the remedies for starter trouble such as the starter itself, and possibly the solenoid wiring, although once again, not a commonly reported issue on the 93-95.
So are you saying that with the key in the ON position, I should see the VATS solid ON when the car does not start? I could let it idle today and heat it up and see if it will do it. Funny thing is I have tracked the car at the Corvette Museum and a couple of months ago at Road Atlanta........no problems. Repeated start/stop on a very warm engine. It was a very hot day at road Atlanta. But when I take it to the Gym or other places that are only 10 minutes away..... it acts up. There are power lines at the Gym, there were power lines at a near by restaurant we ate at last week and again yesterday at Home Depot. When I go to the gym I am there for 60 to 90 minutes.....plenty of time for the car to cool down especially since it is only maybe a 10 minute drive. If heat was the cause, why 0 issues at the track and problems at least 50% of the time at the Gym even in January. I used to use the battery disconnect every time I would park the car to preserve the battery and security.....it is the type that has the removable key. Someone said that may be causing issues with the ECM so I stopped doing it when taking the car anywhere.....only at home and the car still has the same issue... but never at home.
KJL - All of us know that level of frustration - some from the VATS system, some from other automotive "issues" / "misadventures"..
Step 1 - Figure out if it's a VATS issue. If it is a VATS problem - the absolute BEST way to solve the problem is to have a programmer reprogram the PCM to eliminate VATS entirely. Once done, your problem will NEVER reappear. I suspect that you don't use your car much in the Jan / Feb timeframe - so that might be a good time to do that work. In the meantime, measure the resistance of the "nub" part way down on the Ignition Key. I've attached a pic of the sesistor measurement and a pic of the table of what the resistor values should be. You can simply buy a resistor and plug it into the harness and that will hopefully eliminate the ignition key "sensor" that has been know to be rather "problematic".
A read of the FSM 8D section would be quite valuable. There's much that can be done using CCM diagnostics available using DIC. There are various 'PASS Key®' DTC and polling the CCM it might be interesting to see if there's any stored History codes. For a '95 there's various jumpers of the DLC/ALDL that can be used for diagnostics. The last paragraph in the DTC 51 explanation is an 'interesting' read.
**8D is in Book 1
I will take a look. I have cycled power since so that may have erased any history codes. I read section 8D..... very interesting. The part about disconnecting the battery resets the 3 minute timer..... yesterday when my wife showed up, the car still would not start, before we left, I disconnected the battery. When I returned about an hour and half later, I turned the battery back on and it started right up..... no 3 minute delay....
WVZR's suggestion to use the CCM diagnostics is a good one too. I don't think turning off the battery erases H codes. If it was a VATS event there should be several H codes in the CCM Module 1 and an H46 in Module 4. The tricky part is jumpering the ALDL port in the 95.
Correctly jumpered you can actually confirm the resistance seen by the CCM to compare to the check of the keys.
In several places this thread it is mentioned to use the A/D diagnostic. I have only accessed codes through the dash using a jumper.....I have never accessed a diagnostic mode via the dash this way. My ALDL Droid tool can access real time data but i am in the process of moving and it is packed and stored at the moment.
I had a battery issue. Jump it and it starts. Few days after, the battery dies and it needs to be jumped. One fine day, I had the starter removed and opened up. It was full of oil and had issues. No amount of battery changes will help. If you are handy, I would suggest this before you go do something. Hook up an idiot light to the exciter wire of the starter and see what happens. Every time you crank, it should light up. When you crank and it doesn't crank, see if you are getting a light. If you are, the starter is at fault. If not, you have to go searching as to whether the VATS is at fault or the neutral safety switch or whatever.
VATs Help!
