Cascade Crew

[iansane]

This morning before work I had a no start issue. Had to leave without trouble shooting. Just got back to the car I've had just a few minutes to look at it.

When the key is turned I get 12v to the starter enable relay in the drivers side kick panel. However, the diagram I pulled from alldata doesn't exactly match my relay.



Whoa that's big. So my relay has one large yellow wire that comes from the ignition switch and one large green one that I'm not sure where it goes. From what that diagram looks like, the blk/yel wire goes to the VATS module which provides the ground for the relay. Instead of trying to mess with VATS resistors and such and hoping the VATS module doesn't go tits up in the future, can I just split this wire off and ground it anywhere to get rid of VATS? Seem reasonable?

[RSFreak]

What kind of no start issue? Did it crank and not start or did it not crank at all?

[iansane]

Whoops. No crank, no start.

[iansane]

Welp, cooked myself some dinner and spliced the blk/yel to ground and now it fires off no questions asked. So it worked. Why isn't this the preferred method of deleting VATS? Or is it supposed to interact with the factory ecm to kill something other than just starter enable?

[RSFreak]

My security light is on half the time and I can start the car with a chipped or non-chipped key. I should see how the PO disabled my VATS.

[91RSVert]

I thought it killed the injectors, or the pump, or both........ along with starter??

[iansane]

[popballz]

[91RSVert]

[iansane]

Do vats modules need to be programed or if I snag a replacement would I have to figure out what resistor key works with it?

[91RSVert]

I was just thinking. How did you wire up your OBD2? I figured you bypassed it anyway via the pcm. But if thats the case, then all the stock system was doing was your starter wire. No vats module will take care of that. I think what you did should work fine.

I used a vats bypass on a 94 3.4 system. They didnt care what the vats was.

:Edit: Also, whenever mine acts up, I blow some compressed air in the keyhole, wipe the key off (if its cold, I hold it in my mouth for a min). Then it goes back to working.

[iansane]

Correct, the obd2 pcm VATS setup was turned off.

Yeah, it seems to be working just fine since I took the vats module out of the equation (it's still in the car, just "unhooked") but I was thinking if I could replace/repair it, it would be a nice feature to keep functioning. I wonder if there is a way that the thirdgen vats module could with the obd2 pcm. Or, conversely a way to get the 4thgen vats module to work with the thirdgen column/key/ignition. Are they different? Hrmm...

What do you mean you used a vats bypass?

I initially tried two different keys (one that was a fresh cut spare) and got no results.

[91RSVert]

on some of the early OBD2 pcm's they dont have a way to edit the pcm. So they hook up these bypass boxes that simulate the pulse needed to make the pcm work.

I hooked up my thirdgen vats box to my obd2 pcm. You have 2 choices on the theft system. One is "class2" the other is "pwm". I changed it to pwm and hooked up the vats box to the appropriate wire(yours will be diff then mine). And it all works.

How long did you wait before trying the keys? I forget what the exact time is you have to wait, but its stupid long.

[blue89]

The VATS looks for the right resistor key to be inserted. Once it finds it, it enables the starter relay and sends a 400hz (something like that) signal to the ECM. That is why on a stock ECM you have to use a PROM bypass. That or you bypass the relay and make a function generator to mimic the vats.

My LT1 I bypassed the relay and ran a PCM. BBC I run a custom prom.

[Al Hasse]

[iansane]

I think when I get the front suspension rebuilt I'm going to look into repairing my vats system.