Some of your know my VATS light went on about week ago, but the car still starts and runs fine. My question is about the resistor. I Ohm'd my "NEW and OLD" key at 3.7K, so I soldered a 3.9K Ohm resistor unto the VATS wires, to bypass the system. The light is still on! If I am correct, the VATS has a 10% tolerance so 3.3K to 4.1K should be ok. The resistor has 5% tolerance 3.7K to 4.1K should work. I cut the wires on the steering column side of the connector, incase the lock cylinder needs replacing. Unless I totally screwed this up, the connector with the Res. soldered on it, ohmed 3.9K, it should of worked. Another question is about the VATS itself, is it a part of the ECU, or a seperate unit. I would like to do a continuity test on the wires to see if there is broken one. Until then, I just took the light out of the dash, so I don't have to see it. Any ideas on this would be appericated, thanks.

 

seperate module with one wire going to the computer

 

The theft deterrent module is just to the right of the radio, attached to the air bag bracket. The ppl/wht and wht/blk wires should be in cavities B7 and B8.

Looking back, it would have been prudent to have measured the resistance with the key cylinder with the key in it, before cutting the wires. There may be nothing wrong with that part.

Here is another wrinkle. The nominal value for your key is 3740 ohms and can only vary from 3590 to 3910 ohms. If you bought a 3900 ohm resistor, it could be out of tolerance for your circuit. Most resistors have at least a 5% tolerance. That could put your resistance out to 4095 ohms and not work for your circuit.

 

Thanks, I'll try to find a resistor that is 3.8K or group a few together to get that. I will also run a wire check to the VATS system. The orginal fault was no signal to the starter, the wire to the starter had burned out. I'm kinda thinking when the wire went bad, it took the VATS wires with it. It all goes back to the medical/electrical thing we talked about earlier. Untill I graduate, I don't have $ for shop technicans. Thanks for the help shoebox, I appericate it.