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Mike’s 1988 Corvette No-Start Fix
The hardest fault in any workshop is the one that goes away while you are looking at it.
A car that never starts is straightforward. You work through it, you find it, you fix it. A car that will not start on Tuesday and then starts perfectly on Wednesday while the customer watches is a different problem entirely, and it is the one that costs shops money and reputation.
Simple Automotive in Vermont had exactly that car: a 1988 Corvette that cranked and would not fire, except for the days it fired straight away.
Several weeks of it
In Mike’s own words:
“After chasing the issue with this vehicle cranking and not starting for several weeks, some days it would start and run fine.”
That intermittency is not bad luck. It is the signature of the fault. The VATS system reads a resistance value from the pellet in the ignition key, and on a car of this age that reading sits close to the edge of what the module will accept. Warm day, cold day, slightly different seating of the key, a contact that has oxidised a little more since last week, and the reading falls one side of the line or the other.
Inside tolerance, the injectors fire and the car is perfect. Outside tolerance, the injectors are shut down and the car is dead. Same car, same key, same everything, on alternating days.
This is why the fault burns weeks of shop time. Every component you replace appears to work, because the car was going to start that day anyway.
Ordered Thursday, fitted Monday
They ordered the module on 30 August 2018. It arrived, and it went in the same day they opened the box:
“Just a quick message to thank you for an outstanding product. we ordered the module 8/30/18. received the part yesterday and installed today. very easy to follow directions made for a quick install. After chasing the issue with this vehicle cranking and not starting for several weeks, some days it would start and run fine. after installing the bypass module no issues, starts everytime. THANK YOU !!!!”
Mike T., Simple Automotive
Mike did not open a support ticket because he had a problem. He opened one because he wanted to tell us it had worked. In this business that does not happen often, and we have kept it since 2018.
Why this matters if you run a shop
An intermittent security fault is unfixable in the ordinary sense, because there is no failed part to replace. The pellet has not broken. The reader has not broken. They have simply drifted far enough apart that the module sometimes disagrees with them.
You can chase the drift, or you can remove the thing doing the checking. On a 1986 to 1989 Corvette the Theft Deterrent Module is unplugged and left unplugged, and the PRO Module takes over. There is nothing left to drift, which means the car does not come back to you in six months with the same complaint and your name on the invoice.
It also means you can warranty the job.
The wiring
Mike’s car is covered by the 1986 to 1989 Chevrolet Corvette installation guide, with the module location, connector and every splice. It is free to read before you order, and worth checking against the car on your lift first.
Not sure which system the car in front of you has? Identify it from the key and the symptom. More Corvette cases in Corvette VATS Delete: The Cars That Came Back.
