Thanks Shawn, but I think I'll stick with what my 6-year neighbor told me back in the day (1990 - 1996). Over 10 years experience as a tech at Lee Johnson Chevrolet in Kirkland, WA (and that was back then...) and factory trained by GM on the system, I'll stick with his explanation.

psst bill... i also worked for a GM dealership in the service bays... guess what we called it and found it under the books as...

Sparky83 said:

psst bill... i also worked for a GM dealership in the service bays... guess what we called it and found it under the books as...

Click to expand...

Pssst, shawn.....it's VATS, then the name was changed to something like, passkey although the operation was unchanged (resistor established the voltage seen by downstream electronics and if that voltage was correct for the system, it would start). It's in the original FSM and training literature.

They were known as those as well.. PASS standing for Personal Automotive Security System. VATS standing for Vehicle Anti-Theft System... later closer to then end of the run and the start of the current utilized PATS systems as they became known as the Gen I PATS keys... Current keys are considered to be the Gen II PATS systems.. by time i went to work for GM they referred to those early keys as PATS keys in the tech manuals for the shop... Both work on the similar base principles of thwarting car thieves but they utilized different methods.. Similar to how you have OBD I and OBD II Emissions.. is the ODB I system "dumber" compared to the current ODB II systems? comparatively yes.. but both are based on the same principles to perform the same function.

A little late to this party but thought I'd chime in real quick.

We used the old liquid whiteout and that's worked for texture in the dark, plus cleans up nicely if you want to take it off.

Sent from my not-so-smart phone!

How about spraying it with a little bed liner. Would look the same but have texture you could feel pretty easy.