You may be asking yourself what exactly is a V.A.T.S. and that is a perfectly appropriate question. V.A.T.S. or actually what these letters stand for is a Vehicle Anti Theft System. Found in many newer vehicles these days the vehicle anti theft system was first introduced into cars by General Motors who installed it first in the Corvette in 1986 followed by Cadillac and the present use we see them in today in multiple makes and model of automobile.
This system is quite effective in deterring would be thieves from attempting to steal your vehicle as the system and how it works aids in prevention by rendering the auto, in essence, dead if theft is attempted.
The key is the main tool here to prevent the car or truck from being taken by use of a mechanical key. Each vehicle anti theft system key has unique cuts to them all their own and which operate the lock. The vehicles V.A.T.S. component, called the brain, is under the dashboard of the vehicle which communicates directly with the ignition lock, starter and fuel pump and when the primary key for the vehicle is introduced matching the value given from the auto manufacturer to the chip in the key placed in the ignition lock the modules reads this and tells the starter and fuel pump to begin to operate. As one might surmise, if the wrong key is inserted into the ignition lock the vehicle anti theft system will lock the starter and fuel pump rendering it useless and unable to work.
Loss of these keys can be worrisome to most but automotive locksmiths have the ability to recreate this with special instruments such as the V.A.T.S PASSKey, which is a decoder that allows locksmith to determine quickly the values of blank V.A.T.S. PASSKeys. A locksmith can also tell you the value of your key with this instrument even if it's not lost or stolen and you want to keep the information on hand for making duplicates.
The abbreviation P.A.T.S. stands for Passive Anti Theft System and is made by Ford. This anti theft system works with low frequency radio transmission to recognize that the key being used is the right one for starting the vehicle.
The P.A.T.S. system uses a type of glass vial about the size of a small car fuse as a transponder which is set in the head of the ignition key. When the correctly coded key, which is one out of a trillion possible electronic codes, is inserted into the ignition lock and the accurate code is conveyed to the control module it allows the vehicle to start. If the wrong key is inserted it will render the car or truck disabled.
The original P.A.T.S. systems were considered easy for Jacksonville locksmiths to work with up until 1998. Subsequent versions are more difficult to negotiate, but still able to be serviced. The P.A.T.S. system when first made available was only released in Europe in 1993 on Ford products and was introduced in the United States in 1996.
