Mk5 GTI Immobiliser help needed

[kodirl]

Hi all. It all started last February when I went to start my car to go to work. The car would start for approx two seconds and then shut down with "Immobiliser Active-safe" on the screen. I disconnected the car battery and reconnected as suggested on some forums, to no avail. After hours of playing around and trying everything that was mentioned on forums online (now I mean everything!),I gave in and had the car towed to the nearest VW dealer (bought the car with only one key). They told me that the key would have to be recoded. This didn't work and they suggested putting in a new instrument binnacle. Instead of wanting to fork out over £300 for a new cluster ( I always believe the stealers are trying to get as much as they can- paranoia I guess !) I asked them would they order a new key and transponder from VW as I had read that this worked for someone online. The new key arrived and was recoded to the car and has worked a treat up until Saturday.
I had the car parked in an airport car park for three weeks and when I out the key into start that horrid warning "Immobiliser Active" was on the screen again and the car shut down. Close to throwing the car jack through the windscreen I managed to calm down and call the insurance company to have it towed to the nearest VW dealership. The car is now getting two new keys sent from Germany to be recoded.
The questions I have are;
1. Is the car key/immobiliser going to lose the coding again if it is not driven for a few weeks?
2. Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening?
3. Has this happened to anyone before, where the keys kept losing their coding?
4. What if I replace the cluster and the problem comes back, could it be the ECU?
5. Can the immobiliser be bypassed or deleted?

Any thoughts or opinions would be much appreciated. Ideally I would like to be rid of the immobiliser if at all possible.

[cooljimy84]

1. under normal ops, it shouldn't.

4. The cluster (do correct me others if this is wrong) has the immobiliser build into it, as when u do a swap to highline u have to backup the keycoding, so this should stop the problem. HOWEVER it could be something else, i.e. the reader part (not sure if it in the barrel or some were else) is the battery going on the key, being pressed if ur jean pocket all the time.. Is it going out of sync, being pressed when out of range too much..

5. Yes, though i think u need VAG commander (or what ever it is u use to code the cluster) and you must notify ur insurance company that u have disabled it !

[Matthewsimone]

That all sounds like an absolute nightmare mate!
Recently had this issue where one of my keys lost its coding and was getting that warning on dash when tried starting car with that key!

Had the key recoded at local vw dealership £45 couple months ago and seems to have been fine since then!

When asked chaps at vw about it they said should only lose coding if key is not used for 180 days which is possible with mine as spare key rarely gets touched!

As for yours tho its all a bit strange and deffo needs sorting!
Sorry cant be of anymore help!

[kodirl]

1. under normal ops, it shouldn't.

4. The cluster (do correct me others if this is wrong) has the immobiliser build into it, as when u do a swap to highline u have to backup the keycoding, so this should stop the problem. HOWEVER it could be something else, i.e. the reader part (not sure if it in the barrel or some were else) is the battery going on the key, being pressed if ur jean pocket all the time.. Is it going out of sync, being pressed when out of range too much..


5. Yes, though i think u need VAG commander (or what ever it is u use to code the cluster) and you must notify ur insurance company that u have disabled it !
[/]

The reader part is not the problem according to the dealer. As regards to item number 5. Do you know if the dealer can disable the immob?

[kodirl]

That all sounds like an absolute nightmare mate!
Recently had this issue where one of my keys lost its coding and was getting that warning on dash when tried starting car with that key!

Had the key recoded at local vw dealership £45 couple months ago and seems to have been fine since then!

When asked chaps at vw about it they said should only lose coding if key is not used for 180 days which is possible with mine as spare key rarely gets touched!

As for yours tho its all a bit strange and deffo needs sorting!
Sorry cant be of anymore help!

Yeah it's a pain, especially when it could happen again at any moment

[olsen-72]

battery going on the key, being pressed if ur jean pocket all the time.. Is it going out of sync, being pressed when out of range too much..

No. Battery is for remote control only. Immo chip is a small tiny bit glued by the key blade and doesn't need the battery.

Immo in the clocks thats the one part. Second part is the ECU. Disable it in ECU isn't a problem.
Someone need to check if you still have any keys coded into your clocks (with VCDS). If they are still coded (I mean if the clocks didn't "lost" the data) thats mean Your barrel can be faulty as it not reading the data from your keys. If that make any sense for you.

[kodirl]

battery going on the key, being pressed if ur jean pocket all the time.. Is it going out of sync, being pressed when out of range too much..

No. Battery is for remote control only. Immo chip is a small tiny bit glued by the key blade and doesn't need the battery.

Immo in the clocks thats the one part. Second part is the ECU. Disable it in ECU isn't a problem.
Someone need to check if you still have any keys coded into your clocks (with VCDS). If they are still coded (I mean if the clocks didn't "lost" the data) thats mean Your barrel can be faulty as it not reading the data from your keys. If that make any sense for you.

I'm sure the lock is fine. That only amplifies the signal from the transponder to the instrument cluster? It is the immobiliser in the cluster that stores the coding ?

[olsen-72]

Immo is stored in your clocks but also in ECU. I had this problem before with my friends mk4 and that was a barrel. Locks was fine but it couldn't read the key. But I might be wrong this time

[kodirl]

Immo is stored in your clocks but also in ECU. I had this problem before with my friends mk4 and that was a barrel. Locks was fine but it couldn't read the key. But I might be wrong this time

To be honest I think bypassing/deactivating it is the best option for me. I don't want to risk changing the barrel,instrument cluster and ECU to fix the problem. It would cost £££££. Does anyone know where I can/how it can be deactivated?

[cooljimy84]

When asked chaps at vw about it they said should only lose coding if key is not used for 180 days which is possible with mine as spare key rarely gets touched!

Crap ! better start swapping my spare key to my main key every so often.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BYPASS-Audi-Skoda-Seat-VW-ECU-Unlock-Immobilizer-Tool-/281294905367?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item417e7ba017
That looks like it might do the job.....
Tho i'd rather go to the main dealer, see if they can turn it off, as if you brick your ECU/cluster, your boned !

[kodirl]

When asked chaps at vw about it they said should only lose coding if key is not used for 180 days which is possible with mine as spare key rarely gets touched!

Crap ! better start swapping my spare key to my main key every so often.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BYPASS-Audi-Skoda-Seat-VW-ECU-Unlock-Immobilizer-Tool-/281294905367?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item417e7ba017
That looks like it might do the job.....
Tho i'd rather go to the main dealer, see if they can turn it off, as if you brick your ECU/cluster, your boned !

Unfortunately that does not work on the FsI engines

[mac456]

Surely if you deactivate it, your insurance will be invalid if it ever get stolen.

[olsen-72]

Surely if you deactivate it, your insurance will be invalid if it ever get stolen.

And who will know that if its get stolen?