Hello, VW Brain Trust! I'm new to this forum, partly because my two TDI Golfs have generally behaved well. However, the 2003 is giving standard Immobilizer trouble: the engine catches then dies, and the key icon flashes. It does this no matter which of the three original keys I use. I generally cuss at the car (in German), wait a while, and eventually it'll start. Then it behaves normally for a few weeks. I'm tempted to suspect that it has a consistent number of successful starts before a bad one, suggesting a corruption in the rolling code cycle, but I can't keep track well enough to be sure. Also, in recent weeks, it appears to have been misbehaving more often.
I'm slated to be at the dealer's on Aug. 1 for diagnosis, $100 just to sniff at it a little. I'd like to be more informed before I go there. For one thing, the dealer says the Immobilizer cannot be gotten rid of. True? Given that it acts up during only one start in 10 or 20, is there some culprit that is more likely than another? I've read somewhere that certain male & female terminals are of mismatched materials; I gather these would be where the key-reading antenna leads connect to the processor. Use of dissimilar contact plating is a poor practice, something we don't do in aircraft. Can somebody confirm that VW chose to do this on some cars? If so, has anybody tried Stabilant 22 or a similar active conductor solution at those interfaces? Since my car was assembled in Brazil, should I be cussing at it in Portugese?
Thanks in advance for whatever learnin' you can send my way.
I'm slated to be at the dealer's on Aug. 1 for diagnosis, $100 just to sniff at it a little. I'd like to be more informed before I go there. For one thing, the dealer says the Immobilizer cannot be gotten rid of. True? Given that it acts up during only one start in 10 or 20, is there some culprit that is more likely than another? I've read somewhere that certain male & female terminals are of mismatched materials; I gather these would be where the key-reading antenna leads connect to the processor. Use of dissimilar contact plating is a poor practice, something we don't do in aircraft. Can somebody confirm that VW chose to do this on some cars? If so, has anybody tried Stabilant 22 or a similar active conductor solution at those interfaces? Since my car was assembled in Brazil, should I be cussing at it in Portugese?
Thanks in advance for whatever learnin' you can send my way.