Red Valdez
28-01-2009, 09:49 AM
I'm having an intermittent starting issue with my car. Car turns on and the engine fires up, but it all of a sudden dies. I know it's been discussed to death here, and the common culprits are usually either a weak battery or a loose connection with the BEM module. I've taken it to my mechanic to have a look at, since the issue has come back after going away for a few months. He couldn't find anything wrong with the ECU or BEM. He said that the connections between the two were very tight (although he still put some sort of conductive grease between the two to help).
However, he did come across an article which basically said that a faulty immobiliser chip in the key itself can cause this issue. He faxed it to me and I've had a read - it's somewhat technical, but the advice part down the bottom says:
If the immobiliser signal is not present, before going into the task of checking the immobiliser, get another key and check that it does not start on the other key. A number of failures have been due to the key chip failure and NOT the immobiliser system failure so ask for another key and try it.
I've dropped my main key off to him and he's playing around with it now (he was using my spare key before, which I never use). I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue and had it traced back to their key? My starting issues have been very intermittent so I'm not expecting him to be able to replicate it. I am now considering getting a new key though just to be on the safe side.
However, he did come across an article which basically said that a faulty immobiliser chip in the key itself can cause this issue. He faxed it to me and I've had a read - it's somewhat technical, but the advice part down the bottom says:
If the immobiliser signal is not present, before going into the task of checking the immobiliser, get another key and check that it does not start on the other key. A number of failures have been due to the key chip failure and NOT the immobiliser system failure so ask for another key and try it.
I've dropped my main key off to him and he's playing around with it now (he was using my spare key before, which I never use). I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue and had it traced back to their key? My starting issues have been very intermittent so I'm not expecting him to be able to replicate it. I am now considering getting a new key though just to be on the safe side.