immobilized...

Well after doing some work (timing belt, head rebuild etc. ) on my TDI I went to start it and I am immobilized. The car was down for over a week and battery voltage showed 12.4 on scangauge. I have disconnected the battery and hooked the cables together overnight and then turned on the key and let it sit for at least an hour and light still flashing. Battery now fully charged. I have googled and read everything I can to try and learn as much as I could and hooked up VCDS and pulled the following codes. There are no engine codes but a bunch in the instrument section..,

01176 key signal too low
01312 powertrain data bus faulty init.
01314
01316
01321
01315


2001 Jetta TDI with immo. 2 system but I do not have the SKC code unless it is hidden somewhere. I am hoping to have it chipped this week (and delete the immobilizer) but I need to somehow get it running to get there (250 miles). I am making a 1200 mile trip so I can get to my sons birthday so that puts pressure on me to get this running for Thurs. so we have a few days to make it happen but unfortunately these immobilizers are not easy to get around. I don't want to go to a dealer especially since the tune can easily solve the problem and for a fraction of the price.

I have pulled the lock and checked the immobilizer ring wires/connection and they seem fine and I did an ohm test and it tests just fine.

By the way... to muddy the waters there is an remote starter installed and they used a coil of wire wrapped around the immobilizer ring and who knows how that was hooked up but it obviously did work to fool the ECU at least for short periods of time. I never had the remote for it and I have left it there simply because I did not want to cause myself the type of grief that I am having now by trying to unhook it so it has been there for years with no ill effects. However that coil obviously has been used to send the correct signal to the ECU for at least a timed period used to warm the vehicle up. I wonder if there is any way that that could could be used to start the car but of course the down side is that if it quit the car would be immobilized... arg... modern technology. If I had the time I would send the ecu out and have it tuned and flashed to remove the immobilizer but I would not make it to see my boys in Canada so I would hate for that to happen. Any ideas that I could try? Are there any tests in the cluster that I could do? Thanks for any ideas.

Grampa"J"

check for ground wires you may have left off

You will need VAG-TACHO to read the SKC.

You can always contact a vendor who does tuning with flashzilla and get them to overnight a tune with immo delete with the flashzilla and do it your self. Talk to them and see if they can help......my.02
That's if it's not a wire issue as metioned above with the amount of work you did.

wrenchman30 said:

check for ground wires you may have left off

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I was thinking about that very thing during this ordeal. What wires would there possibly be that I could have left off doing a timing belt change? I did have the battery out as well as the air box... are there any ground wires in the area of the N75 wire harness? Hey wait a minute... I know... I remember pulling bolts with a threaded head on the back of the head below the vacuum pump. Is there a ground wire there? I bet there is!!! Unfortunately I am on my way to work but that might be it! Anyone know? Ground wire below vacuum pump? Or is there another ground wire that is hooked to the cylinder head?


Thanks guys... it would be wonderful to get this running.

Grampa "J"

csstevej said:

You can always contact a vendor who does tuning with flashzilla and get them to overnight a tune with immo delete with the flashzilla and do it your self. Talk to them and see if they can help......my.02
That's if it's not a wire issue as metioned above with the amount of work you did.

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I am thinking that if I have to I will use the wifes car to drive the 250 miles and have them do that... the problem is that they are so busy that I may not get in but I cannot contact them until Monday to find out.

I just had a look for a ground wire left off anywhere but don't see one... so if there is a ground wire going to the head it is not connected. What about ground wires at the engine mount area? or is there anything on top of the battery in that cluster of wires?

Thanks guys...


Grampa "J"

You wouldn't have to drive anywhere.....they email you a tune, you rent the loader from them. Loader can be overnighted to you as long as you pay for it.
You don't have to remove the ECU.........that of course depends on what tuning people you are using.
RC, Malone,kerma,etc

You can't IMMO off an ECU with a Flashzilla or a tune. It's a separate operation.

We'll learn something new every day.......I thought that you could.

Have you tried leaving the key in the "ON" position for 10-15 minutes? Seems to do the trick for some of the people some of the time.

And yup... ECU has to be shipped in for a immob delete.

csstevej said:

We'll learn something new every day.......I thought that you could.

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Yaa... I have learned more about immobilizers that I had ever hoped to know ... but not enough to repair the car lol...


Grampa "J"

Vince Waldon said:

Have you tried leaving the key in the "ON" position for 10-15 minutes? Seems to do the trick for some of the people some of the time.

And yup... ECU has to be shipped in for a immob delete.

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yup... tried that trick many times

Grampa "J"

Well at least it will soon be Monday morning so I can call my tuner and see if they have time to help me with this. By the way Malone tunes have the Flashzilla on sale for something like $180.00 which is a pretty decent price.

Grampa "J"

Just wanted to thank everyone for their help and encouragement. I talked to my tuner today and the ECU has been Fedex'd for a Immobilizer delete and tune. So I am sitting on "hold"

thanks again

Grampa "J"

You have to ship the ecu to a tuner who does immobilizer deletes. The ecu has to be opened up, the chip has to be physically removed from the ecu, reprogrammed on the bench, reinstalled, and the ecu put back together.

fossill said:

You have to ship the ecu to a tuner who does immobilizer deletes. The ecu has to be opened up, the chip has to be physically removed from the ecu, reprogrammed on the bench, reinstalled, and the ecu put back together.

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Yes... it has been sent to one of our trusted TDI vendors and they have it on the bench... so now waiting patiently for it to return...

Grampa"J"

Who can i send my Ecu too for deleting the immobiliser and a tune up ?

GrampaJ said:

Just wanted to thank everyone for their help and encouragement. I talked to my tuner today and the ECU has been Fedex'd for a Immobilizer delete and tune. So I am sitting on "hold"

thanks again

Grampa "J"

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If you have problem with key , with immo delete you will be able to start car but that Immo light will flash all the time on cluster .

fossill said:

The ecu has to be opened up, the chip has to be physically removed from the ecu, reprogrammed on the bench, reinstalled, and the ecu put back together.

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On this car you do not need to open ECU to do Immo delete.
Only one I know that has to be open is 2000 New Beetle with gas engine 2.0 with 80 pin connector .

A4.power said:

Who can i send my Ecu too for deleting the immobiliser and a tune up ?

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Best will be to find someone in your area, because it will cost you a lot to send ECU in USA and ship back.