How To Tell If You Have A Bad Immobilizer Mounted In Your Car?
A car immobiliser is an electronic device that is fitted to a motor vehicle that will prevent the engine from running until the correct key or the transponder is inserted in it. It prevents the burglars from stealing the vehicle. It has proven to be very useful in this aspect but sometimes problems can occur in the immobilizer which may prevent it from functioning well.
Such car immobilisers are called bad immobilisers and if your immobilizer is giving you a difficult time but you are unable to identify that whether it is a bad immobilizer or not then keep on reading the article. In this, we are going to discuss 5 symptoms of an improperly functioning immobilizer.
1. Prevent the doors from unlocking:
The number one sign that your car immobiliser is not working well is that it prevents the door from locking. This means that the key fob is not communicating with the immobilizer system. There can be two reasons for it that whether the battery in the key fob needs to be changed or the immobilizer itself is having some issues. Whatever the reason might be, you will not be able to transmit properly without a function key and an immobilizer.
2. Doors won’t lock:
It is obvious that if there is a problem with an immobilizer that is preventing the doors from unlocking then the doors won’t lock either. You would have to either keep the doors unlocked or lock them manually because you obviously won’t be able to lock them with the help of a key fob. Another thing which you can do is keep the windows down so that if the car locks automatically then you can unlock it from the window.
3. Non-functioning alarm system:
When there is an immobilizer in the car then the alarm systems are connected with it. If there is a problem with the functioning of the immobilizer then obviously the alarm systems won’t work as well. This would be very dangerous for the vehicle’s owner as anyone can step near the vehicle, break the windows, steal the vehicle and you would have no idea about it.
4. Problems in starting the engine:
As mentioned above, the purpose of immobilisers is to prevent the engine of the vehicle from starting when the wrong key code is inserted in it. However, sometimes when there is a problem with the functioning of the immobilizer then the engine does not start even with the right key code. When this is the case then there is some mechanical issue with the immobilizer which needs to be dealt with accordingly.
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5. Issue in the wiring of the immobilizer:
If the key fob is working properly but there is an issue with the immobilizer due to which it is unable to connect with the key then there is probably a wiring issue with it. For this, the immobilisers wiring inside the vehicle needs to be examined. Most likely get it checked by the mechanic so that they can get a better insight about what actually is the problem with the immobilizer. The common indication due to which the immobilizer might not work is because the wire might be damaged, wear off, or corroded.
If you are facing even any one of these problems with your immobilizer then it means that you have to get a mechanic to look at your immobiliser.
Testing your car immobiliser:
If you are facing all of these symptoms but are still confused that whether you have a bad immobilizer or not then testing it would be a good option. You will get a clear-cut answer and all your confusion will be solved.
Sit in the car and carefully have a look at the immobilizer unit in the dashboard. The immobilizer unit looks like an ignition key and should go off within seconds but if the icon is constantly blinking or is solidly on and is not going off then there is a problem with the immobilizer. Most probably there is an issue with the battery so you can replace it by changing the battery in the key fob. However, there is a transponder chip inside so be careful when you are replacing the battery so that the transponder chip inside it does not get damaged.