Hey Jeff- I already bought my 2 key heads. I was just posting that ad as an example of the codes. I wish mine were $75.00

 

Final bill $1003.00 2 key heads, 1 theft unit (immobilizer) and labor. Boy is PCNA going to hear about it tomorrow. I'm pissed. Should not happen at 33k miles.

 

Yuck!! Thats like 2 Racing weekends

 

So I have been having issues with my Keyless, and have an open thread about it in the 996 forum, but I feel like I have been getting faulty information from my dealer and threads like this one are reinforcing it.

My keyless stopped working a while back, at first it was itermittent issues with the key then stopped altogether after the car sat for a while. I figured the car just lost synch with the keys, but have been too busy to deal with it. So I call the dealer to see what it would take to have them resynch the old keys (one came with the car and has been sitting in a closet, the other came from the dealer aftermarket). They stated that they cannot do that without the original key tag (which I don't have for the original key and did not know to ask for when I bought the spare). Told me I could buy a new key and they would program it.

That inforation all seemed contrary to what is discussed on these forums, but I said whatever I just want keyless working. Get to the dealer and after an hour and a half or so of being there, they tell me that the new key worked once, and then quit. They troubleshot for a while but think the immobilizer is bad. $975 to replace it and add a new key. They stated that everything looked good and there were no codes except for some synchronization codes (I think that is the term they used). They stated all of the sensors showed online and active, and were able to program a key initially so I would have thought they could pull down the old key codes....

None of it sounds right, and I feel like they are missing something or not giving me all of the info, but for $975 I am tempted just to look for an aftermarket alarm...

 

Why not buy a used immobilizer and have them swap that in? As long as you have the IPAS codes from the donor car (used immobilizer) then there isn't any issue. You will have to buy a new key head regardless if you want remote to work. The passive pills in the key heads can be linked up fine.

So in end you would have 3 keys that can drive the car but one remote.

 

The car starts fine... It is just the keyless entry that isn't working. That is the other piece that doesn't add up. Got a price from Suncoast and the immobilizer is only $375 so I am not sure how much I would save to go used...

 

You dug up a 9 year old thread. Oldest grave dug thread ive seen LOL.

But about your immobilizer: i would get the dealership to do the swap to the new one for $975... and see if it works. If it does; then hey! it shouldnt be a problem; however if it doesnt work, i wouldnt be suprised if you got a full refund on everything since the "diagnostic" you paid for was completely wrong, the part you bought is completely useless and the labor was completely redundant too.

 

My experiance is, these alarm moduals under the drivers seat (is that what you refer to as the immobilizer)? have a nasty habit of slipping back into 'transit or Handover mode' causing strange problems with normal working of the electrical system of these cars. My advice is get a Porsche Place to run their PIWIS or OBD2 testers on the alarm Modual under the drivers seat. Tell them to go into the 'SPECIAL MENU' portion and make sure that it hasnt slipped back. If the immoblizer you talk about is NOT the alarm modual. then forget this message. It only cost me $75 for a Porsche place to do mine. It took me a full 18months to find a post in the uK about this cure. Everything worked fine since. BTW Most mechanics never even heard of the "Hand over, or "In transit' mode" until you tell them to check for it with the Porsche Testers. Well lets put it another way... They wont mention it if they can sell you all kinds of other reasons first, and then, unknown to you, they take it out of transit mode and BINGO.... when there was sweet FA wrong with the 'alarm system' in the first place. BTW again. there was nothing wrong with my alarm system when it was in fact in the transit mode. It showed up in other non working electrical parts of the car. ie petrol door, door lights, inside lights, (but I could get dome lights to work manually) didn't work as I unlocked the car either manually or via the fob. So get them to check that first. It may be worth the $75....to find out one way or another. I saw this cure in 3 other posts who all had differant electrical faults. We ALL could not believe that this was where the fault was coming from..(The alarm modual under the drivers seat) had nothing wrong with it ONLY that it had slipped back into 'Transit or hand over mode"............

 

Is that part of the ECU on a 996? 993 was a separate part.

 

This the 996 Forum, correct?

 

Can you expand on the "transit mode"? I had a remote lose functionality and only replacement with a fresh key worked. I assume programming another remote would remove the "transit mode" thus that was not my issue then?

 

When my wife bought my car for my 70th birthday, She didn't noticed (or was she told by the dealer) that the inside dome lights and the little door lights, did not come on as the fob or the key manually was used in either door. The petrol door had a part missing so it was always unlocked. I could however turn on the dome and map lights ,manually but not the bottom of the door lights. I searched for 18 months and tried everything until I was blue in the face. Eventually a chap in the UK on a forum suggested that my car appeared to be still in Transit/handover mode which was controlled from the alarm modual which is situsted underneath the drivers seat on my 99 996. I believe that when a car is being transported between garages, the Porsche dealers put the alarm system into this mode via their diagnostic tool. That way the alarm does not keep going off for whatever reason. Everything else worked on the car BTW. Even the alarm was still working although NOT the flashing turn signal part as I locked or unlocked the doors with key or fob. I could however hear a clicking sound when locking and unlocking which after repair turned out to be the sound of the unworking turn signals (a visual aid part of the locking and unlocking of the car). The guy on the forum suggested I take it to a Porsche dealer for them to check the 'special menu' of the alarm modual. I did, and it was in fact in the transit/sport car hand over mode. Mine is a Cabriolet BTW and has the hard top which was on the car during purchase. When postings where being made on THAT forum, another chap was having simlar problems with his car. He took his car to Porsche and came back on the forum saying all was good now after they returned the modual into normal mode. He had been trying for many months to solve his problem. I dont know exactly what was not working correctly but it was electrical in nature and no matter how everyone tried, he or anyone else including Indy's could not solve the issue. Thats when I took mine, an hour afterwards, everything worked fine. Including the petrol door. They ordered the missing part to the door which the pin went through. 2 days after, I put the part on in 2 seconds. BTW the bolt arm was not working, but is now. The turn indicators flash twice on locking and once on unlocking. Thats when I discovered that the flashing sound was in fact the indicators trying to come on but couldnt. Now they do. Everything now works perfectly on the car.
An added but very important note here is that the guy who was trying to solve his problem was in fact the owner of Pelican Parts Wayne Dempsey. Here is the link to the postings about this issue. http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...en-doors-open/ You will see the ongoing postings which solved his and my issues.

Your car just may have dropped back into transit mode. You probably had no need to have bought a new alarm modual or new key... Hope this helps.

 

Disregard. I didn't realize this thread is over 8 years old. ..... Geeesh. Make a new thread if you have an issue.

 

Guess you can't win sometimes.

If you start a new thread you get 3 pages of people telling you to search the forum.

If you actually take the time to search and build on an existing thread you get posts about starting a new thread...