Ignition/immob issue, please help!

[Jimmeh]

I've spent all day ripping apart the dash on my A3. I'm happy to say that I fixed my blower issue (see here..), but have no come across a slightly bigger issue.. The car won't start.

This is how it went..

after testing the blowers, I thought I'd try get in and behind my clocks, as the LCD that displays the MPG, time, temperature etc wasn't illuminated. The backlight (red) was there, but no digits. Silly me over here thought it could be a bulb; evidently not. It's getting dark, things are being put back together, I get to a point where I can leave it.. Just before I give up for the night I decide to re-connect the battery and test a few things..

The Engine Immob light continually flashes, and when I strike the car up, it instantly dies. Is this because I dissconected the battery?!

Now, I figure it's the small thin black key I have with my spare, that it used to disarm the immob? Yes? no? It's too dark for me to try anything now but I must sort this for tomorrow... I can't beleive what a waste of a day it's been..

 

[Jimmeh]

This is one of those jobs that I wished I'd never started...

So, i've refered to the Owners Manual, and it states that if a battery has been disscon, and reconnected, then the key will need to be left in place for atleast 5 seconds prior to starting the engine. I did this, and it striked up, but died instatly, again. The little car with a key icon flashes, endlessly.

I'm so sad

 

[AndyMac]

Yes the reader coil isn't reading the immobilser code from the key for some reason. Have you tried the spare key (if you have one)?
Also try moving the steering column up/down as there was an issue on some Audi's with a loose wire or sometimes the reader coil wire being too close to the other electrics for it to read correctly.

 

[madvw]

the thin black key is the emergency "wallet" key, and is to be used if you lose the main key.

Have you dislodged the reader coil when you removed the steering cowl?

 

[simch]

Andymac, how do you know all this obscure stuff fella? You need to get out more! !! lol!L!L!

 

[Jimmeh]

Have you tried the spare key (if you have one)?

Turns out, I haven't. I tried the "wallet" key (thanks madvw) and nothing.. I have the spare, which in the manual is refered to as the Workshop Key (has a little workshop symbol on it..) I will go try this now..

The steering column 'could' be the culprit.. it's all still in pieces, so maybe I shouldn't worry so much. Once it's all back together (which looks like a pain!) thing's might start to brighten up. For reference, what does the reader coil look like? come tomorrow, I can make sure everything is a.o.k

thanks all.

 

[Jimmeh]

I've just tried the spare "workshop" key, and it's just the same. It fired up, but dies instantly.

One thing I have noticed though is the illumination on the dials, Climate control unit etc is very dull... the adjuster wheel is set to max; could this lead us to anything?

 

[Jimmeh]

Please, can anyone else thing of other ideas? Things for me to check tomorrow...

If I can't get her running tomorrow I'm done for!

 

[madvw]

nothing really, I'd just start by removing the cluster and re-connecting it to make sure. How far did you take the cluster apart?

 

[rodenal]

Have you disconnected the wire from the barrel on the column and maybe not reconnected it? That'd be the first thing to check if it's allstill in bits.

If not try giving the column a knock from the bottom, with the key out of the barrel and door open, then close and try again. If the coil isn't reading right this should sort it for u, lots of the a3's do this intermittently

 

[steve1975l]

I have seen this before when the cluster lost comms with the ECU. Did you try to start the car or ignition on with the cluster removed? If so just follow the ECU swapping procedure on ross-tech.

I would remove the cluster and check the pins on the back of the cluster as you could have bent some/bad connection.

 

[Mo-S3]

If you have shorted any of the pins whilst trying to fix the lcd on the cluster even with it not in situ then you may have damaged the cluster. This wrecks the built in immobiliser in the cluster. Unfortunately even audi cant reprogramme them.
Hopefully you have not done this.