We have an Octavia from 2008, the ignition had been a bit iffy for a while and eventually it became completely seized.

So instead of being calm and rational i tried forcing the key to turn over with a pair of pliers like a complete idiot(yeah, i'm the idiot), which lead to the key snapping off from the FOB.

I brought the car to a skoda mechanic and they replaced the ignition and ordered a new key. However now the immobilizer is activated and the car won't start.

The mechanic said it's either the ECU that needs to be reprogrammed, or another electronic component that's messed up and fixing both would set us back about 1200 euros/dollars(which is a lot of money for us right now).

 

Is this something that is possible to solve on my own? I know there are companies in my country that take in ECUs for reprogramming, which costs about 350 euros instead of 1200, but not sure about the odds of it working in this situation.

Should i just accept my mistake and pay the 1200 or does anyone have anything else i could try first?

I've brought the car back to my garage from the mechanic and we have another car we're using meanwhile, so i'm willing and have the time to try whatever you guys can come up with.

What country are you in?

 

You say the mechanic ordered a key, from whom? If it was from Skoda then it will need the vehicle taken to them to have it activated on the vehicle. From Skoda the ignition barrel key will be the same cut as the existing one so the new key should open the doors and the old one operate the ignition.

 

The easiest and quickest would be to swap the RFID chip from the old key to the new one.

 

I may have missed something and be wrong in the above, hopefully others can confirm or correct me.

 

44 minutes ago, J.R. said:

What country are you in?

 

You say the mechanic ordered a key, from whom? If it was from Skoda then it will need the vehicle taken to them to have it activated on the vehicle. From Skoda the ignition barrel key will be the same cut as the existing one so the new key should open the doors and the old one operate the ignition.

 

The easiest and quickest would be to swap the RFID chip from the old key to the new one.

 

I may have missed something and be wrong in the above, hopefully others can confirm or correct me.

 

Thanks for the reply, I'm from Sweden.

The mechanic is an official Skoda dealer/mechanic, the biggest one in my country, so if the key needed to be activated i assume they would be able to do it.

I don't know from who they ordered the key, but i assume it's from skoda..?

I still have the old FOB, so i will try swapping them out when i get home from work and see what happens, thanks.

It is likely that RFID chip in the fob is not recognised as J.R. said.

It is easy to break the tiny chip when ungluing it so, as have the old fob, then it a simple job to swap out the old broken blade for the blade from the new fob.

 

 

10 minutes ago, pikpilot said:

It is likely that RFID chip in the fob is not recognised as J.R. said.

It is easy to break the tiny chip when ungluing it so, as have the old fob, then it a simple job to swap out the old broken blade for the blade from the new fob.

 

 

Oh man i hope that's issue, that would be amazing

Is the RFID inside the blade part or the battery part?

The RFID part is in the body (blade) part.

However, after giving it some more thought, I must ask if the garage also changed the door lock.

If the new key operates the door lock then either he has just replaced the blade with an original cut blade (or put a new blade in a new fob) or he changed the door lock as well.

If the door lock does not work with the new key then the blade is different. If this is the case it presents a new problem as programming a new key yourself need to have a working key in the ignition and the new key used for locking and unlocking the driver's door lock with the blade. The only other alternative to have Skoda reprogramme the ECU for the new key.

 

I suggest you still do the blade change as in my previous post and you post the result. Also report whether the blade works in the door lock.

 

 

 

 

58 minutes ago, pikpilot said:

The RFID part is in the body (blade) part.

However, after giving it some more thought, I must ask if the garage also changed the door lock.

If the new key operates the door lock then either he has just replaced the blade with an original cut blade (or put a new blade in a new fob) or he changed the door lock as well.

If the door lock does not work with the new key then the blade is different. If this is the case it presents a new problem as programming a new key yourself need to have a working key in the ignition and the new key used for locking and unlocking the driver's door lock with the blade. The only other alternative to have Skoda reprogramme the ECU for the new key.

 

I suggest you still do the blade change as in my previous post and you post the result. Also report whether the blade works in the door lock.

 

 

 

 

My understanding from the OP was that the issue was the IGNITION lock sticking - not the door - I assume that the ignition lock was the part replaced - is this correct?

1 hour ago, Warrior193 said:

My understanding from the OP was that the issue was the IGNITION lock sticking - not the door - I assume that the ignition lock was the part replaced - is this correct?

 

Yes, that is correct. But you need the key to work in the door lock in order to programme the RFID chip yourself and so avoid resorting to expensive programming directly into the ECU by a Skoda technician.

 

I also asked the question about the door lock as you will not be able open the doors (because of a fob battery failure or radio interference) if the ignition key is unable to manually open the doors.

I cant recall if VAG supply a replacement ignition barrel with tumblers set to the original key, whilst possible I reckon its unlikely so it will probably be a different key or they supplied a door lock as well.

It worked!

Thank you so much guys, me and the missus are extatic that we got it working again, really appreciate how helpful you all have been!

 

To answer your questions above, and maybe help others in the future with similar problems, the skoda mechanic changed the ignition lock and ordered a new key.

 

The keyblade works in the door as well as the ignition.

 

The new key had the top part of the FOB+the blade, the bottom part of the FOB is from my original key.

I took out the small pin holding the keyblade in place and jammed it inside the top part of my old FOB, and it started right away(see photo).

 

Again, thank you so much!

Glad you fixed it. In essence what you did was use the immobiliser RFID chip from the old fob in the new fob. Well done.