Deactivating the immobilizer?
 

A thought occurred to me. If a key with a functional immobilizer is stuck next to the lock inside the steering wheel cover will this enable an ordinary key without an immobilizer to start the car? Or does the immobilizer have to be aligned in a special way for the key to work?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Chris

I'm pretty sure it just has to be near it, you could try it out by removing the immobilizer chips from one of your keys, taping it to the steering wheel and attempt to start the car. For a more permanent install you could epoxy the chip to the inside of the steering column panels.

the ring around the ignition is what picks up the signal

It seems like this method might not work after all. I cut a key blank and tried to start the car by turning it in the ignition the with an original key (with immobilizer) touching the key as close as I could get it to the centre. The two plastic parts of the keys were touching. The car would not start. I suspect the immobilizer has to be in an exact sweet spot to work.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Kind Regards
Chris

Its not that the key has to be in a "sweet spot"; it has to be in the ignition. The Keyfob is powered through the key blade during cranking. The radio transmitter has a range of ~7 inches.

This is how I did it in my nissan:

Ignition barrel has to see a frequency that the key chip gives off when inserted. A wire will transmit this signal no problem. You need to create a continuous loop of wire between the ignition and wherever you hide the key, which can be anywhere in the car. My key for example is not in the front half of the car, dash, etc.

You get some thin wire around 16 or 18 AWG and wrap the head of the key in a nice even layer and tape the wires in place. At the ignition side you do the same thing around the barrel 3-5 times (it needs to be around the ignition barrel, not sure how easy/hard that is to get to in a fit). The wire must be one continuous loop meaning the two cut ends need to be tied together. That's it. You can now use any unchipped key to start the car.

Thats interesting. Does this mean with the Nissan that the wire has to wrap around the good key in around the metal part or the plastic part with the immobiliser? Is all of the loop of wire insulated or is the insulation removed when it wraps around the key and the ignition barrel in the steeing wheel?

I wonder if Honda uses a similar method to the Nissan? It seems as suggested that the Radio frequency is transmitted down the metal part of the key into the ignition barrel.

Kind Regards
Chris

With Nissan, the chip in the plastic part of the key is 'sensed' (not sure how) by the ignition cylinder. I wrapped insulated wire around the plastic head of the key (I just covered the whole head with 1 layer of wraps, then a layer of tape to hold it on tight). They wrapped the ignition cylinder with 1 layer of wraps also. And yes, the ends of the wire just get twisted together.

Basically you are making an antenna. Instead of the chip in the key sending the signal (probably through the metal part into the cylinder) now the chip sends its signal through the wire and into the cylinder.

If you dont want to go through the hassle of fully installing this to see if it works, I was able to test mine (and confirm that it works) by creating a bunch of loops (probably 8 or 10) that were about the size of the ignition cylinder (1 1/2" or so) and just holding them right up to the ignition when you start the car.