Remove factory immobiliser?

[EurasiaOverland Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close EurasiaOverland]

Hi

I know this is a bit of an odd first post, please bear with me.


I've owned a LN105 Hilux 4x4 for over ten years, taken it travelling for more than five years all around Asia and Europe. For future trips I am looking for something with more interior space (enough to comfortably sleep in) and have decided on a Prado 90 series. I want a petrol engine for extreme cold environments, and the VZJ95 looks perfect.

There's a nice looking low-mileage Prado for sale fairly near by for a good price. Trouble is it's described as 'immobiliser defective' and pictures show wires hanging down from under the dash, and the radio is out. I wonder if it's stolen-recovered...

Anyhow, it's a 1997 year, European edition which means it has the Toyota factory immobiliser, and my question is:

-Can I just buy an entire immobiliser system from Toyota and fit it piece by piece? Or does it need to be matched to the ECU?
-Can I totally remove the immobiliser system? I'll be using it in some fairly remote environments and would feel safer without there being an immobiliser there. My Hilux has an aftermarket immobiliser, but I fitted it myself and can bypass it in a few minutes. Not so I guess for the factory immobiliser on a Prado?

Just to prove I've not stolen a vehicle and am asking how to get it working, here is the link:

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-inserat...46-1_c01_4201#

Looking forward to getting to know the forum, hopefully as an owner rather than dreamer soon!

Cheers!

[raydes Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydes]

the Toyota factory immobilizer is in/part of the ECU. You would have to put in a new ECU

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Not quite. The immobilizer is a seperate unit. Effectively, it will never give you trouble and not something that would concern me BUT... replacing the key can be a little costly. As there is a small rfid chip inside. It's the most common system in practice today.

Process basically goes like this...

Transponder ring located around ignition barrel
The ring energises the chip when key is inserted
The ring then acts as an antenna, sending the special close located inside the key to the immobilizer.
If the code matches then it will send a data signal to the engine ecu giving it the all clear.
If data does not match then engine will crank over but not run.

The system is easily replaced with a new immobilizer module but it must have a key that matches it.

In all the years I've spent working on auto electrics and specialising in vehicle security... I think I've seen this system type fail maybe 4 times out of the tens of thousands of cars come through my shop.

It has no electromechanical moving parts to fail. It's completely solid state and extremely reliable.

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Bypassing for simplicity is not possible. While I do sometimes bypass them, it's done by adding in extra components.

As a thought though... a hilux/tacoma ecu for the same motor won't have the immobilizer. I'm not sure what would be required but it could be worth looking into?

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Sorry for all the messages but this is something I deal with regularly and struggle to explain... just found this wiki that might help a bit more than my blubbering.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transponder_car_key

A third option is that a performance shop that deals in OBD1 ecus may be able to remove the PATS component from the software. That's the immobilizer side of things. I know it's possible to do on many cars but not sure if Toyota eeprom permits it.

This would stop the ecu from looking for the signal from the immobilizer.