Engine immobilizer system

F

Fireboy

New member
Hey guys, I have a 2003 4Runner V-8 and all of a sudden yesterday my engine immobilizer starts acting up. It takes a few minutes to recognize any of our keys that are put in the ignition. After a few minutes the light stops blinking and it starts and runs fine.
Also I noticed that the driver's window and the sunroof won't do the auto open, in other words you have to hold down the button for them to open.
Any ideas? Or has anybody else had this problem?
 
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Disconnect the negative battery cable and leave it like that for 30 minutes. This will reset every thing.

After 30 minutes are connect the negative battery cable and see if it works. To are set the auto function for the driver window, sunroof and tailgate window, open and close them and once fully closed hold for 5 seconds. Re set your clock and you should be good to go, if the Immobilizer system still acts up, take it to a trusted dealer or mechanic for proper troubleshooting.
 
I have the engine immobilizer in mine, so I did a lot of research on the system before I bought it.

Your issue appears to be either 1. Security ECU related or 2. Sensor related.

Either can leave you stranded. That vehicle will under no circumstances start with a bunked system. It isn't your keys. The keys have a passive near field chip in them. There is no power and they are deep inside the key. Meaning, unless you drive over them, and even then, they are nearly indestructible and have what should be the like of the vehicle lifespan.

This means it is the car side of the system. The "sensor" that reads the code in the chips to see if they match "approved" start engine codes is near the steering wheel. That could be going, or the security ECU itself. You should have it looked.

You cannot trouble shoot it. The entire design of the engine immobilizer is to make tampering as impossible as possible. At this point, the only think you can logically do is have a trained Toyota tech examine it.

You may... and be ready for it, need to replace the system. It is very expensive.... but be prepared.



Edit: I hope it is just related to your need to reinitialize the windows... like maybe you had a battery issue. My understanding of the security system, though, is they are separate systems, but that doesn't mean that can't interfere with one another.
 
Thanks guys, I'll cross my fingers and hope that disconnecting the battery will take care of it. I just paid it off and now little things are popping up. Just my luck.
 
Fireboy said:
Thanks guys, I'll cross my fingers and hope that disconnecting the battery will take care of it. I just paid it off and now little things are popping up. Just my luck.
Click to expand...

Usually how it works. I have 17 grand left on mine and already have a frozen caliper to replace.... Haven't even had it a year.

:ybrick:
 
Yea. I figured... I mean, if the engine immobilizer was as finicky as that, that would suck. Not having windows is much different than getting it to start.

Your engine immobilizer should operate regardless of how many batteries you change.

But yea. It is a serious thing... let the pro's handle it.
 
Update on this, I had to take it to the dealer and the antenna that reads the chip was bad and they had to replace it. The mechanic there told me he had been a Toyota mechanic for 16 years and had never seen this happen.
Long story short, 3 days and $268.00 later it is home and working.
 
Good. Glad it wasn't the actual ECU side. That is several grand I hear. You hear the horror stories of people losing all their keys, with chips, at which point the only thing you can do is replace the entire system. Expensive.....
 
vehicle immobilizer

i changed my starter and battery this morning and when i reconnected the battery cable the vehicle immobilizer activated causing the vehicle to not start thus leaving me stranded but hours later and seriously thousands of phone calls to mechanics toyota and toyota corporate office none of them were any help they all told me i needed new keys or i needed a new ecu or the car was no longer any good so i got to thinking and putting commonsense first thus how i gave myself that screen name lol i opened the hood and opened the fuse box and i disconnected everything that said power from fuses to sensors i pulled the main power outlet sensor and voila the car turned on
 
Tearing my hair out

My '07 4Runner has been cycling the rear wiper for a while and I found out that usually means the battery is going bad. It was, so I changed the battery. I drove it for a week with no issues. Then I found that the rear wiper didn't work at all. Checked all the fuses and then found out the rear window was down just a little. Put the window up and then the wiper worked fine. Well, apparently by checking the fuses, I pulled them out and visually inspected them, I somehow may have tripped the "engine immobilizer system" I think.
I have checked all the fuses again, disconnected the battery again, unlocked the door three times with the key, cant find any "red button" to reset on the dash or on the drivers kick panel as suggested, cused at it a lot, and still it just sits there and does nothing. All power is there with lights, horn, wipers, everything works except you turn the key to start and nothing.
I'm at a dead end here and I need this vehicle to get to work.
Any suggestions as to what I can do next?
Thanks in advance

"i opened the hood and opened the fuse box and i disconnected everything that said power from fuses to sensors i pulled the main power outlet sensor and voila the car turned on"
What is the "power outlet sensor?
 
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Help

Can you find the part number? Toyota Techs are going through mine right now and I'd like to save time and money if at all possible.

Same exact issue. Car doesn't recognize key. They are cutting a new key right now but sounds like that isn't gonna work.
 
i know this is an old thread, wanted to run my issue w the immobilizer by the forum.

not long ago, i noticed an issue, i would put the key in, turn the ignition and the car goes dead. no lights, no clock no key fob response.

i found that if i touch the ignition key to the positive terminal on the battery, the system comes back online and i can use the key fob and start the car...
this happens intermittently, sometimes it doesn't happen for a month and other times it happens 2-3 days in a row, usually just once in a day.

i had thought it was a bad key, bit after reading this thread maybe i was mistaken...
 
Was this issue ever solved? I'm experiencing the same issue on an 06' V6 4Runner and I've verified the following

Battery at 13V
All ACC, IG1, IG2, ST signals being sent to ECU
At Starter Relay I'm seeing 13V Battery on Pin 5, and 6.50V at Pin 1 from ECU when cranking (ALLDATA says 6V+ is good signal from ECU)

Ground wire OHM checked good
Positive cable checked good

Pulled entire harness from battery to starter, scuffed connections, OHM checked good

Replaced starter and relay still nothing....

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I feel I'm missing something obvious here.
 
2015 4runner

I’m working on one right now that a customer bought. It was in a medium front end collision just body damage tho. It’s a TRD Pro competent decked out and awesome. Won’t fire up tho, cranks just fine. The immobilizer light flashes and there’s no spark. I’ve been scouwering the web trying to learn about this immobilizer system and haven’t learned much aside from I may need to buy a scanner justfir this. I need some help for sure.
 
Allstar Auto said:
I’m working on one right now that a customer bought. It was in a medium front end collision just body damage tho. It’s a TRD Pro competent decked out and awesome. Won’t fire up tho, cranks just fine. The immobilizer light flashes and there’s no spark. I’ve been scouwering the web trying to learn about this immobilizer system and haven’t learned much aside from I may need to buy a scanner justfir this. I need some help for sure.
Click to expand...

OK, here goes:

You will have to find a computer that has a hacked version of Toyota Techstream on it and get an Xhorse VIM. Then you can get into all the of the fancy Toyota immobilizer settings like "reset immobilizer", "register key" etc. Without this software I seriously doubt that any 3rd party code reader will have any luck getting into the immobilizer portion of the ECU.

By the way, I have already done all this with my own 05 4runner, so I know its possible. I successfully erased all keys and reprogrammed new keys from Amazon as the master key.
 
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