intermittent imobilser light flashing

Would be nice to know what, if any, DTCs are stored in the instrument cluster.

I will put this on the table... a common problem with the Immob2 and Immob 3 Beetles, aside from the fact Magneti Marelli can't make instrument clusters... the wiring harness for the instrument cluster uses Insulation Displacement Contact(IDC) terminals. So instead of stripping the wire and doing a mechanical crimp onto the copper wiring (good), the wire is cut, but not stripped, and then the terminals have points that are suppose to cut through the insulation and make contact with the copper strands (bad).

To that end, this can lead to a poor electrical contact between the wiring and terminals. On the green connector of the instrument cluster, terminals #2 and #17 (black and green wires) are for the Reader Coil (D2) of the immobilizer. The poor electrical contact of the IDC can screw with the signal or data from the key to the immobilizer, thus the immobilizer says, "Nope".

If you pull the 2 wires out for the reader coil, you can use a pair of pliers to close the gap on the terminal where it is biting into the wire.

|_| Go from that, to this /_\

You only want to tweak on the part biting into the wire, DO NOT MESS WITH THE FEMALE PART!

Normally when this is an issue, you will get the following DTC:

01176 - Key: Signal too Low






.

Thank you so much for replying to my question.

This seems to be a problem that concerns cars built around 2002. There is a car made by Renault around 2002 that exhibits exact same problem. I'm not sure if the manufacturer of these parts and immobiler is the same?
There seem to be many different approaches to try and resolve the issue.

I will try to help anyone experiencing the same problem.

Here are some some things to try:

1 Clean your car keys.
2 When you turn the ignition on, wait a few seconds to ensure that the immobiliser light on the dash has gone out. If the immobiliser light flashing on dashboard then the car will not start.

3 If the car will not start, you should take the key out of the ignition, wait some time,and then try again.

4 If that doesn't remedy this solution , disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. For 5 seconds and then reconnect. This should remedy the [problem temporarily.

As quoted above, deleting the immobiliser would seem to be a good solution, however I’m not sure how much this costs and how it would affect the insurance. Another thing i would like to add, is that when i had the crankshaft sensor replaced, the problem seemed to go away for a while, about a year, so maybe there is a solution in there somewhere?

Good luck.