VR Immo Off

[Citroënbender]

A mate is looking to sell his VR sedan, nothing fancy, just chasing a few hundred as it’s got half a year of NSW rego and near new boots. Replaced by a Hilux, it was what his wife wanted!

But the immo is playing up, so he can’t reliably start it to show it off. I haven’t poked it at all, he just raised it with me when dropping by today. Is there anything like the J3 chip but for GM PCMs? Or a common immo off file that can be installed with (relative) ease? Or is there a fix to make the keys work dependably?

[ebv8]

sometimes the ring on the key barrel doesn't contact the key properly and can be bent out to make a better connection
also locking the car from the key then unlocking then starting might work
i used to leave mine unlocked and after 20 mins would not start so locked it and unlocked and it started

something to try at least

[foxtrot3]

Hi. The contact "ring" may only be two short segments of a ring around the key barrel and not be lining up with the key in the start/run position. If that is the case you just flip the whole ring off the head of the barrel and line up the notch on the back of it before pushing it back on in the right place. Cheers MD

[Citroënbender]

Thank you both. I obviously need to see it, look for issues and maybe then ask questions about a fix - rather than implementing a solution like Ford’s J3.

This chap looks after my hives, don’t want a swarm of angry bees piped into the house if I get it wrong.

[Citroënbender]

I should have wrapped this up weeks ago. It was the infamous poor contact on the key barrel.

First to view car for sale was familiar with the problem, started it no issues, paid his $700 and drove away happy.

[Franco Cozzo]

The spring goes weak in the contact on the reader surrounding the ignition barrel and it doesn't press up properly on the key, Holden has a new design key reader that suits the older models - it has a full length contact rather than the two halves.

Was like $30 when I bought it from Holden over the counter - my VS decided to do the same thing in my work car park.

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

The spring goes weak in the contact on the reader surrounding the ignition barrel and it doesn't press up properly on the key, Holden has a new design key reader that suits the older models - it has a full length contact rather than the two halves.

Was like $30 when I bought it from Holden over the counter - my VS decided to do the same thing in my work car park.

theres been a couple of design updates over the years, and the final one led to a whole new (and final) design that was finally released late 2018