964 immobiliser problem - advice needed (please!)

seg1959 · Aug 21, 2012

Hi all,
I wonder if anyone can help me here:

I own a 964 with a Porsche-fit Hamilton & Palmer anti-theft immobiliser system.
Following a visit to the bodyshop 2 weeks ago, the immobiliser will not disarm itself "" I have tried both the immobiliser keys I own, without any success. I have transported the car back into my garage, refreshed the battery, but nothing "" the immobiliser will not disarm (the red light keeps flashing every second, indicating that the system stays armed). The battery also drained completely in 4 days - while before the car went to the bodyshop, it would be left for 2-3 weeks without a battery problem.

Do you have any advice? Anyone that I can contact to diagnose the problem? I live 3 miles from J6 of the M25.

The bodyshop claim that the battery run low while they had the car and that damaged the circuit of the immobiliser:"" they said:

"We believe the alarm immobiliser has failed due to the battery running low. Considering the vehicle travelled from xxxxx to Crawley and on to the bodyshop, the battery should have been fully charged. However, the immobiliser started to give problems almost immediately and this was reported back to XXXX. We charged the battery, but continued to have intermittent starting issues.
After speaking to the Auto Electrician's, apparently the battery draws more amperage as the charge level reduces and this in turn upsets the circuit board in the alarm control unit. Due to the 'security nature' of the alarm system, all wiring is black in colour making it almost impossible to trace and diagnose specific faults. Both electricians said bypassing the alarm was the only real solution. I can probably organise this (if required) next week and the work will cost approximately £100 + VAT."

I am getting desperate - any advice will be gratefully received.
thanks,
seg

kevinl · Aug 21, 2012

Hi,

The manufacturers are very near you, Kemsing in Kent, round to J5 of the M25 and onto the A25, they are just off there. I found them so very helpful when I needed a new immobiliser stick last year. May be worth speaking to them.

http://www.hamilton-palmer.co.uk/

Rgds,
Kevin.

seg1959 · Aug 21, 2012

ORIGINAL: kevinl

Hi,

The manufacturers are very near you, Kemsing in Kent, round to J5 of the M25 and onto the A25, they are just off there. I found them so very helpful when I needed a new immobiliser stick last year. May be worth speaking to them.

http://www.hamilton-palmer.co.uk/

Rgds,
Kevin.

Kevin, that's valuable information, I did not know that. Many thanks, I will get in touch with them.

kevin · Aug 25, 2012

Its also complete hogwash regarding the battery, I've had my H+P alarm for a few years, and there have been two occasions where I have forgotten to attach the trickle charger resulting in completely flat batteries, and one replacement being required.
At no time has the alarm circuitry failed.....

H+P will give advice over the phone, they did to me confirming some thoughts when I had unrelated starting issues, can't recommend them highly enough.

Kevin

seg1959 · Aug 25, 2012

I have now spoken to H+P who were indeed very helpful and gave advice over the phone. They confirmed that the 'low battery' story is highly unlikely - in fact they said that they *never* had a unit that failed in this way.
They offered a few suggestions that I have to follow up.
I'll keep you posted.

seg

Steve Brookes · Aug 25, 2012

Seg, regarding the battery now draining quickly, you're not the only one to have developed this sort of problem after having bodywork done. Both Colin and myself developed similar issues. In my case it turned out to a fried window relay. My battery would drain very quickly and the alarm kept going off. Luckily, I head a rapid clicking noise in the fuse panel and identified the relay. With the relay removed the drain disappeared and a new relay has fixed the problem. My guess is that despite fitting a surge protector the relay got fried during welding.

This makes me wonder if the problem with your immobilizer is that there is a big current draw and you can't cancel it is a result. Measuring the current drain at the battery should tell you if you have a problem. If you do, you then start pulling fuses and measure the current to find where the drain is coming from.

seg1959 · Sep 8, 2012

I just thought I'd give you an update on this - as the problem is now solved.

As you might recall, the advice from two 'specialist auto electricians' was to get the alarm/immobiliser disconnected (at £100 + VAT) and have a new alarm installed.

I got in touch with Hamilton & Palmer who had installed the unit almost 22 years ago. They in turn put me in contact with the Porsche specialist who used to install these units for them (and is now retired), who over the phone listened to my description of the issue, diagnosed the problem, told me what I needed to do, where to get the part needed and assured me that if I could do some basic electrical work I would be able to fix the problem. And he was right! This morning, after 6 weeks of silence and a bit of simple electrical work under the dash, the 964 fired up again.

I cannot praise enough Hamilton & Palmer for their superb after service (how many companies support their units 22 years after installation?) and of course Jim, the retired Hamilton & Palmer Porsche specialist, who guided me to solve the problem, when all the modern day 'specialists' were obviously after a quick buck.

There is no substitute for experience - and good, old fashioned, solid work ethics.

seg

Steve Brookes · Sep 10, 2012

Great news! [

]

What did you have to fix under the dash?

Mark Elder · Sep 10, 2012

Oh no - now Jim's retired I don't know where we'll be as these things age still further.
Your experience echo's mine - they were very helpful. They can also still provide parts when all else fails (or could a couple of years back).

seg1959 · Sep 12, 2012

ORIGINAL: Steve Brookes

Great news! []

What did you have to fix under the dash?

He diagnosed the problem as a broken 'recepticle' - the little socket on the steering wheel that accepts the electronic key. Indeed, when I checked, it had been twisted (I think someone tried to turn it like you turn the key in the ignition!) and I think a contact inside the recepticle had been broken. The new recepticle (arrived in 24 hrs from ordering from H&P) comes with a length of cable, so you have to cut the old cable off, remove teh old recepticle, fit the new recepticle and and solder (reconnect) the cable. It took me about an hour to make sure everything was insulated, neat and tidy.

seg

bobster · Sep 12, 2012

Coincidently I also had a problem with my immobilser key which Jim and Tim at Hamilton & Palmer sorted for me.

Picture the scene...

Arrive home 10.30pm Saturday night with muddy car from displaying the 964 along with 6 other Porsches from Region 17 at Chris Evans Carfest. Decide to clean the car to save doing it Sunday morning for the second day on display. Hopefully nobody noticed me cleaning the car that time of night!
Up again at 6.00 on Sunday, finish preparing the car, pack the picnic, the chairs and enough clothes to cater for our summer weather, insert slightly grumpy wife into passenger seat (second day of weekend up at 6.00am) and when ready to go the immobiliser key doesn't work!
A quick panic ensues to find the spare, praying it would work before the wife threw her toys out of the pram for getting up early for nothing. Fortunately it worked and we were able to attend again.

Realising it could easily have packed in the night before at 10.30pm in the middle of the cold wet field where we had the display, I decided to get the original replaced sooner rather than later.

Fortunately the details of the immobiliser installation along with key number were in my history file and H&P were able to supply a new one the next day.

At the same time I decided to check the spare locking and alarm remote only to find it didn't work. Thinking about it I don't think it ever did, but I never got around to sorting it.
Another call to H&P on the day that Jim was there (normally Wednesday and Thursday I think) and we'd arranged for the remote to be repaired. On receipt Jim said it appeared to be different to the frequency that they had on record so re set it.
Unfortunately having received it back it still doesn't work. Jim thinks the car may have been reprogrammed at some time, so a trip to Kent with the car will be arranged to have it read and reset.

Hopefully we'll get it sorted, but I can't emphasive how helpfull the team at H&P have been so far.

Bob.