When mine did it many years ago, it was only in hot weather and I put it down to thermal expansion. Now, the keyswitch on the Ascot drivers door doesn't work but only in cold weather so there is definitely a temperature element. A combination of wear and fine tolerances I suspect.

KCR wrote:

Did I mention that I dislike very much the paternalistic Nanny State zero risc attitude which seems to be fancy ourdays? rant over

So do I but having seen what some people were doing I can understand the problem.....

Looking at the diagram, I would say all you would need to do is put a jumper between pin 6 of C257 and pin 2 of C113, both White/Red wires. That will connect position 3 of the ignition switch directly to the starter relay rather than via the BeCM.

I'd love to know what your Missus does to the car Bolt, even mine, who can usually break most things, hasn't been able to break mine or the Ascot when she's been using that. Are there any other signs that it is (should be) immobilised? I assume the message still pops up on the dash, does it time out and go away or does it stay there?

We used to have similar places here but most, if not all, have closed. When my local one was closing I was told it was because of insurance requirements. They would have had to have at least one mechanic for every customer just to make sure nobody did anything stupid, injured themselves, then claimed that the company had allowed them to do something stupid.

Even I will admit it isn't the ideal weather to be doing it outside but as I object to paying someone else to do something I can do myself, I would still do it no matter how unpleasant it may be. However, I can fully understand your decision and don't really blame you. We all know you are a dab hand at headlinings (and have photographs to prove it).....

The hospital? I thought you were going to DIY it and give us all a blow by blow account?

If you unlock the car but don't start the engine within a set time (either 30 or 60 seconds, I can't remember which), the immobiliser kicks in again. If the coil around your ignition switch is still working, it causes the remote to transmit the unlock code when you put the key in the ignition. You will see that as the LED on the fob will flash when you put the key in the ignition. If the coil fails, which they often do, and you unlock the car but don't start it within the set time, the dash will tell you the engine is immobilised and ask for the EKA or a press of the unlock button on the remote. The coil had failed on mine when I first got it and I got into the habit of pressing Unlock before trying to start the car. As soon as I got the Nanocom, that was one of the first things I turned off so it doesn't matter how long I leave the car before starting it, I no longer have to press Unlock. The immobiliser is turned off when I unlock the car and stays off. Also under the alarm settings, there is one marked 1 touch and you can then set the windows for one touch on just the drivers window, both front or all, I always set to all.

Another one that I always change is the setting marked Wiper Speed under Options. Setting that to Enabled means that if you have the wipers on continuous and stop at a set of lights, they drop down to intermittent until you exceed 2mph when they go back to continuous.

I stand by my comment that the immobiliser can't be disabled, it can be bypassed so the engine ECU doesn't need to see the correct code from the BeCM, but it is still there and still enabled. It just doesn't affect the starting and running of the car. Too many people think that when they go into the BeCM with their Nanocom and see the entry marked Immobiliser and change it from Enabled to Disabled, that is it, they have switched it off when all they have actually done is turned off Passive Immobilisation. The same goes for the EKA setting. Changing that from Enabled to Disabled doesn't mean you won't need to use the EKA, it means it won't ask for it when it is needed.

I wouldn't go as far as saying I don't approve of it, I just don't see the need for it. If the car is immobilised, you just put the EKA in (either with the Nano or with the key), that is all that is needed until you find one of the microswitches in the latch has failed but there are ways around that anyway. Mark Adams at Tornado Systems has done a stand alone GEMS ECU for years, primarily so owners of Morgans, TVRs and specials without a BeCM can remove the old 3.9 Classic engine with 14CUX injection but a conventional distributor, and fit the later GEMS engines into them.

No, there is no transponder in the key, just the remote transmitter, so other than needing the EKA initially, a cut key blade will work fine.

Harv must have had some sort of mod done as you can enter the EKA with the Nanocom and then lock and unlock with the key without needing the EKA but that is cancelled as soon as it is locked with the remote so the EKA should be needed again.

Totally agree. If it was a leak it would be drips at one place rather than damp everywhere. Not saying you don't have a leak, as the moisture has to get it somewhere, but it is then condensing on the cold metal in that area. No different to when a car is left parked up in cold weather, especially if it is parked in sunlight so the moisture in the car becomes vapour to condense on somewhere cold, when there will be drips forming on the underside of the sunroof itself as it condenses on there.

Despite what a number of people will have you believe, you can't disable the immobiliser, it is integrated in the BeCM and engine ECU. If the car is locked with the remote and unlocked with the key, it will need the EKA putting in. However, if you unlock with the key and enter the EKA with the Nanocom, you can then lock and unlock with the key without needing to enter it again. If you simply enter the EKA with the key, you will need to enter it every tie you unlock the car. So If I locked it with the remote as I always do, then lost the key, I could retrieve my spare key blade, unlock the car, enter the EKA with the Nanocom (which lives in the car) and from then on I can lock and unlock with the key. Locking will still turn on the alarm and immobiliser and unlocking will turn them both off. This will work fine until the keyswitch in the door latch wears and stops working, then you will be able to unlock the car but it won't turn off the immobiliser so you are into the locked out scenario that people that always use the key will find themselves in sooner or later.

They are a BMW blank and any key cutting place here will do one. My local place didn't have the blank from stock but ordered a couple in for me once I told them what it was and they cut them from my key. It didn't show up when they looked for Land Rover keys but once they knew what it was the could check their catalogue against my key and confirm it.

Sticking a 433MHz receiver in would work, there is no programming or anything like that in them so it would be a plug and play job. I confirmed a dead one in one car by simply taking the receiver out of mine and putting it in another car.

When you placed the order the dealer must have asked for the VIN so the key blade could be cut to match your car, so that would tell them it should be 315MHz. Maybe they are available again.....

I'll admit I've only ever had one fob for mine. It is one of those things I have often thought I should order before they run out of 433MHz ones too but never got around to it. I've had a couple of key blanks cut so have manual keys, one at home and one secreted under the car (no point in having a spare at home if I've just dropped my keys down a drain 1,000 miles from home). I can enter the EKA with my Nanocom and after that, if I lock with the key I can unlock with the key and not need to put the EKA in.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234534597402 or, if you feel the need, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234363495056 and you can have a full set of HEVAC bulbs too. I know Marty had to get some huge number made so sold batches of them to a number of others who are, no doubt putting a huge markup on them and, selling on eBay. He sold a load to a guy in France but I can't find where he advertises them at the moment.

On a locked BeCM, it won't even display the EKA (or the lockset barcode for that matter) for security reasons. The EKA is stored in the BeCM not the key so the only thing you will need to do is sync the key in the door lock as a 97 won't have the passive sync feature like a later car. Put the key in the door lock with all doors and tailgate closed, turn the key to lock and hold it there, while holding it there, press and hold the lock button on the fob until the LED flashes faster, release the button on the fob then turn the key back to centre. Then repeat only turning to unlock and pressing the unlock button on the fob. That should put it into sync and allow the remote to lock and unlock the car.

However, I'm slightly confused. You say you ordered a key from JLR but from numerous posts on rr.net, NAS keyfobs are NLA. NAS fobs use 315MHz instead of 433MHz like ones used in most of the rest of the world. This is down to the FCC. Radio frequency use ideally needs to be coordinated between adjoining countries so the EU proposed the use of 433MHz back in the 1980's. As RF doesn't know where one country stops and another starts (that is Radio Frequencies not the Russian Federation), it makes sense for the same frequency to be used across continents. However, as the US is isolated, in as much as it only has land borders with Mexico and Canada, you are forced to use the same as the USA. Hence 315MHz is used in Canada and if you ordered a replacement fob and gave them the VIN number, they would know it was 315MHz and, as far as I was aware, you'd be told they are no longer available. Unless JLR have listened to those on the opposite side of the Atlantic and have produced another batch of 315MHz fobs.

While you can lock an unlocked BeCM with a Nanocom, once locked it stays that way. They were programmed at the factory to an individual car then lock it so nobody can go in and mess things up.

Why have you got to take it off? The wiring is one thing but if you are taking the whole lot off you'll need to plug the holes in the inlet manifold.

Bolt wrote:

Of course, in the latest cold snap, the Zebra strip connector on the HVAC controller has come asunder.
Gotta get one of those and repair the display. Small but satisfying little fixes!

Mine has done that too. We haven't had the same sort of cold weather that you have but it's been damp. Didn't use the car for a whole day and when I did half the segments were missing. After a few miles they all came back, but it just annoyed me so I'm going to have to do something about it.

davew wrote:

Richard: Surely the catches are only 'handed' by virtue of the microswitch ? Thought the micro was N/C if bonnet closed ?

They both have the cable entering from the RH side but the fixings are offset. So if you fitted one on the wrong side the cable would need to come in from the other side. No, switch is definitely closed when the bonnet is open. Mine died a few years ago and I assumed, like you, that I would need to put a short in the plug to turn the warning off. Did that and it stayed on all the time. Open is closed.

Switch is on the back of the RH bonnet catch but not on the slam panel, n the metalwork either side of the slam panel. Switch can work loose so it permanently shows the bonnet open but when open it is short circuit. If it is unplugged and the plug left dangling, it will never tell you the bonnet is open. You can't swap them side to side as the catches are handed. If the microswitch is removed from the latch but left connected, you will get a warning that the bonnet is open even when it isn't.

EAS will work if the bonnet is open or not, it is only the doors and tailgate that inhibit it.

You can exercise them without pulling the dash out (in fact you can change them without pulling the whole dash out). Take off the centre console side panels and undo the 4 screws holding the HEVAC in. Tilt it out at the top and it will then come out. Unplug the black connector to the blend motors (on the left, towards the back). If you look at that one you will see 3 sets of wires the same colour. The Black and Brown wires go to the actual motors, Left blend motor on pins 11 and 12, right blend motor on pins 9 and 10 and distribution motor on pins 6 and 16. If you use a 9V battery and connect it to those pairs of pins, you can power the motor from one end of the travel to the other. Connected one way round moves it one way, the other way round moves it the other way. You'll be able to hear them whirring away as they move and doing it a few times may be all you need to wake up the lazy ones.

A Thor will bring on the SRS light if it detects a fault but it will go out once the fault is cleared unlike the earlier GEMS which needs it to be reset with diagnostics even after the fault is cleared. Favourite fault with the Thor is the connector under one of the seats which gets disturbed whenever the seat is moved. Unplug, squirt with contact cleaner and plug back in is all that is normally needed.

Bolt wrote:

When Gilbert says virtually all.......He means they even allow Yanks! (we have P-38's here too!)

But only the sensible ones......