Keys & Immobilisers & Chips & Drama!

[Saltman]

Hi Everyone

THIS IS A HEADS UP FOR ALL WHO DRIVE THE NEW PATROLS THAT USE THE ELECTRONIC KEY FOR UNLOCKING AND STARTING THE VEHICLE.

Parked the Y61 Patrol in the garage, walked to the front door, unlocked it and as I entered the entrance hall, the Patrol key slipped out of my hand and fell on the tile floor.
The result was that the electronic key split into 2. The front steel portion separated from the rear immobilser end.
Simple enough I thought and just clipped the 2 pieces together again.

The following morning I grabbed the keys, opened the garage and unlocked the car with the unlock button, got in and tried to start the car.
NO GO!
I could hear that the problem was fire, everything worked, the starter turned the engine etc, but it did not fire.
I had to go back to fetch the spare key and sure enough the car started.
I drove down to the local stealer, thinking that the fall must have damaged the coding of the electronics somehow ...
I explained the situation to the workshop foreman and he promptly took the key apart again into its 2 pieces.
"There's your problem" as he pointed out that the CHIP that is normally stuck in the corner of the plastic surrounding the steel portion of the key was not there.
The immobiliser chip is housed in a shaped white plastic moulding that just clips into the black key surround. The rear part of the key then clips in over this white portion, thereby preventing it from falling out.
In my case the white moulding fell out when the key hit the floor. Fotunately it was still lying in the corner of the entrance hall when I returned home.
I could clip it back in and the car starts again. Recommendation from Nissan is to superglue the white moulding into the black housing so that it is unable to dislodge should the key fall and separate.

Cheers
Herbie

[Herrie]

You were lucky that this did not happen in the sand - you would still be looking for it and maybe found some diamonds during the search!

[JohnBoyZA]

Excellent, thanx Herbie!