immobilizer swap

[incubusfc]

Hey everyone. I'm going to be doing a GTRS swap pretty soon. I bought a used ECU with a uni flash on it. So I need to have my immobilizer swapped over to this ECU. Can anyone here do it? I'd prefer someone who has done this often as well. I have some money waiting for you. I have no clue even how to do it. I'm in the Lynnwood area as well. I don't really want to ship it, but if I have to then I will. Thanks!

[incubusfc]

Does anyone even know how to do it? Is it swapping a chip in the ECU? Is it all vag? Both? Neither?

[rollerton]

What kind of car , what year etc..? B6 / B7? Orrr..? it's pretty easy on some, not as easy on others.
If its Immo III then there are better ways than swapping/ cloning the chip without disabling it. You can actually just read the SKC from the cluster or ECU and use VCDS to do the Immo adaptation and program keys at your leisure.
That's what I would do- and did. Now I can swap ECU's, clusters, program keys with vagcom.
But it matters what gen car it is...

[incubusfc]

Oh man such a noob mistake sorry.

It's a 2003 1.8tQ.

I don't want to disable it. I would still like all the stock features and such. But if you can do this for me shoot me a pm

[rollerton]

Well, here's your options from my experience-
1. Try the dealer, maybe you know someone who owes you a favor or you get lucky and they'll match the Immo after you get the ECU and everything all set up. Would involve a tow to the dealer etc etc.. Good Luck, might require a blank check.
2. The usual tuner shops that do ECU upgrades should theoretically be able adapt your Immo after the ECU and all is set up, again probably spendy, involves towing your car.
3-Your BEST option- Send your instrument cluster to "Mpower" , he's here, send him a pm. He'll read the SKC and send it back, virginize it, whatever you want. Cost would be shipping to Chicago and back ($25 total). And I think he may charge $125 or so..? Maybe $150?
Then you use Vag Com to adapt your Immo system, cluster, keys, ECU, any time you want.
He's FAST. I've sent him several clusters to him for various things and he gets it and it's in the mail back to me the NEXT DAY.
#3 is the best investment and is likely the cheapest option, and only requires you do be without your car for about 5 days due to mail transit time.

[incubusfc]

I heard there were people on the forum that I could send the ECU to then they could just swap the immobilizer. I'd rather do that instead of having to take out another piece of the car. I'm more or less trying to see if anyone can do this locally.

[rollerton]

There are probably a couple people who can do it, but obviously the chip has to be desoldered and swapped. And there is inherent risk in doing it, you can easily damage the chip then your ECU is worthless.
Your logic doesn't add up much, you want to do it the difficult, fairly permanent way?- anyone who has the skill to guarantee an IMMO chip swap has a flow bench and will probably charge you more to swap the chip than it would cost to get the proper SKC read with zero risk. And removing the cluster only requires the removal of 2 small screws. I've swapped chips, caps, resistors on VW ECU's and clusters before, but I wouldn't let someone pay me to do it and risk screwing it up and have a $1k repair to fix- especially when there's an easier way.
Any reputable electronics repair shop should be able to swap the chips though, but I'd guess there would be no gurantee from them...

[incubusfc]

I don't have vag so doing all that other stuff seems like a bigger hassle. If there's someone who can do it cheaper and easier then I would prefer that. The less steps the better.

I don't want to pay 150 for the Skc then more for someone to do vag on it. That's just too complicated. And relying on too many other people.

[rollerton]

Obviously you haven't researched this much. You STILL need vag com or a dealer or equivilent to code the ECU to your car. There's about a 1 in 400 chance the ECU will be plug-and-play even if the Immo chip is swapped. You'll plug the ECU in and maybe the car will start, maybe not. And when it does it's nearly guaranteed your dashboard will light up like a christmas tree.
Then you need vag com anyway.