kirwant

Hi
yesterday I walked down from my office to go home and jumped into my C180 looking forward to the nice ride home with a new CD in the player, I proceeded to put the FOB into the slot and no go, oh dear. Steering locked and no life, would not do anything. Tried everything that one could do disconnect battery reconnect battery foot on brake foot off brake in park in neutral wiggle and wiggle etc. Rang up my son who is a mechanic had him come out and do his stuff he found a blown fuse but that was only the boot light and rear interior light( now working). After some time we admitted defeat and called a car trailer. It was difficult to get the car on to the back of this truck since the steering was slightly turning right but with some manoeuvring we were able to load the car onto the truck. $180 later it was home.

I do not ever want this to happen again so I am going to ask The Question to some this may seem unthinkable but here goes......

Has anybody been able to bypass all of these theft deterrents ie put an old fashion simple switch ( to turn things on) and start button to start car?

or is this really impossible to do with so many circuits and electrical modules.

ptcruiser

I had exactly the same problem. Went home to pick up some papers, and got back in the car, and nothing. I did everything possible, and no luck. I thought it may be a malfunctioning key, so I bought a new one, and they are not cheap. Key arrived, and same thing. It ended up to be a small wire located behind the glove box that had come loose over the years. Probably from vibration. Reconnected, and it works fine.
That could be the problem?

kirwant

Thanks for that I will check it out.

kirwant

Hi all
well I have successfully been able to restart my car without spending anything other than time and a lot of worrying. It took all day to read around using my Star C3 program trying to understand what was happening between the three culprits that like to make life difficult for would be thieves but instead make the owners pocket very very light ie the FOB, the Steering lock module and of cause the ignition slot or more correctly the EIS.
After reading, I finally got the courage to remove the ignition module and I proceeded to strip it completely. Studied it after pulling it out of its case and notice that as the FOB moves 10 degrees it runs into a plastic lever that is suppose to be raised by the authorization of the steering lock module after it has unlocked itself from the steering column. Once this lever is raised the FOB can be moved to position one then position two. So being desperate not to have to spend money at the stealership (already spent $180 towing vehicle home) I got my little grinder (the one that can do engraving) and just spent two minutes in taking the edge off the shaft/barrel so that the lever would ride up and over and allow the FOB into position one.
FOB would now turn easily into position one and two. Put back into case then attached the cables and notice a thick grey cable with a white plastic rectangular prism that was some sort of switch(I will come back to this). Put FOB into slot all turn nicely and wallah lights on dash in position two but no start when try moving FOB all the way. So open bonnet and studied car, jumped into the pit and found the starter motor with a purple cable at solenoid. Opened lid off where the computer and relays are and found the same purple cable. Tested for continuity with a multi-meter just to make sure and yes it was the same lead. So I jumped the lead and the starter motor turned but no ignition.....heart sank.
Back to FOB and remembered the thick grey cable and plastic white prism took it off the EIS and had my son push it in while I was jumping the starter and car started....exhilaration..... Now because my car's steering was locked and their was no communication between EIS and steering module I got the grinder out (the big one) and cut the whole lock module off(as I said in my first post I do not want to pay out for a tow truck again). I also had no choice as I could not unlock the steering lock!!!
So there you have it, a car that will never be steering locked again.
Procedure to start car now is put FOB into EIS, turn to position two and push a simple button that runs to the starter. The thick grey cable with the white plastic prism is detached from the EIS and permanently on.
Total cost 6 hours of head scratching.
Oh I forgot to mention that I can use anyone's FOB to start my car as it only needs the FOB shell to turn to position one and then two.