[J'N'J]

Thinking about picking up a apr tuned ecu but it's for a manual and I have a tip. Can I use it on my car. I have read you can recode it but how would I do this? Is it worth the hassle?

 

[VAGguy]

You need vagcom to recode, but you also need to remove the immobilizer if it hasn't been done already. I will be doing a manual swap on my awm so I had to find out if possible. Can't remember the coding though.

 

[Kittera]

If you're using VCDS then when you go into the coding window, if you wait a bit it ought to show the popup that tells you what coding means what. It's also listed in the back of the Bently, Volume two. The AWM engine's chart is on page Z-27.

This is assuming the coding will work the same on the chipped ECU(If it shows seven digits for the current coding, make sure the first two digits remain 00):

Digits 1 and 2 of 5(or 3 and 4 of 7) are the emission standard:
07 = LEV(Low Emission Vehicle)
16 = ULEV(Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle)

Digit 3 of 5(or 5 of 7) is the drive type:
0 = FWD w/o ASR
2 = AWD w/o ASR
5 = FWD w/ ASR
7 = AWD w/ ASR

Digit 4 of 5(or 6 of 7) is the transmission type:
0 = 5-Speed Manual
1 = 6-Speed Manual
5 = 5-Speed Automatic 01V (Tiptronic)

And finally the last digit will always be 1, which basically means it's a B5 Passat.


For example, my '04 1.8t wagon with the 5-speed manual and FWD w/ ASR codes as 16501 or 0016501. All American cars should read 16 for the first two, if I remember correctly.

As far as the immobilizer stuff, I do not know how to do that, it's not something I'm looking at needing to do in the near future. There should be plenty of info on the forums for it though.

 

[VAGguy]

Thanks for the info! I will test it out and hopefully we can finally have an informative Manual swap thread in the coming months. If someone doesn't try it first.

I think the immo may be a little more involved than just a coding tweak with VCDS though.

 

[Kittera]

My gut says the immobilizer stuff would involve rewriting software on both the cluster and the ECM and whatever other modules the immobilizer is written into. Basically, deleting it from the code. The other option as far as my reading has reached to date, is that a dealership would have to talk to the ECM and do their super secret squirrel, over-the-internet immobilizer programming stuff that VW moved to so that none of us could just have a nice thing like knowing the SKC for our own flippin' cars. Knowing them though, they may back away from a chipped ECU as if it were a ticking time bomb, or in other words refuse.

As bad of a comparison as it is, why can we have our radio codes but not the immobilizer codes? Mostly something something proprietary, something something money, something something laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[zak99B5]

Immo is a royal pain.

Glad my B5s are all older and don't have it. No SAI, either.

But when I bought my 02 GTi, the PO gave me the strip that had the SKC on it. He got it when he bought the car from the dealer. Did they stop doing that?

 

[Kittera]

I'm pretty sure the cars all came with it. But owners lose them most of the time. VW moved to a system that hooks up to the ECM and basically patches it through to the mother ship for a little electronic chit chat when it comes to the immo. The SKC goes through that. Also, the strip you got may not be the SKC, its probably the code for the actual sidewinder keys. Each pattern has a code that identifies it. Lets you put in the code to a cutting machine that just cuts it from the code. Hence the manual says to keep it. Because they prefer that you send that code to the original key makers in Germany if you ever need new keys.

 

[VAGguy]

Kittera, fyi, immo wasn't added to the B5 in north america until 2000ish iirc.

 

[Kittera]

That's also true, and to my knowledge, the ECU's with the immo are vastly different form those without. Both by Motronics, but I seem to recall the pre-immo ones were "version" 4.x, and the ones with immo jump up to version 7. Naturally, that leads me to the conjecture that only the old clusters with green backlighting will properly talk to the pre-immo ECU's and thusly the new ones with blue backlighting and 160MPH speedos will only properly talk to v7 ECU's. OP hasn't listed any years as for his car and the donor car so who knows. It's a good thing to be aware of nonetheless.

EDIT: I just looked at his profile, says he has a 2001. It's hard to say for sure- at this point, to tell whether or not his current car has immo, would be to check for the immo light on the dash. orange car with a key for the bottom and rear wheel.

This doesn't say whether it's immo2 or immo3, but it should clear up whether or not there's an immo to begin with.

 

[VAGguy]

VW also stands for Varies Widely, lol. Only green dash in NA was a very early 98. It was blue from then on.

Even then, 2001 was a crossover year to the b5.5. AUG in 2001, AWM in 2001.5 cars. Probably on of the worst years to have when it came to parts availability.