I went to get in my car to go pick my son up from kindergarten, after inserting the key and the vehicle starting after one and a half seconds the car shut itself off. this was immediately followed by the words immobilizer active showing up on my dashboard. I tried multiple online fixes to see if I was able to get it fixed myself, but to no avail. I called Volkswagen headquarters and they informed me it had to be towed to the nearest Volkswagen dealership which is approximately 67 miles from my house. after my car was left at the dealership unlocked with my keys in the ignition and the dealership never being notified of its arrival, I finally became worried enough to call a day and a half later only to find out they had no idea whose car it was that was sitting in the tow in section of their lot. all of my keys were tried because it's part of the anti-theft system. I was told the computer possibly needed to be reflashed in order to get the immobilizer active message to disappear and allow me to use my vehicle. I was told after several attempts to reprogram the computer that it was clear they were going to have to replace my instrument cluster. it was at that point they told me it was going to cost $900 for the part alone. I've owned this vehicle for a little over a year and have not had any sort of issues with it thus far, until this whole situation of the immobilizer being active. For any of you that don't understand what that means, it simply means that your car will turn over and start however it will immediately shut itself back off after about one and a half seconds of running. it has rendered my car absolutely useless and it's been a complete nightmare and beyond frustrating to have something seemingly so silly and small prevent you from being able to use your only means of transportation.
I went to get in my car to go pick my son up from kindergarten, after inserting the key and the vehicle starting after one and a half seconds the car shut itself off. this was immediately followed by the words immobilizer active showing up on my dashboard. I tried multiple online fixes to see if I was able to get it fixed myself, but to no avail. I called Volkswagen headquarters and they informed me it had to be towed to the nearest Volkswagen dealership which is approximately 67 miles from my house. after my car was left at the dealership unlocked with my keys in the ignition and the dealership never being notified of its arrival, I finally became worried enough to call a day and a half later only to find out they had no idea whose car it was that was sitting in the tow in section of their lot. all of my keys were tried because it's part of the anti-theft system. I was told the computer possibly needed to be reflashed in order to get the immobilizer active message to disappear and allow me to use my vehicle. I was told after several attempts to reprogram the computer that it was clear they were going to have to replace my instrument cluster. it was at that point they told me it was going to cost $900 for the part alone. I've owned this vehicle for a little over a year and have not had any sort of issues with it thus far, until this whole situation of the immobilizer being active. For any of you that don't understand what that means, it simply means that your car will turn over and start however it will immediately shut itself back off after about one and a half seconds of running. it has rendered my car absolutely useless and it's been a complete nightmare and beyond frustrating to have something seemingly so silly and small prevent you from being able to use your only means of transportation.
- rfeck83, Conway, NH, US