So, a good friend of The Dancer & I has a 2004 Civic sedan that the ignition cylinder crapped the bed on and currently has a jury-rigged way to get it started. I'm hoping to snag a whole column out of another car up at the u-pull-it to swap into his car so he can take his time fixing the original one and have it ready to swap back in (because they're apparently a known failure point). I'm not the most familiar with Hondas, and specifically, how their anti-theft system works. There are a few that have their keys still in the ignition it seems- do I need to grab anything other than the column itself to make sure that it will still start when swapped into his car? Thanks!
You should be good to go with the column if it has keys in it.
So, last weekend when out at the junkyard I pulled the column, complete with immobilizer & key, for my friend's Civic and today got the chance to go over and swap out the columns.
The good news- he can now at least power on his car which he couldn't before because the key wouldn't turn. The bad news is that it won't start- the engine just spins and the dash flashes a green key symbol which is the security system indicator. Apparently despite having the immobilizer surround from the original car with the column, it still isn't happy.
Is there another box that I should have grabbed from the donor car? Or is there no way around having either the dealership or a locksmith with the right gear reprogram everything to work together?
My (shetchy) understanding on these older cars is that key and immobilizer receiver are matched, so if both were from a given vehicle and happy with each other there, and you transplanted this matching set to another same model car, you should be good. But now I am somewhat doubting this, and wondering if coding in the computer this system reports to (body computer?) must also match? Might be worth a shot to talk to a local Batteries Plus, to see if you are fortunate enough to get a tech on the line who knows this detail level, as they do perform key duplicating and coding services.
The immobilizer has to get introduced to the car. You might be able to cobble together something by sticking the original key by the original reciever and plugging that in, then using the new key in the new column to run the rest of the electrics.
A dealership, or licenced lacksmith can probably code the new column to the car.
