Hi - my Dad drove down to Florida in his brand new 2006 LX Civic. Went to buy a sandwich, and when getting back into the car, it started, engine ran for about ten seconds, the green light was blinking, then it stopped running. It will continue to blink for a few seconds after the engine shuts off.

He called the dealer he bought it from, who said "take it to a dealer", and the service department for the dealer here isn't open until tomorrow. Is there any way that he can disarm the immobilizer system with the key?

He did one thing different from every other time he has stopped / started the car:

- He left the windows open and the door unlocked for about 20 minutes while he was in the sandwich shop.

Now the panic button doesn't work, the car will start but will cut off within 10 seconds. He towed it to the dealer and the salespeople were puzzled. They told him he probably put diesel in the car. So far nobody has been able to tell what is going on.
Any ideas?

 

i havent had any problems so far with my LX, good luck and tell us what happens

 

I believe there is a bulletin on that problem. Baiscly the key loses it's program and all the keys must be present and they will reprogram them. The only thing that could help you till then is if you had one of the other keys from the car or even try reversing the other key in the ignition and see if it starts then.

 

We have the original key and the valet key, and neither of them work...
Thanks for mentioning the bulletin, I saw one titled "new immobilizer system" but since I don't have the full text, I'm just guessing there's an issue.
What do you mean by "reverse" the keys ?

 

I meant flip the key over and try the other side but since you tried another key that kinda tells me it's another problem.

 

is there an alarm in it at all? I work at the honda dealer over here and we put aftermarket alarms in all the cars on the lot that our customers can buy, if the alarm self arms the car wont start....it happens quite a bit, if your dad bought an alarm with it just look under the dash and pull the harness out of the brain and the car will start, i can take pics for you if you do have an alarm in it.....

 

lol if there were diesel in it, it wouldn't run, at least not more than a second or two. Especially if there was a lot of it.

Uh, as for the problem, I'm gonna go with the guy above, sounds like an alarm malfunction. I don't think the immobilizer system would malfunction like that because with how many thousands of them there are out there already, it would be happening more often.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Demonis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uh, as for the problem, I'm gonna go with the guy above, sounds like an alarm malfunction. I don't think the immobilizer system would malfunction like that because with how many thousands of them there are out there already, it would be happening more often.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It does happen alot, cars won't start and most of the time it's a individual key problem and can be recoded. My 04 Accord had that problem and i've made and coded many keys when I worked for Honda for the same problem. Not saying 100% this is the guys problem but starting up and shutting right off with the immobilizer light flashing means there is a good chance that is it.

 

The dealer down here replaced the main immobilizer unit today - the car still doesn't work. They are going to replace "another component" that is being shipped tonight from Honda.

(also, there's no alarm on the car.)