New to Preludes, please don't flame haha. Tried searching, couldn't find anything specific.

Recently found out the 5th gens have an immobilizer system with chipped keys. The old owner had only the two black keys, not the red key that is needed to reprogram. My question is, do I ever need the red key if I never lose my two black keys? My car starts up fine and everything, but I am afraid of doing things such as taking out the negative terminal of the battery. Will it reset the ECU and cause me to have to fetch the red key to reprogram the immobilizer again every time the ECU gets reseted, or will it start right back up as usual?

Simple question, sorry for the n00bness.

 

Don't feel bad...this is a good question. The red key is ONLY for the dealership to program a new key and should NEVER be put in the ignition. Turning the ignition to the on position with the red key would result in needing a new immobilizer and keys (VERY expensive). Most of the time the dealership will not need the red key to program a new key, they will just have to check that one of your black keys can be read by their machine (I never had the red key and my black keys worked fine). Congratulations on the purchase of your new Prelude and I hope you enjoy it!! Feel free to ask any other questions you may ever come across because there are several very knowledgable that will be able to assist you here on the forum.

Kenny

P.S. Post some pix!! Lol

 

Oh yeah...disconnecting the battery will not affect the immobilizer system.

 

Great to hear I don't need the red key unless I do something stupid like lose both of the keys haha. So I shouldn't worry about things such as leaving the battery unplugged for extended periods of time right? Thanks again for the awesome response, super informative and concise. I will post pics as soon as I get a chance!

 

no problem hun. good luck with the car.