Help Needed re: My Cordoba hell experience!

[SeanyQ]

Hi Everyone, This will be long, so skip to the end if you like.
I've owned my 96 Cordoba for about 2 months (http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=7918). It came with only 1 key.
Yesterday while 2 hours north of Brisbane in a country town, I unlocked the boot, the key came apart (into 2) & the alarm went off. After a minute it turned off. Problem is the engine immobiliser has kicked in & the car will no longer turn over.
RACQ thought at first it was the alternator. I know next to nothing about mechanical things, but I've had an alternator pack it in on me in a previous car & I knew it had to be something to do with what happened to the key.
I got it towed to an auto electrician who's confirmed what I thought.
Main problem is, this was the 1 & only key for the car. After what felt like a 100 phone calls to VW Australia, the Gold Coast Proton dealer (where the car was bought new), who directed me to Renault Aus, who didn't want to know about me, the cycle kept going on & on. No one even knew what a Seat was, not even VW Aus who had no info about Seat's, nor had they even heard of one.
I was starting to feel like the guy off the Goggomobile ad ("G-o, GG-o").
The auto electrician has pulled the thing apart & is trying to work out what cord to pull out to kill the immobiliser. I've ended up getting a friend to come & rescue me to get back to Brisbane, but the mechanic says he doesn't even know if he'll be able to fix it. Meaning that I'm stuck with a car 2 hours away which doesn't even drive. My old Kia Rio memories are starting to grow fonder by this stage!
One QLD VW dealer thinks the key might be compatible with a Polo, so I'll get in touch with the Brisbane VW dealer tomorrow & see how I go. Otherwise they reckon it may take 3-4 weeks to import a key from Spain.
(Off topic a bit: my rental car then got reversed into by a Landcruiser out the front of the mechanics, the side completely smashed in, the drivers door no longer opens. I had to cough up with the rental car excess even though I wasn't at fault. Fortunately I felt bad for the lady in the Landcruiser & was nice to her, she happened to get in touch with the rental company & felt like crap when she heard about me paying the excess, so she's paying it in the morning & the rental company will forward me a cheque, so at least it could've been worse! How's my luck though?!)

So can anyone give me any advise on what I should do? There are no cliffs nearby that I can push the car off & prior to this, I really loved the car. So much so that my partners mother was set to buy a 95 Cordoba Auto from Brisbane on Saturday. Obviously we're rethinking that move after what's happened to me.
What do I need to do to get the car going again? Will I need to get a key imported from Spain or is a VW key compatible?
Am I going to run into this problem with Seat parts with everything or can some be sourced from VW as I initially thought before I bought the thing?
The mother in law doesn't have a lot of money & didn't want to spend over $4k on a car, hence the reason I initially steered her towards a Cordoba. Should we now be steering clear of them?
Before I bought the car, I thought Aus laws meant that Seat parts would need to be available for 10 years after they ceased importing Seats to Aus. Who are we supposed to be getting the parts from if this is the case? As I said before, I was lucky if anyone had even heard of a Seat, let alone be able to give me any advise on it.
I'm obviously a little stressed right now, literally just having arrived back in Brisbane & not knowing if I'll have a car within a month.
So any help would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers for reading!

[99gti]

I'd just ring vw and tell them you have the vw equivelent. That ought to work. Perhaps check with look - he's a bit of a seat guru with things like this or contact a local vw/seat/audi specialist.

I wish you some better luck too. What an ordeal!

[IbizaGTI]

could you not fish out the stub of a key from the boot lock (where I assume it snapped off and stayed) and get it replicated? My Ibiza came with one original key and one copy - so its possible to copy them...

I have no idea if this will help with the immobiliser tho :?

[h100vw]

If you can get the key copied, just tape the old one to the new one to get the immobiliser to switch off. It is a proximity type so will probably work if you just leave it on the keyring with the new key.

Also a VW dealer should be able to cut you a key based on the lock number. You can get that off one of the door locks. After you remove it from the door.

This isn't something that should be beyond the scope of a half decent mechanic.

The key should be the same as that from a mk2 or 3 Golf and Polo. The code for it is AH

There is nothing you can do to stop the immobiliser, it is in the ECU .

Gavin

[SeanyQ]

could you not fish out the stub of a key from the boot lock (where I assume it snapped off and stayed) and get it replicated? My Ibiza came with one original key and one copy - so its possible to copy them...

I have no idea if this will help with the immobiliser tho :?

The metal part of the key fell onto the ground. I was able to put it back together. The mechanic reckons it's the immobiliser not respomding to the key or something. So either he disconnects (or attempts to) the immobiliser or I get another key & they know how to program it based on the Seat manual.
It's worth a try getting it copied if you've got a copied one that works.
Thanks mate.

[SeanyQ]

If you can get the key copied, just tape the old one to the new one to get the immobiliser to switch off. It is a proximity type so will probably work if you just leave it on the keyring with the new key.

Also a VW dealer should be able to cut you a key based on the lock number. You can get that off one of the door locks. After you remove it from the door.

This isn't something that should be beyond the scope of a half decent mechanic.

The key should be the same as that from a mk2 or 3 Golf and Polo. The code for it is AH

There is nothing you can do to stop the immobiliser, it is in the ECU .

Gavin

The remote on the keyless entry never worked. Thy reckon one of the batteries was running low. They can't get it to work now even with new batteries. So it's like the remote part has decided to die, it lets the engine run for literally 3 seconds then it conks out.
I'll definitely try the VW dealer tomorrow. Thanks for the code, it would've been fun finding that with the car 200k's away.
I hope he hasn't stuffed anything up then, since he's already pulled things apart to try to find which cord to disconnect, hopefully he's realised it's in the ECU then.
Thanks heaps for letting me know!!

[Golf Loon]

You should be able to hold the chip in your key close to the lock barell and use the key as normal to get around the coded factory immobilizer, like Gavin says.

If your mother in law is buying an early car, pre 1996, it should not have a coded key and so will have none of these problems.

The auto electrician sounds like a nob, hope he hasnt destroyed your car.

[h100vw]

The engine runs for 3 seconds to let you know the ECU is ok and it is just the immobilisation that is the problem.

Under the cowl find the key reader around the ign lock and follow it back to a disconnect plug. Disconnect it and give is a squirt with some contact cleaner and then put it back together and have another go.

The Immobiliser is passive and doesn't need battery power to work.


Gavin

[SeanyQ]

Thanks heaps for your advise guys. I just got off the phone to him before the last post came through.
He reckons it's the actual chip in the key which is the problem, so if I get a new key, he'll be able to reprogram it.
I'd hate to think how long he was going to stuff around with immobiliser before getting the drift.
I'll call the Brisbane VW dealer this morning & try to order a new key.
Also, he reckons the "insulator between the throttle body & intake manifold" has broken in 1/2 & is releasing air or something. So I'll try to get a new one of those while I'm at it.
Thanks again for all your advise guys!!

[rav]

Sorry to hear you have had such problems with the seat .. i have a seat Toledo 16v same as golf loons one . my original key is not coded either.. i am currently using the spare key and it starts up but if i try to use the original one with the remote the motor kicks in and dies after a few seconds. i have a mate in Audi and he tried to encode the key again and he couldn't do it because Audi database is different to VW and i rang up a VW dealer in south yarra down in Melbourne and they said $80 bucks to re encode the key and they can only do it mon-fri because they have to log in to the VW database in Germany so maybe you can call those guys up and talk to them 03 88666247 and send the key by post to get it re encoded but thats why the motor doesn't turn over , surprising that you didn't get a spare key to be honest.

[rav]

mate if you got hassles finding parts let me know and i'll try to organise something from here also contact golf loon he's got a truck full of stuff you might need to fix the car up.

[Golf Loon]

I have a new baseplate for your single injection seanyq if you need too.
I have never heard it called an insulator, but car will usually run with that broken, just not real well.
Matt

[SeanyQ]

I have a new baseplate for your single injection seanyq if you need too.
I have never heard it called an insulator, but car will usually run with that broken, just not real well.
Matt

Thanks Golf Loon.
I finally got he car back the other day. Had to get it towed to the nearest VW dealer (85k's away in Maroochydore).
The key itself only ended up costing $216, which I was pretty relieved with.
Had it happened in Maroochydore instead of Gympie, it wouldn't have been such a problem.
Thanks everyone for all the advise though...

The VW guys confirmed it needed a new insulator (I think that's what they called it, it's on the paperwork in the car though).

Hey Golf Loon, how much would it cost to get this part from u?

I'm actually heading over to London for a while around new years & am selling the Cordy to a mate for $5k. Has anyone seen how cheap cars are in London?! I've got my eyes on a 2 door Cordoba for like $1200AU. I'll add some links later. Can't wait to go Cordy hunting over there!

[Golf Loon]

I can send you the insulator with free postage for $160.

All cars are cheap in UK, you could probably buy a cordy for 200quid.
If you can keep it there for a year and use it you can import it to Oz with no duty to pay.

I`d buy a Seat Leon 1.8T, or a Cordoba Vario 1.9TDI

Have fun in blighty.

[SeanyQ]

[/URL]
I can send you the insulator with free postage for $160.

All cars are cheap in UK, you could probably buy a cordy for 200quid.
If you can keep it there for a year and use it you can import it to Oz with no duty to pay.

I`d buy a Seat Leon 1.8T, or a Cordoba Vario 1.9TDI

Have fun in blighty.

Thanks mate. My mate needs to sell his Astra 1st (which won't take long). Then I'd say he'll end replacing the insulator. VW Maroochydore quoted $177 for the part. Every $17 counts ;)

Is the Cordoba Vario the wagon? I reckon I'd end up going the wagon or the coupe. So long as it's a little different to here.
I thought there'd still be large expenses to pay to get it imported. I'll do a surf & see what I can come up with.

They all look nice, I'd be happy with any of the styles.....

http://www.autosoft.cz/auto-trebic/obr/a239_07_1.jpg
http://www.carprices.co.uk/images/seatcordoba.jpghttp://www.channel4.com/4car/media-legacy/cars/4tests/seat/cordoba1.jpg

[Golf Loon]

Yeah thats a vario wagon, Bit odd looking, but useful size.

Look up personal import, you must own it for a year overseas then minimal compliance here and no duty to pay. Shipping is $2000 AUish

[balkanac]

if you are looking to import a car, get a MK2 2 door GTi and i'll buy it off you when it gets here! I'd love to get one of those!!

[karmen]

I'm in Gympie for any Seat sufferers and
with the help of Loon's parts and advice will have a 95 for sale soon.

Nevva loose the chip in yer key
I glued mine in as a kid at school squelched the key and it (key) dropped its guts...
how's the Seat shopping goin in London?

fill a container with tdi mtrs