Hey, everyone. These are desperate words from a desperate man.
For a little back-story...I'm not a competent car person, but there a lot of such people in this story. My 2014 BRZ Limited eats batteries, has for years, so I have to replace it every 12-18 months. This last time, in November, after replacing the battery it wouldn't start. It would recognize I had a valid key (key indicator went solid green), but the immobilizer would not release the steering wheel and the car would stay in lockdown. This is a keyless entry system, by the way.
I tried to do some legwork and did find a guy who had a similar issue, but he was able to resolve it by pulling the steering wheel hard in one direction or the other. I have a few friends who are competent people and they spent that weekend helping me with checking all fuses, checking all relays, and swapping relays around, among other things. One guy had an electrical diagram with him and had me try all kinds of crazy things involving door locks, open/close doors, rocking the wheel back and forth, and more things than I can remember.
Eventually had it towed to a repair shop. Repair shop says the dealer had to work on it based on the code they received (B1572, I believe). Dealer has had it since December and has swapped out several things including the ECU/ECM and has given up as of last night. They don't know what to do with it, Subaru HQ doesn't know how it could have gotten into this state (according to the dealer), and insurance doesn't cover anything other than physical damage so I can't recoup anything from it at this point. My hope is that there are people more creative than the dealer that have encountered something like this so I can call them and give them something new to think about.
For a little back-story...I'm not a competent car person, but there a lot of such people in this story. My 2014 BRZ Limited eats batteries, has for years, so I have to replace it every 12-18 months. This last time, in November, after replacing the battery it wouldn't start. It would recognize I had a valid key (key indicator went solid green), but the immobilizer would not release the steering wheel and the car would stay in lockdown. This is a keyless entry system, by the way.
I tried to do some legwork and did find a guy who had a similar issue, but he was able to resolve it by pulling the steering wheel hard in one direction or the other. I have a few friends who are competent people and they spent that weekend helping me with checking all fuses, checking all relays, and swapping relays around, among other things. One guy had an electrical diagram with him and had me try all kinds of crazy things involving door locks, open/close doors, rocking the wheel back and forth, and more things than I can remember.
Eventually had it towed to a repair shop. Repair shop says the dealer had to work on it based on the code they received (B1572, I believe). Dealer has had it since December and has swapped out several things including the ECU/ECM and has given up as of last night. They don't know what to do with it, Subaru HQ doesn't know how it could have gotten into this state (according to the dealer), and insurance doesn't cover anything other than physical damage so I can't recoup anything from it at this point. My hope is that there are people more creative than the dealer that have encountered something like this so I can call them and give them something new to think about.
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