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I have a 2004 Honda Civic coupe (basic version) and my key stopped turning my ignition, I think the tumblers were bad, so I took it apart and finally had to take off back of it and start it with a screw driver. That worked a couple of times then it stopped starting. I believe the immobilizer kicked in. So I got another ignition lock cylinder from O'Reilly's and it came with 2 blank transponder keys. I installed it, (it didn't come with a new immobilizer box it stated that they don't come with those anymore), it instructed me to go to a locksmith and have my key cloned to the new keys. Well the locksmith told be that if it came with a new thing that goes into the front of the ignition key hole that the new keys wouldn't work at all and for me to unhook the new one and plug the old one in and let my old key sit in it or near it and start with my new keys. Well that didn't work and he states that there is no way to fix it. Well I don't buy it, I don't think they would sell it like that with those instructions if it won't work. Now my questions are if my old keys transponder went bad how would it get cloned anyhow? Is there a way to bypass my immobilizer? How the hell do I fix this? This is very important cause I can't make it to work in another state and if I don't pay on my title loan by August 6 I lose my car for good, I am a single mom with 2 kids and have little to no money and I live 35min from civilization. Please help me!!!!!!!!!!!
To get this fixed properly you will have to go to Honda. Swap the black ring around the ignition slot with the one from your old ignition switch. After that the car will need brought to a Honda dealer to get the new keys programmed into the PCM.
Is there a way to bypass the immobilizer? Yes. Though this will cause a green key symbol to flash in the cluster all the time and would also make your car much easier to steal. To do this you just need to bypass the fuel pump relay located behind the glovebox. There are two relays behind the glovebox, if I remember correctly the fuel pump relay (PGM-FI Main Relay 2) is the one on the left.
Last edited by BrotatoChip; Aug 5, 2019 at 01:32 PM.
I have no experience with replacing the immobilizer receiver, I have no doubt it can be done. I assume it just requires more work to be done at the Honda dealership. Program the immobilizer and keys vs programming just the keys. If you're going to bypass the immobilizer system it doesn't matter which immobilizer unit you use. I will PM you on the immobilizer bypass.
I had the same problem, and I called two different locksmiths who both hemmed and hawed and told me it probably wasn't worth it to try to repair the ignition cylinder. I didn't really want to deal with reprogramming immobilizers or potentially buying the wrong parts so I ended up following a YouTube tutorial and it was much easier than I expected. I basically had pull out the old ignition cylinder, drill into it in a couple places, and then I was able to just remove the stuck wafers from inside the cylinder allowing it to turn freely. In order to prevent future issues I actually decided to go a little bit farther than just removing the stuck one and even up pulling out all the wafers except for the first pair (that way the key stays in while driving). Sure, you could probably turn the ignition with a screwdriver but no one would be able to get the car to start without the chip in my key so seems safe enough. Here's the link to that YT tutorial
(I personally wasn't able to remove the small roll pin that they show in this video; I just drilled it into non-existence.)
I know this is an old thread but I figure at least a few people will find it when they're having this same problem. If you're trying to decide whether to do this or just buy a new cylinder I would definitely recommend having access to a drill press or at the very least a vice and a decent set of small drill bits. If I hadn't had a drill press I probably would have had some trouble not mangling the cylinder housing, but I also don't have much of a steady hand when it comes to precise power tool work.
