I'm having intermittent problems with the immobillizer on my '01 S40. Three questions: Will a battery that's about to go bad cause that? How does the immobilizer work? Can the immobilizer be disabled?

As always, many thanks.

 

Yes a bad battery will cause that.

No the immoblizer cannot be disconnected.

 

Bad battery it is...battery died yesterday morning, I replaced it and haven't had any problems with the immobilizer since. Immobilizer kicked in maybe 50% of the time before that.

Many thanks!

 

You say the immobilizer kicked in, I assume that means the car wouldn't start (would doors open?) but what did you do to get it to start until you replaced the battery?

 

I would just try several times (maybe up to seven or eight times) and it would eventually start. I don't know about the doors - I didn't try to get out before the car finally started. After the battery died I wondered if it was the problem - apparently it was since I still haven't had any problems.