Hello,

I have two RX8s, one of which is a runner and the other is not.

The running car as only one key with no remote or anything on it. The other car has two sets of keys, with alarm and remote controls.

They are both the 231 HP / 171kW models. Same year, same build, same trim, same everything. By the VIN numbers, the cars were built 4 months apart so I seriously doubt anything has changed.

I know I have to move the items in the pictures but I cannot find them and I googled the hell out of everything I could but I could not find something similar to my issue. Everyone has been coding new keys.

I have the ECU and the barrel but cannot find the other two ASSY-KEYLESS modules.

Some people have said it is behind the glove box but I pulled the whole thing out and found nothing, on both cars, which are left hand drive.

Basically, I need the location of the black and yellow ASSY-KEYLESS module and the black and white ASSY-KEYLESS module.

 

Never mind, I found them. But holy hell, these things are hard to reach! Nowhere near as easy as some people have mentioned or described.

I had to take apart half the dash to get to them. The wiring, my god the wiring!

I'll post some pictures with their location once the ECU gets back from Germany for an edit and of course, with the results of my endeavor.

 

update: My engine blew up so this thread won't be updated for a while but I did manage to make a set of keys.

Firstly, I just want to start with the following statement:

Whoever designed and approved the location for the ASSY-KEYLESS module should be tortured to death and be brought back to life and killed slowly again. And their families too!
Sweet jumping jesus on a stick, it is impossible to reach without TAKING APART HALF THE CAR!
I want to tie them to a chair, drink gasoline, vomit it on them and then set them on fire, so they can see my disgust before they die in a fiery hell before going to hell and burning for all eternity! I spent a week on the ******* thing before finally giving up and struggling to reassemble everything back the way it was.
It cannot be done by an amateur / normal driver for this car. It is impossible to reach which pisses me off because it is impossible to reach for you, the user and the owner! Whomever wants to steal your RX8 will have no issues in doing so, immobilizer or not.

Now that the rant is out of the way, here's the much easier solution to anyone reading this:

prerequisite : Take your car to someone who can program car keys / ECUs. In my case, a standard workshop
1. Clone the EEPROM section of your old ECU to the new ECU. That way, the ebay ECU can talk to your immobilizer (ASSY-KEYLESS Visteon 41863 45) without having to cut half the car apart.
2. Replace the ignition barrel. You'll have to do a bit of drilling to get the old one out but it will be fine and easy.
3. Mount your newly programmed ECU into the car
4. The person who did the EEPROM cloning between ECUs will now be able to code all your keys (old and the ones from ebay) to work with this ECU
5. Start the car

All of the above cost me about 200euros (ECU, ECU EEPROM cloning, barrel and 3 keys programmed). Much cheaper than hiring an assassin to find the people who signed off on the immobilizer's location for this car. Faster too, albeit much less satisfactory. But hey, 3 keys and the car ran fine before the engine blew up.

P.S. : For anyone wondering why I'm so upset, because the schematics clearly show the location of the immobilizer and also there is a picture with one in the RX8, just hanging out, well, lemme tell you right now that they are bullshit!

In the schematics they do not mention the difficulty of getting to it and the picture with it hanging out is from someone who already lost 5 years of his life pulling it out and he let it hang, just in case he wanted to replace it before he died of old age.

To get to the immobilizer, you have to: pull out the entire dashboard: airbags, center console, support strut bar, cables and all. All of it. And to do that, you have to take the seats out. So you have to dismantle your car to the point that you're not sure if it will work or catch fire when and IF you reassemble it, just to get to that stupid little computer thinghy. The ASSY-KEYLESS and the people that put it there, can go get royally fucked up the *** with a rake!

 

That Thatcham clamp on the ECU looks to be a bitch!

We (US/Canada) don't have them - I can swap any ECU for one with no 'key recognition' code and drive off, in about five minutes, with just a 10mm socket.

Allegedly.