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S-Max 'immobiliser Active'.


davidm
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Problem with a 2006 (56) 1.8 Zetec diesel S-max (below average miles). Two months ago I parked the car up and when I returned about 20 minutes later it refused to start - it wouldn't even turn over and the message 'immobiliser active' appeared on the dash. On advice I tried the spare key etc but to no avail. Towed to garage where they changed the battery and the car started but no faults showed up on the diagnostic tester. About three weeks ago I went to start it one morning but again it would not and I got the same message 'immobiliser active'. Had to get it towed in again and this time the garage say that when first plugged in a series of faults were showing but they mysteriously cleared themselves without action from the mechanic. When this happened they tried the car and it started. Most recently on Saturday morning I was driving the car to town when it just cut out instantaneously and I had to pull in and park up. Again the 'immobiliser active' is lit up on the dash and it will not turn over. The car is waiting to be towed in again. I talked to the garage again after the latest incident and they seem to think it must be an intermittent wiring fault. Has anybody had any similar experiences. Warranty expired mid December just before this started to happen.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi - we have exactly the same problem (but worse) been going on since last jan. Am getting no nearer to fixing it and don't know what else we can do. Has been in and out of the garage with no fix - each time i leave it they say it either doesn't fault or if it does when they plug it in it doesn't show a fault!!! Ford technical are no help and i fear we may be stuck with a car that frequently fails to start - not what u need with 3 small children. Just wondered how you had got on - is your sorted now?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi - we have exactly the same problem (but worse) been going on since last jan. Am getting no nearer to fixing it and don't know what else we can do. Has been in and out of the garage with no fix - each time i leave it they say it either doesn't fault or if it does when they plug it in it doesn't show a fault!!! Ford technical are no help and i fear we may be stuck with a car that frequently fails to start - not what u need with 3 small children. Just wondered how you had got on - is your sorted now?

I had this problem as well and my garage tracked it to a faulty internal intrusion detection device that caused a catastrophic electrical failure in the car! A complicated way of saying that one of the sensors has a short and stuffed the car..

Fixed in 3 hours..

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I had this problem as well and my garage tracked it to a faulty internal intrusion detection device that caused a catastrophic electrical failure in the car! A complicated way of saying that one of the sensors has a short and stuffed the car..

Fixed in 3 hours..

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Took car to garage who diagnosed it as an ABS module failure. They quoted about £800 to repair. However when they cleared it with the diagnostic computer it started again. I drove it for about two or three days and it stopped again as before. Got towed to yet another Ford garage and they diagnosed it as an alarm module fault. Each garage I go to comes up with something different. I got them to change it and it has been starting ever since when I check it each morning. However I have it parked up and changed to a Cmax. I just don't and won't trust the Smax any more. It's now for sale.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Problem with a 2006 (56) 1.8 Zetec diesel S-max (below average miles). Two months ago I parked the car up and when I returned about 20 minutes later it refused to start - it wouldn't even turn over and the message 'immobiliser active' appeared on the dash. On advice I tried the spare key etc but to no avail. Towed to garage where they changed the battery and the car started but no faults showed up on the diagnostic tester. About three weeks ago I went to start it one morning but again it would not and I got the same message 'immobiliser active'. Had to get it towed in again and this time the garage say that when first plugged in a series of faults were showing but they mysteriously cleared themselves without action from the mechanic. When this happened they tried the car and it started. Most recently on Saturday morning I was driving the car to town when it just cut out instantaneously and I had to pull in and park up. Again the 'immobiliser active' is lit up on the dash and it will not turn over. The car is waiting to be towed in again. I talked to the garage again after the latest incident and they seem to think it must be an intermittent wiring fault. Has anybody had any similar experiences. Warranty expired mid December just before this started to happen.

Bingo We also have a 56 Zetec but 2.0 TDI and this has been going on for some time but with no resolution. Ours was under warranty when it first occured but as with yours this has now run out. We have a service booked for next week and are waiting to see what response we get this time. This has now gone to far and we have had nothing but problems since buying this car. We have had the alarm going off with out any warning then the wipers just started and we could not stop them. Now the keys only unlock the car when they want to and then the engine will not start. We have low milage on ours as well and it is not used on a daily basis but this should not have any effect on the running of a car.

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  • 3 years later...

Having the same problme here. Only today i get in my S-Max, press the engine start button and nothing. Called Ford Asssit out (AA Turn up !!!) and all he did was remove the car battery for 10 seconds, re-connect and away it went !!!! Think it must be getting a spike when you open the car door or something, as this is the 6th time its happended but all previous times i left it for 30 minutes and it cleared itself.

Pointless taking it to Ford i feel as i will only get fed a pack of lies.

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  • 4 years later...
For anyone who has "immobilser enabled" issue , sorted mine after
 
1) charging the battery to a suitable state,
 
2) disconnect the positive for half an hour. (this breaks / resets the circuit) then connecting back up. Does like a reset. Need to put in the radio key again and set the system time. But all good. cheers
 
 
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  • 10 months later...
On 3/18/2018 at 4:30 PM, jonesgwyn said:
For anyone who has "immobilser enabled" issue , sorted mine after
 
1) charging the battery to a suitable state,
 
2) disconnect the positive for half an hour. (this breaks / resets the circuit) then connecting back up. Does like a reset. Need to put in the radio key again and set the system time. But all good. cheers
 
 

Hi just joined, took your advice worked brilliantly thank you very much 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys,

I have a issue with mine also regarding (immobiliser active) however mine is a little different and before I scrap it I thought I join and ask the question.

I have infact 2 ford Smax but I will only talk about the one I am having problems with. Its regarging the ecu's!!! I know man what luck do you have to have to get a car and then a few months later the ecu pack up. I decided the take the bullet and purchase like for like ecu's and replace them including the ignition barrel and key. The only thing I did not change was the cluster. Now when I turn the key I get the message immobiliser active that pops up. Could this be the cluster that is causing the problem? If so is there a fix to this or is there a company or person that can bypass the error. Please guys and ideas?????

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  • 1 month later...

The cluster is part of immobiliser you will need to change that too 

On 2/21/2019 at 9:30 PM, BruceSouman said:

Hi Guys,

I have a issue with mine also regarding (immobiliser active) however mine is a little different and before I scrap it I thought I join and ask the question.

I have infact 2 ford Smax but I will only talk about the one I am having problems with. Its regarging the ecu's!!! I know man what luck do you have to have to get a car and then a few months later the ecu pack up. I decided the take the bullet and purchase like for like ecu's and replace them including the ignition barrel and key. The only thing I did not change was the cluster. Now when I turn the key I get the message immobiliser active that pops up. Could this be the cluster that is causing the problem? If so is there a fix to this or is there a company or person that can bypass the error. Please guys and ideas?????

 

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  • 1 year later...

I have a 2008 titanium Smax and I have the immobiliser active thing come up with only one of my keys after I’ve replaced the battery in the fob. The car works without issue using the spare key. Do I have to do some sort of calibration once the key has a new battery?

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Hi Tom welcome to the Ford Owners Club. The battery in the key has nothing to do with the immobiliser, it only for the remote lock/unlock. You could take the battery out and the immobiliser wouldn't notice.

Inside the key is a passive coded chip which is read when the key is put in the ignition. The problem you have with the none working key is that the car for some reason doesn't recognize the key.

The key has to be re-learnt by the car which should not be a problem since you have a working key. I will get details for you in the morning

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Hi Tom, well a bit of bad news I'm afraid. It used to be possible to just programme the key yourself with a bit of switiching on / off swapping keys etc. etc. but Ford decided to remove that process around 2005 on your model. There is still one way you can do it yourself which is using the programme "ForScan" and an ELM327 lead (cost about £15) connected to the OBDII port. But life is never simple, ForScan is free software for 95% of the stuff most people use it for, but for key programming you need a licence (Think it is £10).

In truth I would look on line for a local Auto-Locksmith, there are plenty about and for around £40 to £60 they will do the job for you, some even include a spare key in the price.

Sorry I can't help you on this.

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Ok thanks for trying anyway and for the info. I’ll look in to what is available.

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Just an update on this - so it turns out (and it will probably appear as a rookie mistake) that I was replacing the battery AND the key fob case - although I moved almost all internal parts from the old key to the new key... I hadn’t moved the transponder that lets the car recognise the key. Hence why it wouldn’t work.

 Having prised this out the old key and into the new - I now have a working key!

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On 4/10/2021 at 12:36 AM, unofix said:

Inside the key is a passive coded chip which is read when the key is put in the ignition. The problem you have with the none working key is that the car for some reason doesn't recognize the key.

Well at least you got it sorted Tom. 😀

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  • 1 month later...

Hello I have a Ford s-max 2008 zetec tdci I car cut out when driving I had it towed to a garage which diagnosed ecu failure I purchased a like for like ecu kit and the garage fitted it the only thing that wasn’t there was the fuse box for under the bonnet (which the garage claimed the needed) once the new ecu was fitted the car didn’t even crank has anyone had this problem before??

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You need to find a garage that knows what they are doing.

So the ECU failed when driving !!! not very likely but I suposse it could happen. Then you bought an ECU kit and gave it to the garage for them to fit. Next the garage want a engine bay fuse box, why?

Does the alarm/immobiliser work as it should ?

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  • 7 months later...

Can someone please help! My 2008 smax has been off the road for months because the garage won’t take it back saying they don’t know why it won’t start. It was towed and they charged it and the car worked again, but I mentioned the immobiliser light keeps appearing yet they said they see no faults and the car is totally fine, was just flat. 2 days later, car wouldn’t start again. It’s been seen so many times but keeps refusing to start and immobiliser active message comes on! The car is now going all mouldy inside and we’ve been unable to drive out with 5 kids for months. I’m at the end of my tether! I tried to charge before Christmas but couldn’t get it started. It won’t even tick over. Any advice? Many thanks, Helen 

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  • 6 months later...
On 3/18/2018 at 5:30 PM, jonesgwyn said:
For anyone who has "immobilser enabled" issue , sorted mine after
 
1) charging the battery to a suitable state,
 
2) disconnect the positive for half an hour. (this breaks / resets the circuit) then connecting back up. Does like a reset. Need to put in the radio key again and set the system time. But all good. cheers
 
 

Hei Jones

Thanks, i have just buy a s-max 2006 1,8 tdci and just clean it and then looked where is fuses, that i found and when needed put the fuses voxs up was not easy and then light inside went off and windows contact at driver door and mirror ajust not work now so i think it is a or some fuses, so i have checked and have not found and i only have take out 4  and in back 4 but not found, but then i stopped coz not know where the fuses os for that but then i needed ro turn car and nope could not start i got immobilser active,😢

i searched youtube, and google tryed the door did not work, i tryed when found one said take battery off 30 sec. Nope not worked. 
 

final found ur’s i then off battery again yeah i looked some tv 1 hour then out battery on went in and YEEEAAAH worked now starting again, yeah i not charge battery but just off +on battery 1hour 🤗

so thanks it helped read urs msg 👍

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