my keys to my Touareg fell and when i tried to start the car, it immobilized the spare is unactivated.?

Question

I was told i need to bring the car in to activate the spare, but it's stuck in park and immobilized and i'm worried towing it like that'll damage the gearbox as it isn't in neutral. After the key fell i reassembled it, it opened the doors, but as i tried to start it, the display read immobilizer activated, now it wouldn't even open the doors without the alarms going off. How do i move it to the dealership safely?

Answer 1

DONT TOW IT IN PARK!!!
ofcourse it will stuff up your gearpox(the gears are engaged)

remove the alarm fuse.

you can unclip the linkages to the gearbox and manually engage it in neutral

tow it and have them put the linkages back

Answer 2

This points out a serious problem with keys that are so delicate and fragile that they break easiily if dropped. Whenever things get all bound up in software and hardware, which is all dependent on complex and delicate technology you are bound to get failures and errors in the program eventually. But when something like a car key is so delicate that it breaks under more or less normal use (who has NOT ever dropped their car keys?) then the technology is a mis-application for that use and should be avoided. A likely cause that may have contributed is that the keys themselves were made in China, which explains a lot about why it fell apart when dropped. Shoddy merchandise and bad design.

Get rid of the car unless you want to have this problem all the time. To have to go through what the previous answerer detailed every time you drop your keys is a major problem and completely unnecessary. This is soemthing no one needs. Imagine if you were out on a remote highway and dropped the keys. It is an invitation to disaster.

Before you buy your next car, say to the saleman "May I see the keys, please?" Then smack the keys with a hammer and see if they still work. If they don't, move on.

Answer 3

Slide back wrecker truck is what I would ask for. Once on the steel of the wrecker wheels will slide easily. Look in the owners manual for an emergency shifter release to get it into neutral if Toureg has that feature. And hopefully you can get the new car department to reprogram the keys for free. If not wrecker bill and programing will cost money take all your remotes and keys Because all have to be programed.

Answer 4

you should be able to move to neutral as long as you are getting power to the instrument cluster. Key in run position, move to neutral, key will stay in ignition, if no power comes to the cluster, key to run position, hold the brake pedal down sometimes as long as 10 minutes to energize the system, you should be able to then put in neutral. Do any of the other keys work even the valet plastic key? Make sure you bring all the keys with you when you go to the dealer, good luck

Answer 5

let the tow truck company figure out how to tow it that way.
they have wheel dollies that can get the tires off the ground and tow that way.

i have an 87 vanagon syncro and that's how they did it for me, my transmission went out and i had fears that towing it on the ground would damage it beyond repair, so they popped the dolly under the rear wheels and grabbed the front wheels with the tow bar and everything was fine.

it does seem unusual that dropping your keys would cause the imobilizer to ignore the chip in the key. unless you dropped your keys in water or something to short out the chip? odd, if you are still under warranty you should see if VW will step up and fix that for you.

Answer 6

that sounds about right. its just one more electrical problem with the touareg.. you move it to the dealership by calling in a flat bed tow truck..
$45000 for a luxury vw and the damn thing wont start because you dropped the keys!