Lude Generation

Hi Guys! I'm new here and this is my last chance to continue being a Prelude owner.

I have/had a beautiful 5th gen VTI-R green prelude with 84000kms, (I'm from New Zealand). It was/is pretty much mint condition, until some goons 3 months ago broke in and tried to steal the thing, they screwdrivered the ignition, but were stopped by the immobiliser. Insurance shipped it off to honda who after 3 months and $2000 (paid by insurance so far), they have been unable to fix it and want to write the car off, I can't simply buy another one because there are none in the market in NZ in any sort of reasonable condition.

What I have managed to get out of honda is that they cant seem to find an ignition switch that will communicate with the immobiliser and cant get the car started, It seems to be a different part than the ludes in the states (the one I need is 35100-S30-Q14), and I have not been able to locate any for sale. Anyone have any other ideas to save my beloved prelude? Or do I need to wait the 4 years until I can legally ship one from japan and get one in mint condition from there?

Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Cant you just get a lockset and matching immobiliser ECU from a breaker on here and get it shipped over?

What's your engine code?

Vtecmec wrote:Cant you just get a lockset and matching immobiliser ECU from a breaker on here and get it shipped over?

What's your engine code?

Hey mate, thanks for the reply, I would have thought that would be doable but honda didnt seem to think so, My engine code is H22Z1, so it's a different spec

calstr1 wrote:honda didnt seem to think so

In many cases Honda mechanics don't know their arse from their elbow, especially when it comes to Preludes.

@calstr1

Something doesn't sound right with the information you have been given by your dealer. If the thieves only broken the ignition barrel, then the car can be started (for testing purposes) with the key in the immobiliser ring and turning the plastic starter switch. I had something similar happen to an accord I had when thieves smashed up my ignition barrel. I ended up removing the barrel where the car was and driving around for two weeks starting my car with a screwdriver. I then just replaced the ignition barrel and had one key for ignition and one for doors. Not ideal but got me mobile and got the car secure. What I had to do though was get a new key cut for the new ignition barrel but have the immobiliser chip cloned from the old key. A local key cutting placed did this for me, wasn't expensive. So in this instance I bought just an ignition barrel and matching key, that's all I needed once I had the immobiliser chip swapped over (or there's another way but it removes your immobiliser, so not recommended, you'll have to PM me if you want to know.)

However if they can't start your car that way (original key in the immobiliser ring and start with plastic ignition switch) then maybe the thieves damaged the immobilser as well? (or the Honda dealer used the red key and accidentally wiped the immobiliser)

In which case:

I'm not sure if the H22Z1 in your car is the equivalent to a H22A7 or H22A8, I would assume that it is the same as a H22A8 and that your car is a 1999 - 2000 model car.

Can you take a look at the head and see if it's a P13 or a PDE head (PDE will be H22A7 equivalent)

Does it have ATTS? (in which case that's a different story)

I think the H22Z1 blocks were for factory replacement engines but they were used up at the end of the prelude production line.

I could be wrong but I think a safe bet would be to go for a H22A8 ECU which will offer less power than the H22A7 but should work OK for either engine.

So you could get a lock and ECU set from an H22A8 UK car comprising: Engine ECU, immobiliser (it's on the steering column), immobiliser ring (might as well get that too in case yours is damaged), keys, ignition barrel, door locks, boot lock and floor lock (for boot handle). That won't be cheap though. I'd be happy to help you source and send them to you, although someone on the forum might have all that.

The other alternative to get you up and running could be a bypass chip, which are available for some ECUs and are about £30 from here (take a look at all three pages):

http://www.doctronic.at/Mobilizer-A0_E.html
http://www.doctronic.at/Mobilizer-FX01_E.html
http://www.doctronic.at/download/instal ... 20fx01.pdf

Hope all of the above helps.

newkid might be able to get you all the parts you need (his is 5th gen sir vtec) but you would have to let him know asap as car is due to go to scrap heaven later this week