No longer - Disappointed.

[Bukker]

In January my 2009 cruiser was towed into the local Toyota dealership with an “ID code box” issue (immobilizer ecu). My truck was at Toyota for 2-3 weeks as the ecu was coming from out of the country and the whole dash had to be ripped out (ecu is on the firewall I believe). When they replaced this I told them I’d be willing to pay an extra hours work to trace wires and check for leaks that could have caused this, they said no need, it’s the box itself. Well fast forward to today and my truck is getting towed back to Toyota with the same issue… At least the previous work came with a warranty.

Anybody else have this as an issue/repeating issue?

 

[Bukker]

And now I’m scared to take it to the woods lol, from my understanding and talking with the tech at Toyota there is no way to bypass this feature. I guess the smart key is talking to the box, but the box isn’t talking to the truck…

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Anybody else have this as an issue/repeating issue?

If you mean the issue of an incompetent dealer throwing parts at a vehicle until something works itself out, then yes, unfortunately many people have this same issue.

Have you checked the usual water-ingress locations in the footwell?

 

[Bukker]

If you mean the issue of an incompetent dealer throwing parts at a vehicle until something works itself out, then yes, unfortunately many people have this same issue.

Have you checked the usual water-ingress locations in the footwell?

Yes, everything is dry. It’s not the main ecu itself but some smart key immobilizer ecu behind the dash. Both cases happened in heavy rain, which leads me to believe there’s water and electronics fooling around with each other somewhere, could just be a coincidence…

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Yes, everything is dry. It’s not the main ecu itself but some smart key immobilizer ecu behind the dash. Both cases happened in heavy rain, which leads me to believe there’s water and electronics fooling around with each other somewhere, could just be a coincidence…

You may want to remove the cowl in between the windshield and hood area and see if anything stands out as being an issue. Seems like a likely area for water to accumulate/enter, given the location you described for the ECU.

 

[TeCKis300]

May also want to check or swap the battery just to eliminate that as a factor. Many unknown electronics gremlins can be caused by a weak battery.

 

[Bukker]

You may want to remove the cowl in between the windshield and hood area and see if anything stands out as being an issue. Seems like a likely area for water to accumulate/enter, given the location you described for the ECU.

Thank you! As soon as the dealer replaces this I’ll be going through to make sure they not only fixed the problem, but the cause of it.

 

[Bukker]

May also want to check or swap the battery just to eliminate that as a factor. Many unknown electronics gremlins can be caused by a weak battery.

Fresh battery installed in between both instances :”(

 

[supercarrera]

About a year ago I had a similar code and my car wouldn't run. It would start and die immediately. It turned out that my sunroof drain was clogged and water ran down behind the dash. I ended up disconnecting the major electrical connections in the passenger footwell to let them dry out for a couple of days. I also hit them with a hair dryer. After a couple of days, it started and ran fine.

 

[Bukker]

About a year ago I had a similar code and my car wouldn't run. It would start and die immediately. It turned out that my sunroof drain was clogged and water ran down behind the dash. I ended up disconnecting the major electrical connections in the passenger footwell to let them dry out for a couple of days. I also hit them with a hair dryer. After a couple of days, it started and ran fine.

Thank you for the input! At this point I hope I find an obvious reason when they return it, rather than being constantly paranoid of a third failure. Obvious water leakage like that would be a good thing at this point hahaha.

 

[Bukker]

So the problem this time ended up being the “certification ecu” which is a part of the same system as my original immobilizer problem (ID code box). This is my fist vehicle with a smart key system and I’m learning a lot of terms quickly lol.

Due to the lack of info I’m able to find on these parts, it’s definitely not something we all have to watch out for, but is nice knowledge to have.

Still not sure what caused these to fail in the first place but we’ll get to the bottom of it.

 

[Bukker]

I found this write up on the order of the system on a FJ forum.

 

[a200]

Does the 200 in other markets have a key? Has anyone looked into replacing the wireless system?

 

[Bukker]

Does the 200 in other markets have a key? Has anyone looked into replacing the wireless system?

Not sure, I’m guessing this would be very difficult to do considering they talk directly to the main ecu.

 

[OregonLC]

Could be different in ROW vehicles, but the 100 has a mechanical key as well as the immobilizer. So if the prob is on the immobilizer side there isn't anything to gain with a mechanical key. Further, pretty sure start engagement is now ECU controlled. Again on the 100, even with the mechanical key the ECU takes over and has a crank hold feature where once commanded to start it does whatever it needs to with the starter. You can simply bump the key to start and it gets the job done.

 

[Bukker]

Could be different in ROW vehicles, but the 100 has a mechanical key as well as the immobilizer. So if the prob is on the immobilizer side there isn't anything to gain with a mechanical key. Further, pretty sure start engagement is now ECU controlled. Again on the 100, even with the mechanical key the ECU takes over and has a crank hold feature where once commanded to start it does whatever it needs to with the starter. You can simply bump the key to start and it gets the job done.

Thanks for the info! I think you’re spot on with everything you’re saying, trying to retrofit anything would be a PITA with how complicated this is to begin with. Hopefully this is the last of the related issues! Frustrating how something like this can make a vehicle unusable!

Appreciate all the advice and opinions I’ve got on this thread that really just started as a frustrating rant.

 

[Bukker]

Well… still cruiser-less… sounds like after all of this they found a corroded wire behind the dash, kinda like I offered to pay extra for to find at the beginning of this mess. Hopefully this is it! Woo hoo!

 

[Bukker]

Thank you all for the help, we’re back in business! Just got the Cruiser back, hopefully this is the end of this mess!

 

[bloc]

Thank you all for the help, we’re back in business! Just got the Cruiser back, hopefully this is the end of this mess!

Have any more info on that corroded wire behind the dash? We see lots of issues with the connectors in the front door sills but not much from behind the dash..

 

[Bukker]

Have any more info on that corroded wire behind the dash? We see lots of issues with the connectors in the front door sills but not much from behind the dash..

I believe it was between the ECM and ID code box. Unfortunately I don’t have a cause yet but I’ll dig around, they weren’t very specific as to where it corroded, and I’m guilty of being too excited to get my truck back to ask. I can shoot the service advisor an email tomorrow and ask.