Third-Reef

My 2002 X50 would not start last night after dinner, here are the details. Wondering if someone had had any similar experience and possible cause

Normal night, parked at the restaurant tilt, the sun roof up windows down about and inch, get go to lock it and the flaky remote did not lock after pushing the button several times so is just walked away and had dinner. Come back after dinner and the door is not locked, get in and try to start it and no starter, tried the clutch pedal several times and could her the switch clicking no go. Tried locking and unlocking both withe the fob and with the key. I was on a hill so i decided to try to bump start it to get home but it just turned over with no response like the ignition was off. Thought to myself this seems like a immobilizer issue. Whipped out my Porsche tool kit with the 10mm wrench and pulled the positive battery terminal, jumped up and down and said moose poop 3 times and re-attached it. Low and behold it started right up and has been fine since. It worries me though, i don't like unexplained fixes. The moose poop chant has worked in the past though.

Capt. Obvious

My first thoughts are immobilizer or ignition switch issue. Good tip about the moose poop chant, I'll keep that in mind.

Third-Reef

I was going to replace the ignition switch "just because". If it was the switch it probably would not have been fixed by disconnecting the battery. My car has 100K+ on it and the switch would be a good preventative maintenance item.

Some people don't want to work on their car, i am looking for things to do.

2fcknfst

My FOB didn't work today - manually locked it, then came back in 10 minutes and the FOB worked fine, car started.

k9turbo

moose poop chant! ha.. wierd issue sounds like.

i keep a spare ignition switch in the car. so of course.. i'll never need it.

2fcknfst

Adds to the ease of hot wiring...

Third-Reef

Read the codes from the alarm system with the durametric and got one about wrong key rf-id code. This would defeniy cause it not to start. This is the same key I have used for 5 years. Anyone ever had similar mistaken identity key issues? Any suggestions to eliminate it in the future?

k9turbo

anything having to do with the ecu/immobilizer/alarm etc freak me out for difficulty of diagnosis.

on a whim i would swap out the fob battery and also as you noted, ensure it wasn't the 15$ ignition switch acting up.

Third-Reef

Replaced the battery in my already flakey fob about 1 month ago, made no difference in the operation. Did the reverse the battery thing 3 days ago and it seems to have helped with the flakeyness. My understanding is that the fob/battery and remote lock have nothing to do with the emobilizer. Its just the RF ID pill buried in the key head.

2fcknfst

The RFID chipset should not change frequency randomly - did you drop, or bang the key around recently? That could do it.

Third-Reef

Replaced the ignition switch electrical portion tonight, took about 30 min and some yoga moves. Hoping for the best.

k9turbo

yes, it's awkward to replace. still clickbait/update until you let us know if it worked.. or not lol