Originally Posted by
AlexRMC92
I'd love to see where you get with this and if you can get the key to work for engine ignition. Getting the immobilizer to work should not be too big of an issue, it's been done before a few times. I've been gathering parts for a while to do some other engine mods and from what i have been able to gather from testing wires and from other MB cars is that our cars (and r170 chassis cars) use the switchblade key. As you know and when you turn the key to start the engine it sends a non CAN signal to the ecu. The m113 cars don't do this, they have the newer MB keys and send this signal over CAN.
What i would probably try to do is get one of the key assemblies from the newer MB cars and find a way to mod it so that signals from the existing key assembly will trigger the CAN functions on the newer assembly (a sort of piggyback setup). You could also upgrade the crossfire to the newer assembly but then your probably also looking at replacing security modules among other things.
I haven't gone far enough to actually capture CAN signals, but i would imagine replicating them with custom modules would be very difficult considering the amount of non essential data that would most likely also need to be replicated. Considering how much VIN and vehicle data gets sent to modules that don't really need it, i would imagine the key assembly also works the same way. CAN is essentially low level networking, the traffic may even be encrypted.
Anyways i'd love to see where you get with this and maybe you can think of something that i haven't.
Thanks for the input, hopefully I can get this figured out so we can get some 6-speed's hanging out with SRT's!
But first off the Immobilizer is everything. Key, VIN, guage cluster etc. are all stored in the IMMO. The key won't work if you don't put the V6 immo data in the v8 immo or just swap the chips. The only reason the 55 AMG swaps start off of the key is because those ECU's contain the old data. You can program, in Star DAS once it is unlocked, the transponder's for that swap. The non-amg ECU's don't incorporate the means through DAS to do this... It doesn't mean it can't be done, it just can't all be done through DAS. Which is why I swapped the Immo's. Well now it see's that I tampered with the ECU and doesn't wan't to cooperate. Once virginized I'm thinking it will have a better shot at recognizing the key since this is the chip that dealt with the transponder in the first place. Basically, when you put the transponder in, the signal is sent directly to this chip before anywhere else (I think).
According to phoenixphil (guy on the German crossfire forum who had mercedes figure this out for him) everything works as stock. Unlock doors, hop in, push clutch down and start the V8. He also has cruise control (tricky since the clutch position switch won't want to read), and his wing still works. So we know it is all possible. He may have used the donor key and came up with something that way but I doubt it. They didn't ask for my key/donor key, they only asked for the ECU's...
As far as replacing the ignition and corresponding devices.... Once again, that isn't necessary according to phoenixphil's contacts at Mercedes... now that is one way we know it will work, but believe me when I say you do NOT want to do that lol. You will need every BCM, SAM and the complete harness while customizing some of it. Every part works together. If the front right SAM want's a signal, it wants to see the signal come from where it is supposed to come from which means putting in that module. None of the modules are individually active, they all work together, and are VIN encoded, therefor you need all of them. You would be better off running a standalone and making a custom harness. Here in CA, I "shouldn't" do that. I could get away with it but it is technically illegal and still a pain to deal with since you need a custom harness... So you could swap everything over but it would be literally insane the amount of work that would need to be done. Plus there expensive!
I am almost positive that once I virginize the V6 Immo and put it back in the V8 ECU that it will only be a matter of coding in DAS. If not then there is something somewhere else I need to check. The next stop would be Flash data.
And honestly it would be amazing to know which chip the Clutch Interlock Switch is incorporated with. Is it part of the V6 immo? (I would think since it deals with the initial start sequence and anti-theft) If so that chip would be a must if only for that reason. Whatever chip it is in, it's not on the V8's (obvioulsy) and would need to be transferred.
We are getting there it will just take a little bit more time. Rudy has offered me a solution which I will keep in mind as a plan B. At this point with what I have already bought it is only time consuming.