[Vwdiesel] A4 immobilizer

[S. Shourds]

Has anyone gotten deep enough into the immobilizer on a ~2000 ALH TDI to 
know the regimine for when it gets the wrong key?  The person I had pick 
up the key at the shop (I can't make it there by closing time) tried to 
start it several times, it started, died, and showed signs of immoblizer 
activity.  Then it locked him out.  I'm sort of irritated that they 
didn't leave well enough alone.  Seems like I remember getting three 
free tries, then you have to wait some period of time where you get 
another try or two and then it does something nasty to the ECM.  Anyone 
remember the whole story?  I'm a ways off from the manual.  When 
discussing it with the person who tried to start it, I worked to give 
them impression that the ECM self-destructed with repeated immoblizier 
failures, but that was mainly to keep them from messing with it 
needlessly. 

The good news is that I couldn't get it to even start that much, so it 
might now be down to a problem that I can fix.  I found out that there 
were some issues with the door sensors that can have an effect, and that 
the immobilizer is somehow tied in to the instrument cluster and a 
separate unit somewhere up under the dash.  While none of these parts 
are cheap, neither is insuring a car that's dead in the driveway. 

-Shalyn