Hi all,
After reading hundreds of different posts about kessy, VAG keyless system I decided that I wanted to disable it as I have read so many horror stories or relay theft.
Today I can confirm I have completely disabled Kessy. In most other posts I've read, many have accomplished this but had difficulty with the boot and didn't seem to be a way to disable it.
We know that there is a temporary way by holding the indented area of the handle after locking which disables Kessy for one lock cycle. As I share the car I wanted a more permanent solution.
So I found a way to disable the front door keyless system so you can only enter with press of the fob button. Walking around to the boot the keyless entry was still working which defeats the purpose of this method. Also if doing this for relay attack I guess the main issue is protecting the ignition. So if a thief could climb through the boot (not difficult in SUV with easy folding rear seats) and start the car with a copy of the signal then this method is much less effective.
So using OBD11 pro, I was able to change kessy from installed to not installed. Before doing this I took a full systems backup of every module. Took about 10 mins but worth doing in case you need to revert back.
So now, no kessy antennas are active. All tested and I can't get into boot or doors only by physical press of fob buttons. Starting the car I can't start it without holding the fob to the right side of the steering wheel and get a temporary message key not detected and telling me to hold key to steering column. This tells me kessy is fully disabled.
To start you simply hold the key fob to the side of the steering column touching it on the side (there is a picture on the column) so the car can read the immobilizer chip and will start as usual.
So the only issue is having to hold the fob to the side of the column for a second. This is fine for me and I see no management lights or errors. Car locks, unlocks with remote button fob presses perfectly and starts and stops with no issue.
Perhaps overkill but to me I feel safer and perhaps less likely to be a victim of car theft now.
I can't confirm this would work on brand new Atecas as I think 2024 onwards they went to SFD2 security which I think is harder for coding software to alter but I guess will work on anything prior to 2024.
If needed I can do a video or walkthrough guide should anyone want it. It was easy enough once you know how.
After reading hundreds of different posts about kessy, VAG keyless system I decided that I wanted to disable it as I have read so many horror stories or relay theft.
Today I can confirm I have completely disabled Kessy. In most other posts I've read, many have accomplished this but had difficulty with the boot and didn't seem to be a way to disable it.
We know that there is a temporary way by holding the indented area of the handle after locking which disables Kessy for one lock cycle. As I share the car I wanted a more permanent solution.
So I found a way to disable the front door keyless system so you can only enter with press of the fob button. Walking around to the boot the keyless entry was still working which defeats the purpose of this method. Also if doing this for relay attack I guess the main issue is protecting the ignition. So if a thief could climb through the boot (not difficult in SUV with easy folding rear seats) and start the car with a copy of the signal then this method is much less effective.
So using OBD11 pro, I was able to change kessy from installed to not installed. Before doing this I took a full systems backup of every module. Took about 10 mins but worth doing in case you need to revert back.
So now, no kessy antennas are active. All tested and I can't get into boot or doors only by physical press of fob buttons. Starting the car I can't start it without holding the fob to the right side of the steering wheel and get a temporary message key not detected and telling me to hold key to steering column. This tells me kessy is fully disabled.
To start you simply hold the key fob to the side of the steering column touching it on the side (there is a picture on the column) so the car can read the immobilizer chip and will start as usual.
So the only issue is having to hold the fob to the side of the column for a second. This is fine for me and I see no management lights or errors. Car locks, unlocks with remote button fob presses perfectly and starts and stops with no issue.
Perhaps overkill but to me I feel safer and perhaps less likely to be a victim of car theft now.
I can't confirm this would work on brand new Atecas as I think 2024 onwards they went to SFD2 security which I think is harder for coding software to alter but I guess will work on anything prior to 2024.
If needed I can do a video or walkthrough guide should anyone want it. It was easy enough once you know how.
