The one place we ask for paperwork
Proof of ownership
Security and immobiliser work needs documented proof that the vehicle is yours. It is not a formality, it is not negotiable, and it applies to everybody.
What we need to see
- Title or current registration for the vehicle, in your name
- Photographic identification that matches the name on it
- Where the vehicle belongs to a business, something showing you may act for that business
- Where you are a workshop acting for an owner, the owner's paperwork, not yours
It is recorded against the job and it stays with the job. What we keep and for how long is on the privacy page.
Why there is no version of this where we take your word for it
Because the entire value of a vehicle security system is that it cannot be got round by somebody plausible with a story about lost keys. A workshop that makes an exception for a customer who seems fine has, in that moment, made the system worth nothing — not just for that vehicle, for the argument generally.
It is also, plainly, how a workshop stays out of a theft investigation. That is a less noble reason and it is a true one, and a page that gave only the first reason would be leaving something out.
Immobiliser, key and security work needs documented proof that the vehicle is yours. That means title or registration in your name, and identification that matches it. There is no version of this where we take somebody's word for it, because the entire value of a security system is that it cannot be got round by somebody plausible.
What we can do without it
A great deal, as it happens. Diagnosing why an immobiliser system is faulting, repairing the wiring and the connectors involved, testing the antenna ring and its circuit, and bench-testing or repairing the module are all electrical work on a system that already accepts the key you have. None of that adds a way in.
What needs the paperwork is anything that produces a NEW means of starting the vehicle, or that removes an existing one.
And the related question, answered here because it is always asked next
No, we do not disable or bypass a security system to get round a fault. If an immobiliser is stopping a vehicle that should start, the job is to find out why and repair it. Turning the system off is not a repair; it is removing the alarm because the alarm is inconvenient, and it hands the next owner a vehicle with a hole in it that nobody wrote down.
$145 a workshop hour · $185 on site · agreed before it starts
Bring the paperwork and it is an ordinary job
The symptom check takes about three minutes and gives you a written summary of which circuits would be tested first and why, with the hours and the published rate against each. It is an indicative scope and not a diagnosis — nobody has seen the vehicle — but it is a better opening than a blank contact form. If you would rather skip it, the telephone works.