My 2000 Galant DE died on the highway last week going 60mph and no longer starts - I took it to a shop and they diagnosed the problem as a bad ECM (they say they're 99% sure). The shop replaced the ECM with a used ECM from a salvaged 2000 Galant, but apparently from what they've told me is that the ECM is tied to the immobilizer, and in order to get the used ECM to work, I'd need the immobilizer from the vehicle where the ECM was pulled from.

The shop called the local Mitsubishi dealer and they couldn't (or perhaps refused) to tell them if they replaced the immobilizer in my vehicle with the one in the salvaged vehicle if it would actually cause my car to start again.

I don't want to pay a dealer $1500 for a new ECM and/or immobilizer, so I'm trying to figure out an action plan. But I really am fairly clueless about all of this... Does anyone have any more expertise in this area than I do?

Would replacing the immobilizer with the one in the salvaged vehicle fix the problem? Are there any other electronics tied to the ECM or the immobilizer that would cause the vehicle not to start if they were both replaced?

Thanks so much!!!

Here goes , i have been woring on Immobilizer units frum before they have reached american models.

In my account that is bull. Yu see the Immobilizer and the ignition loc cylinder and key wor as a unit. The immobilizer translates to the ECU that everythin is fine and lets it work the ignition and fuel injectors. The immobilizer frum the other car would not possibly work ,

These are sum reasons i kno for immobilizers on Mitsubishi here. The lock cylinder hall effect and key , the key transmitts the hall effect in teh ignition loc cylinder and must match to the correspoonding unit. The Immobilizer frum the other car will not match yur ignition key and the signal sent for yur car.

Issues i have seen that have caused this car to kill and not start are the cam position sensor on these models. But there can be other reasons.

So should I try to get the immobilizer from the other salvaged car?

The initial diagnosis of the problem was the cam shaft sensor, but the replaced that and then the ECU gave a bad ignition coil code in addition to a bad camshaft sensor, even after it had just been replaced. That's why the shop thought the problem was the ECU.

What do you think?

Some other folks have told me that the immobilizer just needs to be reflashed/reprogrammed to match the replacement ECU, and that only a dealer can do that.

Any ideas?