I’m seeing this term referenced to VW & Audi, something to do with the car’s computer protecting the electronics packages during removal/installation of certain items. I have no idea what this means. Any VW or Audi owner’s here bumped into this ?
This is VW Audi group’s protection from plug and play computer modules. You can’t just plug a new ECU or instrument cluster or any other module without “mating” it to the car. This has been in place for a looong time. Well over 10 years. As far as I know most, if not all carmakers do this. VW recognizes the foreign part, prevents operation and throws a “safe component detection” message.
When I put a 2014 instrument cluster into my 2013 Mustang, I had to mate it to the car, program keys and change the build codes with a computer program accessing through OBD2 so all the functions would be available.
This is just the way cars work in the 21st century.
4 Likes
Thanks for the good explanation. The message displayed seems a little unclear, not very helpful to the car’s owner. Owner’s on the receiving end find this message a little frustrating I expect. It’s like when a computer stops working for no apparent reason & displays something like “error 402” with no other explanation.
Especially here because I didn’t see the actual message that is displayed. I had to go look it up.
Yes, “SAFE CP” seems a little cryptic especially given there is plenty of room in the display area to provide a more verbose description.
George’s computer error code is apropos but I think the old-
“This computer has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. Want details?”
Clicks YES.
“1AJ7E543567FT98537R4KL”
Thanks alot…
