2006 vw passat transponder/ rs

anyone have any info on a few things.  one of my installers did this car and ran out of time so i am gonna tackle it tonite and first thing wed morn as he will have the day off for long holiday.   

2006 passat w/ the new toothless key/remote.  

1-dumb question.. how the hell do you get the engine cover off to access tach.. this particular car was wrecked and i will use that as an excuse for not being able to pop off the cover.   one of my guys said he undid the air intake and a few modules and hoses and its suppose to just pop right off.. not for us!

2- do you need to do anything w/ the door open security mess?  we aren't using any module and just did locks only in the door.   explain if you need to do the whole routine w/ door trigger and keysense blah blah blah and what the purpose is.. he just has lock/unlock/ and a activation to keysense with ground when running currently..

3- the likely one.. any tricks or tips on the transponder.. we tried a universal bypass box and then used copper data/phone wire to make our own loop.  my understanding is that the transponer is basically in the middle of the "key'..we guessed accordingly in the ign cylinder and muliple wrapped our home made coil.. i am goin to try to mess w/ a relay and the actual 2 transponder pick up wires out of the cylinder harness in a bit.  will the key w' the remote work ok or does an actual valet key w'out the remote housing exist?   also when we go to test the starter even if i put the factory key in the ign socket, nothing.  i have heard that they are super sensative.  how far in do you need to insert to test first off, and second if you go to far it turns on ign obvioulsy so can i hold beside like old school traditional transponders.  thanks in advance.. hoping to save time and not be on hold w' tech support for 3 hrs!!!! 

using autostart product btw.

messed w/ it til very late last night.. .got intermitten success w/ the key in the ign so its clearly a key issue, however it was very inconsistant as to how far in the key had to be.... 2 or 3 times it would rs w' the key just barely slid in the cylinder ...next time i would have to push the key in the barrel until just before it actually turned on ign..   starter works fine.. we are only using 1 ign and 1 start,  but i have seen another tech referancing 2 starters and 2 ign's... i messed with turning those on also and that didn't help nor hurt.. . positive you dont need the other stuff.  car starts, no dash lights, heater works, ect.  

what kind of box did you use?  we are again making our own w/ phone wire do to the size of the key.. and i am goin to wrap the cylinder about 5 or 6 times at the very edge.