I'm surprized that worked for you SW. I've tried it myself with VERY poor results! Whenever I tried it, the background noise was up around 80 - 100... and most of the cars dont count. If the BG noise is above 50 -60 I start having problems. If everything is "right" on the car (battery voltage is up, PT laying flat, not on metal or CF), they were the only cars that count.
You need that box! whether its the old stile stand alone, or the new stile all in one. Not sure of the componets that are in it, but according to AMB it should read 100k ohms. Without it I have 0 ohms.