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johnridleyOne of the keys for the new car went missing for a while a couple of weeks ago. It was found, but it did impress upon me the need to have THREE keys for a vehicle. That way, if you lose one, you can still have two and make your own duplicate from those (two that already work are required to program the 3rd). If you get down to only one key, you have to pay the dealer something like $150 for a new key.
So I went up on to eBay and got a chipped blank key for $12 shipped. Then yesterday while waiting for the football game to start, I went over to Menards to get them to cut the key. I figured, cut the key on MY blank, sell me the blank, I'll throw it away, you get paid, everyone's happy.
However, they won't duplicate chipped keys. I don't know why, this makes no sense to me. Their official reason is that the machine might damage the original key. This, of course, is bullshit. That chip is tough as nails. They'd have to beat it with a sledgehammer to hurt it mechanically, and electrically it could put up with much more than the electric motor in that machine.
They also refused to go away while I used the machine myself. So I said "Fine, where are your chainsaw sharpening files, so I can cut the key myself?" $3 for a pair of files and I'm on my way.
It took about 10 minutes with a sharpie and the file this morning to cut the new key, 3 minutes to read in the owner's manual how to do the programming, and 30 seconds to program them. This is less time than I spent waiting for someone to show up at the key making machine.
So I went up on to eBay and got a chipped blank key for $12 shipped. Then yesterday while waiting for the football game to start, I went over to Menards to get them to cut the key. I figured, cut the key on MY blank, sell me the blank, I'll throw it away, you get paid, everyone's happy.
However, they won't duplicate chipped keys. I don't know why, this makes no sense to me. Their official reason is that the machine might damage the original key. This, of course, is bullshit. That chip is tough as nails. They'd have to beat it with a sledgehammer to hurt it mechanically, and electrically it could put up with much more than the electric motor in that machine.
They also refused to go away while I used the machine myself. So I said "Fine, where are your chainsaw sharpening files, so I can cut the key myself?" $3 for a pair of files and I'm on my way.
It took about 10 minutes with a sharpie and the file this morning to cut the new key, 3 minutes to read in the owner's manual how to do the programming, and 30 seconds to program them. This is less time than I spent waiting for someone to show up at the key making machine.
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Date: 2009-09-20 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 04:15 pm (UTC)When you're done, any of the keys you included in this sequence will now start the car, any that weren't won't - this allows you to cause a key that you lost to not be able to start your car anymore. So yeah, if you're adding any keys, you need to bring ALL the keys to the party.
This sequence has worked at least since our 1997 Taurus, which I programmed a few extra keys for.
I should point out here that it's actually the car that's being programmed. The keys just have RFID serial numbers, and you're teaching the car which key codes to allow to start the engine.
The only time the dealer needs to get involved is if you only have one key, since you can't start the programming sequence with only one key, the dealer and their computer has to become involved, and they charge $150 I think for the time (plus the actual keys).
For the Ford, it says right in the manual how to do this, and it says there's a limit of 8 keys, but only 4 of them can be the kind with integral remote controls.
Check on ebay for your specific model and year to see what keys cost. Right offhand it looks like Toyota keys with chips are more like $35 shipped. Item 330299661632 is an example.
Honestly, if I am really worried about this kind of thing, I negotiate it when buying the car. They'll do all kinds of labor for free as part of a $20K sale.
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Date: 2009-09-20 06:04 pm (UTC)The only time the dealer needs to get involved is if you only have one key, since you can't start the programming sequence with only one key, the dealer and their computer has to become involved, and they charge $150 I think for the time (plus the actual keys)
IIRC, it was $150 for a new key with the remote functions, (price included shop time to reprogram the car); or $40 for a chipped key (w/o remote) + an hour of shop time with the car and the one key we did have. If we'd had both keys, it would have been $40 for a chipped key, and no shop time.
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Date: 2009-09-20 08:12 pm (UTC)Didn't see that in the manual -- but this time I only got the dinky manual that came with the car. No remote controls on my keys, so that's not the limitation.
But it sounds like they might have been at least honest that the keys I didn't give them would no longer be able to start the car.
They indicated that a special machine (not my car) would need to be used, and that it took some not-insignificant amount of time (90 minutes?) to program each one.
Thanks!
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Date: 2009-09-20 08:16 pm (UTC)We only have the manual that came with the car too, but it's several hundred pages, and it goes into a lot of detail. For instance, you can change the behaviors like autolock and auto-unlock by pressing the lock/unlock buttons in specific sequences while the key is in and on. That's good, since I absolutely hate auto-lock.
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Date: 2009-09-20 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 08:21 pm (UTC)