Car key problem

[Jim S]

My car key has a chip in it and the plastic 'loop' that connects to a key ring has snapped off. I repaired it the first time with a kind of plasticene that went rock hard and it worked - until my garage held it the wrong way and snapped it again. It all works but I'd rather not have a loose key in my pocket. My main dealer wants ?129+ to replace it - no chance. Various firms like Timpsons say they 'may' be able to clone it at ~?40- ?60, but until I drive 15 miles to the nearest main shop to find out, they cannot promise. A local locksmith says he can get a blank, but would have to remove the chip from the current key. I thought I might be able to get a sleeve to put the key in or even cast a resin mould around it? Until then I have extemporised by cutting a hole in some fabric based gaffer tape with a hole for the key ring. Any ideas?

[Tim+]

It would help if you mentioned the vehicle model, year etc and whether the key fob contains buttons for remote unlocking.

A photo of the offending key would also be helpful. Alternatively we could all make a bunch of ill informed suggestions on how best to fix it.

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I had a similar problem with one of my keys. One of the buttons of the remote was broken. Dealer could only supply a complete key, which as well as having to be cut had to be coded too. At hundreds of squids.

Found a firm on Ebay who supplied a complete new case for 13 quid. The blade on mine latches into the body, so just swapped that along with the electronics. A matter of a couple of minutes work. The remote control electronics simply lifted out, but the separate coding chip was glued in place. But came away easily enough.

The fliers they sent with the new parts suggested they also offer a key fixing service at a very good price for some models. Of course that might depend on them being able to get the spares for yours. I'd ask them and see. But also check Ebay for your model.

[mark.bluemel]

Why change the habits of multiple lifetimes? I suggest gaffa tape and gorilla glue, not necessarily in that order.

[Bob Eager]

Look for a specialist car key place. My son had a similar problem with a BMW key, and they sorted it out quite cheaply. It helped that they were only a mile down the road!

[tim...]

you're lucky

When I asked how much a new key would cost for my Micra (a second one for spare as when I bought the car I was only given one) it was in excess of 300 quid

the guy behind the counter seems genuinely surprised when I said that I'd pass

tim

[Dave W]

Is there enough space to drill a new hole for the keyring in the remaining plastic?

[Johnny B Good]

=====snip====

The *attached* picture was a nice surprise! It hasn't appeared as part of the quoted text in the edit window so hopefully, it doesn't get reposted with this reply (BICBW).

[Jim S]

Not in the one which is really broke. I'm thinking of making a plasticene mould and casting a replica in resin to include the bit I have. I need to find a strong resin with a slow setting time to give me time to fart about before it sets.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Years ago a friend lost her car keys to a pickpocket on a bus, and as it was covered on household insurance she put a claim in, and a VW dealership garage got involved.

They wanted to send a courier to her workplace, to pick up her passport to take somewhere else along with the car, so that they could get the immobiliser system recoded with new keys.

Understandably, she refused.

[Graham.]

X-Face by definition is in the header, so I wouldn't expect it to show in a FU.

Agent doesn't show them so I had to resort to this

[FMurtz]

You can sometimes get aftermarket replacement cases on ebay

[Brian Reay]

The 'chips' in the keys are often a small lump maybe 3x3x8mm. In the original keys these are buried in the plastic. In 'copies', the blanks have a hole you slide a chip into and a plug to close it off. When they make a new key, they cut the blank, program the chip, and pop it in the hole.

If you could 'dig' the chip out of the plastic, you could simply pop it in a new blank.

We lost some keys- two sets from different cars (long story). We used a local company who came to the house, rather than the main dealer. It worked out much cheaper.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

On mine, the replacement case was identical to the original. If it was a copy, a very very good one. Looked to me like OEM. So the coding chip position and fixing was the same.

Just glued in place with mine.

Also the blade detached from the old case easily. Of course not all might do this. So no need to have a new one cut here.

Pretty well par for the course with anything a main dealer does. With their vast hourly rates.

[newshound]

+1, it was a trivial and very cheap replacement job for my Renault Master. (In that case the problem wasn't a broken loop, it was that the two "domes" for lock and unlock had broken away, so that you needed a pointy thing to operate the two microswitches.

[Martin]

I use Agent 8.0 it showed here.

[Martin]

Use waterproof putty.

[Jim S]

That looks a bit like the stuff I used before - i.e. the stuff in the photo that the garage managed to snap off :( I think Loctite do one. It certainly would be less hassle than casting one.

[Martin]

It's been stopping my boat from sinking for six or seven years. :-)

I thought to encase the broken area of your key with it and then when it is hard drill a new hole in the right place.

[Jim S]

Thanks Tim. I've ordered a couple. I don't quite know how it will work, but at that price.....