Replacement Keys
 

key service, and prices

Subscribed members

The options are

1. Supply key complete with new transponder, blank key & new casing, refurbished remote PCB coded to unlock, lock and start the car £70

2. Supply key as above but without remote facility, but starts the car
£60, of course this is an option if you have successfully used TOAF to introduce a used remote to your car

3. Send your EWS immobiliser to one of the members offering this service, they will program a new transponder to work with your EWS unit, then post it back to you, and you can supply your own key blank, and fit the transponder to the casing.
£45

Registered users

Add on £10 to the above price list, so to qualify for the discounted members prices, simply pay your subs, and enjoy the other benefits membership brings .

For options 1 & 2, you will have to bring the car to the person offering this service, the operation takes roughly 1 Hour, also while T4 is hooked up, any dealer options you may wish to have enabled or disabled can be carried out free of charge.

If you have bought a second hand key, it may also be able to utilise the remote locking PCB, so you would pay for option 2, but receive the option 1 service.

keys are supplied blank, however most reputable locksmiths can carry this out for you, budget between £5 and £10 for this.

I would like to point out that these keys, which ever option you decide to choose, are NOT CLONES, and won't "fall out of sync" with your cars immobiliser they will behave in exactly the same manner as if you had paid over £180 from the dealer, with the exception that you have to get the keyblade cut.


For other regions such as Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Lancashire, I suggest you contact BigRuss.
For the Home Counties, and South East contact Phil-T4
For Portsmouth and the South Coastal regions cb750chris is your man.


Now all of these people are sterling chaps, and I'm sure be more than happy to assist.

Brian :D

Hi Brian
Thank you for posting this, great service as usual maybe this should also be in the contributions section.

It would also be good if members whom use this service post here so it would be bounced back to the top as I have done now ;)

In trouble with key fob change!
 

As the acknowledged expert can you advise me please. I tried to change the key fob on my 75, having renewed one easily in a Discovery previously. I swapped over the circuit board and the car locks and unlocks fine but couldn't extract the chip or key blade. I may have damaged the chip in my efforts to get it out.
In the short term I tried attaching the new fob to my key ring along with the old. But unsurprisingly the car would not start with this arrangement so I am using my spare key, also with a slightly damaged fob!
I have a spare fob complete, that came from a scrapped car, if that helps!
So should I persist in trying to swap the chip and blade over or would the chip from my spare fob work? Is it easily damaged and is it coded to the car in some way? Assuming I can get it out of course!
Grateful for any advice. Thanks, Tim.

The transponder chips are write one unfortunately and can't be reused for a different car.

Thanks....but
 

That's a pity. Are they easily damaged? I'm hoping if I can fit the key to the half new half old fob it might all work. Good thing I had a spare key, though now I don't!

The chip and the key blade which you have from a scrapper are specific to that scrapper and won't work with your car or any other. The only parts of that key which you might be able to use are the pcb and the shell of the fob. Regards the key that you are trying to reconstruct, it might assist others in helping you if you could post pics of the key blades which you wish to swap over so the type of fitting to the fob can be gauged - there are differences between oem fobs and some of the generics. The oem chip which you think could be damaged might be ok, if so it should still activate/deactivate the immobiliser if placed close enough to the coil on the ignition barrel which it interacts with. One of the forum gurus will be able to program a new chip for you if necessary.

Moving Transponder
 

Hi All

My main key worked fine, locking unlocking and starting fine.

But the covering on the fob buttons on the wore through so it was unuseable.

Got a cheap (new) empty fob, swapped the internals and blade, good to go.

Locked and unlocked the car but wouldn't start it, thats when i found out about the transponder thing.

Do i just prise the transponder out of my old fob and glue it in the new one or are they delicate or should i cut it out, what is the accepted method?

Ta Bean

Hi Keith. Fit your old back of the key including the transponder, to your new front key that way you will not damage the transponder.

Been thinking about keys myself having seen a number of recent posts about them. I've only ever had one key for my 75 and the main obstacle for me in obtaining a spare has been, as other members have posted about too, the absence of someone local to cut the blade. However I've very recently taken a punt on a key in the post from China which will be cut from a photo I've sent. In addition to cutting a key from a photo the seller also offers to cut a key to a code, which presumably for our cars the key codes are kept at BMW's facility in Germany and for its own exclusive use.

The cutting to code bit has got me thinking. In order to cut a key to a code the Chinese seller or his cutting machine must have reference to the cutting pattern/instructions for a particular code. This begs the question, can a key's code be derived from a photo of the key blade?