Category: Car keys

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Replacement Ford Fiesta remote

The disadvantages of just a ‘chipped key’ are the inconvenience compared to remote central locking, and the vehicle many not deadlock (depending on vehicle). Some vehicles such as some Renaults only have a door lock on the passenger side which can be rather annoying after a while. Additionally some vehicles will not arm the alarm unless the remote is used. EU and US vehicles will normally silence an alarm once the key is turned in the ignition. Asian vehicles often will not silence the alarm unless the remote is used.

In the example below the customer’s car only came with 1 transponder key (also known as a chipped key). They wanted a remote. They chose this bright green version. This particular make of remote can be programmed to become several thousand different car remotes.

Ford Fiesta aftermarket remote key
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Keys locked in car.

Sometimes vehicles automatically lock themselves with the keys inside. Other times we mistakenly lock them in the boot. (I hate to admit to having locked my own keys in my car twice).

Keys locked in car

This is the errant key that we retrieved today from the ignition of a Ranger after it decided to lock all the doors by itself.

We can open most vehicles if you find yourself in the same situation. It would be much simpler if you had a spare key that you could use without calling somebody out.

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Keys locked in car and boot.

It’s been busy this week for car openings. 4 of them we were called after various national and local breakdown/recovery services were unable to open the vehicle. For some reason Puntos are the most popular vehicle this week.

This Seat vehicle was opened by us after the previous company failed. They’d tried bending the door open and shoving a bit of metal down the side of the door. If you want your door damaged, that’s the way to do it. If you want the job doing properly and without damage call an auto-locksmith. There are several working in the area, including ourselves.

Vehicle opening. Keys locked in car.

If you’ve locked you keys in your car or your boot anywhere in Ross on Wye, Forest of Dean, Monmouth and need an auto locksmith then give us a call.

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Replacement Ford car keys.

Not much going on here at the moment. Most people are already locked down at home, they’re not losing car keys or locking themselves out.

Here are some pictures of the replacement of keys for a ’93 Ford barn find. It is possible to make a key without having to strip the lock but I wanted to clean inside the lock as the grease was like treacle.

VW ignition lock
Stripped VW ignition lock

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Snapped key in truck ignition

This remnant of a snapped key is about to be finally removed from the ignition barrel. Whenever the broken key extractor kit needs to be used, it is almost always dark and raining.

Locksmith Ross on Wye. Removing snapped car key
Pulling snapped key from ignition barrel

We use dedicated broken key extraction tools to remove snapped parts of key. Sometimes it may need 2 or 3 tools in the lock to get the part out. On occasion it will be necessary to remove the lock and strip it down to remove the broken part.

To replace the key it may be possible just to clamp the broken parts together in a trace-cutter. Or failing that the key can be read by eye or software or cut from code. In many cases it is possible to decode the lock itself. In most cases it is possible to cut a new key even if parts or all of the original key are missing.

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Replacement VW Transporter key.

This job was to replace lost keys for an imported Brazilian VW Transporter. Despite being long discontinued in Europe, this particular model continued to be made in South America. The first stage (before EEPROM programming a new transponder into the immobiliser) is to make the metal key blade.

The vehicle had sat for several years without moving.  We couldn’t manage to decode the locks on the vehicle using a special tool or by impressioning. The importers were unable to provide key information so the only option was to remove the steering wheel,  remove the steering lock then strip the entire ignition lock.

 

  • VW ignition repair
    Measuring VW lock for drill point
  • VW ignition drilling
    Drilling VW lock to release barrel
  • VW ignition lock servicing
    VW HU49 barrel removed from casing
  • VW ignition lock
    Stripped VW ignition lock
  • Replacement VW camper key
    Replacement VW Transporter key

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Importance of the backup key in a VW Passat dash remote.

VW passat keyA customer was suddenly unable to open his VW Passat using the remote.  The remote battery had gone flat, and by the time the battery had been replaced it had lost synchronisation with the car.  (To start this car the whole remote slots into the dashboard. There is no ignition barrel).

Ordinarily that’s not a problem because the emergency backup key could be used to open the door. Not in this case,  the backup key had been lost. 

Fortunately we were able to open the car for the customer, synchronise the remote again, and cut a replacement backup key for the customer.

If you’ve lost your backup key,  think about what you’d do if the remote is flat, or goes through the washing machine.

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Ford Fiesta key

Typically an old, worn Tibbe key will have a similarly worn lock too. This is a Fiesta lock being stripped down. Normally the dustcover has badly worn and will grab a newly cut key and make it difficult, or impossible to remove from the lock.

You can gently chamfer the key so that that the key can pull out, or just remove the dust cover and keep the key sharp. 

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