Understanding how chipped keys work, and how they can be duplicated?

Glowing

Hi all

Having a very bad week - lost my '02 Mazda car key and remote fob in Rathmines Monday night. Thankfully I have a spare but don't really want to rely on having just one key.

While desperately hoping someone will find them and hand them into the cops, I've been ringing around trying to price a replacement. The remote fob itself is prohibitively expensive so I might try get a second hand one on ebay and code it myself, but regarding getting a spare key cut I seem to have 2 options:

1. Some locksmith in Walkinstown has quoted 50 quid to copy my spare chipped key -can do it on the spot.

2. Mazda dealership are quoting 80 euro+VAT (plus 60-120euro labour) as apparently the key needs to be coded to the car and can take 20 mins to an hour (wtf!).

I'm hoping that the key chip-values can just be copied from the spare key to the new key so hence I can get an extra key for 50 quid. Why are Mazda insisting on this extra step of coding the key to the car if the locksmith can just copy the spare? I think i'm getting confused as to how these chipped keys work. Can anyone please shed some light for me please?

Thanks a lot -tearing my hair out.

Cheers

mickdw

The dealer method can always be used to code a new key even if you didnt present with a key whereas the locksmiths have invested in equipment to duplicate the key and will need a key to work off. THat is my reading of it anyway.

seamus

It depends on the technology behind the keys but I remember my Punto years ago similarly had a "chip" in them for the immobiliser, but I only had one key. The manual told me that I could only get new keys at a dealership as the chip had to be "coded" to the car, but I went to a local locksmiths who told me he could do it for £10 per key. So I got two keys from him and they both worked fine all the time I had the car.

That was a '97 Punto, so the technology in your Mazda has probably moved on a bit from that, hence the €50 charge, but if he says he can do it, I don't see any reason to doubt him. If he makes a key that doesn't work, you can get your money back.

coylemj

seamus wrote: »

It depends on the technology behind the keys but I remember my Punto years ago similarly had a "chip" in them for the immobiliser, but I only had one key. The manual told me that I could only get new keys at a dealership as the chip had to be "coded" to the car, but I went to a local locksmiths who told me he could do it for £10 per key. So I got two keys from him and they both worked fine all the time I had the car.

That was a '97 Punto, so the technology in your Mazda has probably moved on a bit from that, hence the €50 charge, but if he says he can do it, I don't see any reason to doubt him. If he makes a key that doesn't work, you can get your money back.

I had a 96 Bravo which had an immobiliser so was probably using the same key technology. I had a brown master key which I was warned to lock away in a safe place and two blue keys for everyday use. The deal was that if I lost one of the blue keys and I wanted it permanently disabled in case it turned up in the wrong hands (ex-girlfriend etc.) then I could take the brown key and any remaining blue keys in my possession to the Fiat garage. They would then cut me a new blue key and using the brown master key they would reprogram the immobiliser to only accept the keys that were present during the reprogramming exercise. The effect of this would be that while the lost blue key would still be able to physically open the door lock, the immobiliser would not recognise it so it would not be able to start the car.

It so happened that when I lost one of the blue keys I had temporarily mislaid the brown key so this was not an option but I found a place opp. the Davenport Hotel in Merrion Sq and they cloned the remaining blue key which solved the problem.

Glowing

mickdw wrote: »

The dealer method can always be used to code a new key even if you didnt present with a key whereas the locksmiths have invested in equipment to duplicate the key and will need a key to work off. THat is my reading of it anyway.

Ah ok. So when you code a new key in a Mazda dealership, do you encode the chip in the key or do you recode the car ECU to accept this new key?

If it's option B, then would this render my original key (the spare) useless?

This is head melting. Thanks everyone for your replies so far