Dear Car Talk,
In the 90’s I had a1988 Thunderbird and a 1994 Explorer. They each had the double-sided ignition key and since they used the same key blank, I took both keys in to the local hardware store and asked the guy to cut a new key with the T-Bird pattern on one side and the Explorer on the other. He did it but said he wouldn’t refund my money when it didn’t work.
It turned out it worked. Those ignitions only read one side of the key. I cut a notch in the key so I knew it went in with the notch up for the Explorer and down for the car. It was 2-sided for convenience so you didn’t have to turn the key a certain way for it to go in.
Now I drive a key-less 2015 Taurus and a 2019 Ranger that uses a key. Both require a key FOB. I’m wondering if I can have the dealer program the vehicles so one FOB will work for both.
Thanks,
Ken Anderson
Oregon, WI
Me thinks the dealer can answer that question but this sounds like something that will cause more problems than it will solve . And what are you going to do if the FOB battery fails and the one you have with you does not have the emergency key to open the drivers door.
I don’t think they can. But I’m just some person on the internet. The dealer would know better.
Your owners manual should have instructions on how to program a fob to your vehicle.
The only real problem I see doing it is your cars are parked close enough to each other, you would unlock /lock them both with each push of the button.
On some makes if you don’t actually open a door (within a certain amount of time, I think mine is 1 minute) after unlocking with the fob it relocks automatically. If these Fords are like this, unlocking both isn’t a real big problem