I recently bought a 2004 Explorer. When the time came to hand over the keys from the seller, the guy just handed me one key, claiming the remote keyfob, extra key and combination for the number pad on the door were all lost.
Replacing them through the dealer is very expensive (over $200 a key), and still leaves me wondering if this guy is going to show up in the middle of the night with the keys he retained, and poof, my new car is gone.
What do I do?
Thanks
Max
When you replace the keys at the dealer, the old missing keys can be deactivated. They’ll still turn the lock cylinders, but the embedded chip won’t be recognized as valid to start the car.
As the Ford dealer told me, if you have two keys you can buy a third for $20 and program the car to recognize it yourself, but if you only have one key, you have to go to the dealer for big $$. I’d love to find out here if there is a cheaper solution to your problem.
There is no cheaper solution with 1 key, for $200 (last quote) you can go to ford they will reset the locks to allay your worries, give you 2 keys, then you can program up to to 6 additional keys.
Some locksmiths have the equipment required to add additional keys, and they will often do it for less than the dealers.
Any old keys can be deactivated when the new one(s) are programmed.