Replacement 'Ignition' Key

Even though replacement keys have been recently talked about on a number of different threads, I couldn't find a thread dedicated to this topic so I thought I'd start one so we could find the information in the future. For example,

DougC said:

...dealer ... Charged me $260 for a new key. :shock:

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My third i-MiEV did not come with a spare key and since we make it a habit of leaving the keys inside the car (unless we're in town) I became a little nervous at the prospect of inadvertently being locked out or something going wrong with our primary key.

eBay sells blanks ranging from $10 to over $100 - but what do I know? Called up the local key shop about a replacement key and they said "sure, no problem, just bring in your car and key". Not being ambulatory at present, I asked my wife to stop in there and get a replacement key made.

She came back and allowed as they made her a replacement key for $63 and that it works to open the door and works in the ignition and the car operates just fine with this new key, but it is missing the buttons. Presumably there is a chip in the key handle that the locksmith matched to the car.

I took the primary key far far away and confirmed that the replacement does indeed function as a stand-alone key. It will simply be stored in the house with all my other spare keys. Better than nothing and better than a dumb key that only opens the door, and certainly better than Mitsubishi dealer's price, for simple peace-of-mind. Don't plan on losing the main key with its buttons.

As an aside and way off-topic, I haven't removed the key from the ignition of my (presently mothballed but running) 1967 Saab in over 40 years - never lock the car (nothing inside worth taking), have a separate pushbutton starter button, and never worry as -
1) Who would steal it? :roll:
2) Even if they figured out how to start it, they would never figure out the column-mounted gearshift (especially reverse). :twisted:

Still off-topic, I can't help but wonder how all this fancy theft-proofing on the i-MiEV will work after 50 years?... it's struggling with stuff like this and difficulty in hacking cars' software that makes me think that present-day cars will never survive to become 'classics'.

Be interested in others' experiences with obtaining replacement keys.

JoeS said:

I haven't removed the key from the ignition of my (presently mothballed but running) 1967 Saab in over 40 years - never lock the car (nothing inside worth taking), have a separate pushbutton starter button, and never worry as -
1) Who would steal it? :roll:
2) Even if they figured out how to start it, they would never figure out the column-mounted gearshift (especially reverse). :twisted:

Still off-topic, I can't help but wonder how all this fancy theft-proofing on the i-MiEV will work after 50 years?... it's struggling with stuff like this and difficulty in hacking cars' software that makes me think that present-day cars will never survive to become 'classics'.

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For an iMiEV 50 years from now, I suspect it will be exactly the same so feel free to leave your key in that one too

1.) Who would steal it? :lol:
2.) They'd never figure out how to get an ancient computer controlled car running!

Great deal on the new car key!!!

Don

Don said:

1.) Who would steal it? :lol:

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That's how I feel. I am more worried to come out and find it laying on its side than being stolen. :?

Still, if my car was stolen, I have ways of finding it .

The immobilizer is a pretty simple system which probably doesn't break very easily. It's much easier to lose your keys. What some people sometimes do if they need to have the ignition switch changed from a junk yard car, they take the original key and permanently tape it on it's counterpart near the ignition. Then any key which fits the new ignition will work. You could probably do this on an i-MiEV as well.

On my conversion, a 1997 Citroën Xsara, the locks in the doors just rotate around as much as you're willing to rotate and the remote central locking has lost it's way, so I don't or can't lock the doors either on that one. The trunk you can lock, but if you push the opening button hard enough it'll open anyway, so that really doesn't work either. The immobilizer is still there and it complains with a loud beep when you turn on the car, but I've bypassed it anyway and the original ECU is no longer even the car. Steering lock works though.

I had a dumb (no transponder chip) key cut a while back and I noticed the alarm goes off when I use it.

The original key fob hole to pass thru a key ring is really fragile and broke...

So I found a new case for real cheap and it has a better design than OEM, it allows the blade to be removed from the case via a set screw. I can even adapter the OEM keyblade to work so I don't have to get the new blade cut. HOWEVER, I confirmed the OEM keyblade side of the case has a tiny transponder chip somewhere inside it. When I used the dumb key with the OEM blade next to it, the alarm does not go off.

So next I have to find the chip is hidden in the plastic.

They are really tiny.



I confirmed the transponder chip is not in the remote (alarm went off).

You wrote..
"I had a dumb (no transponder chip) key cut a while back and I noticed the alarm goes off when I use it. "

Wife is out with our MiEV right now, so can't absolutely confirm what I'm doing to say next, but here's my memory:
I also have a dumb key. The alarm will not go off when I use it AS LONG AS I LOCKED THE CAR WITH THE DUMB KEY, not the remote.

Also, here's how and when I use a dumb key:
Say, I'm at the river and going to go swimming. Don't want to leave my $300+ smart key on the beach and can't tie it inside my bathing suit. So I leave the smart(transponder) key in the car well hidden, lock the car with the dumb key. Either hide the dumb key on the car somewhere or take it with me.
OR
Wife and me going different directions in shopping mall. Don't know who will be back in car first. She takes the smart key, I take the dumb key, lock car with dumb key. If I get back first I can listen to radio, lower windows, etc.

By the way, we keep the dumb key in the car under floor mat for just such occasions.

Also by the way: IIRR if I do use the dumb key after locking with smart key and alarm does go turn on, it will go off in about one minute. Seems like a long time.

Alex


P.S., Also if , say, going swimming, lock the smart key in the car (well hidden), lock the EV with the dumb key, tie the dumb key in swimsuit or hide it on car. Or hiking anywhere where it would be bad to lose my dumb key but worse to lose my smart key...

My work's Ford Focus would set the alarm if you press the interior lock button before closing the driver door. When unlocking with the key (there was about a year when the remote for the car didn't work), you had 15-30 seconds to start the car or the alarm would go off.

I will have to see if manual unlocking with the chipped key sets the alarm off or not.

My problem is my car is at vacation home on an island in the Caribbean. No Mitsubishi dealer there. Bought a blank "chipped" key off Ebay and tried to get it cut. No go. Island locksmith says he can't do it. Texas locksmith says he won't do it. Mitsubishi dealer says "you have to bring the car in". WTF?

vh2q said:

My problem is my car is at vacation home on an island in the Caribbean. No Mitsubishi dealer there. Bought a blank "chipped" key off Ebay and tried to get it cut. No go. Island locksmith says he can't do it. Texas locksmith says he won't do it. Mitsubishi dealer says "you have to bring the car in". WTF?

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Sounds like the island locksmith doesn't have the ability to program the transponder.
If he can cut a key, you can just get a dumb one cut and keep the "smart" key in the car.

My car only came with one key so I decided to get one cut. He cut the key but then I had to go to the car with the new key and turn it in the ignition to program the new chip. For some reason, he could not program the new key. I returned to the store and tried again but he advised that the "server was down".
I haven't been in the shop since although I would be happy with even a spare dumb key.
acensor's plan seems fine although I new smart key is about $60 from the auto key shop.

Almost nine years after originating this post and the spare key never having been used, I managed to inadvertently lock myself out of the car with the key lying on the seat. This most probably occurred by my inadvertently hitting the lock button as I had just cleaned the car.

Luckily, it happened at home and the spare manual key worked just fine - the $63 replacement from the locksmith didn't set off the alarm. In this case, a plain old $2 duplicated key would have worked to open the door as the other key was right there to silence the alarm and operate the car.

In this situation, without a spare key, would there have been an alternative to breaking a window?

JoeS said:

In this situation, without a spare key, would there have been an alternative to breaking a window?

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If all else fails, yes, but I would have tried the “coat-hanger” trick first, plenty of YouTube videos for guidance

After a lockout late at night that resulted in a 90 mile rescue mission and return the next day, I invested in a cheap 'lockout kit' complete with curved wedges, tiny airbags, and a 3-piece long rigid hook for grabbing handles from the opposite side. When my freshly minted driver-daughter locked herself out again and I quickly arrived on the scene with these tools and got it open, she closed a long telephone call to a friend with. "so apparently my dad's also a car thief and it's all ready to go, so I gotta go, bye..."